By Soo KimShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA post about a home resident discovering unexpected patchwork that a roofer applied to fix a persistent leak has sparked debate on social media.
The Reddit post, shared by u/Reasonable_Exam_4759, has amassed over 2,700 upvotes and hundreds of comments since it was uploaded in mid-November.
The title of the post reads: “I had a leak for a while, called the roofer, he said there was a leak and that he fixed it. He charged me $599. I just went up to the roof and saw this. Is this a normal way to patch a roof?”
An image featured with the post shows an oddly whimsical patch on the roof—a small blot of white paste topped with what appears to be a ceramic-like fragment decorated with flower patterns. The bizarre choice of materials quickly became the subject of widespread amusement and disbelief.
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There has been a period of increasing home renovation spending across the United States. A 2024 survey by Houzz, the home design website, found that median renovation spending climbed 60 percent between 2020 ($15,000) and 2023 ($24,000).
The survey found that Generation X homeowners spent the most, with a median of $25,000 in 2023, compared with $24,000 for baby boomers. “The top 10 percent of spenders in these groups had substantial project budgets, with Gen Xers at $180,000 and Baby Boomers at $131,000,” the report noted.
Renovation trends also showed kitchens leading as the most commonly updated interior space (29 percent of projects), followed by guest bathrooms (27 percent) and primary bathrooms (25 percent). Living rooms trailed slightly at 21 percent. Median spending for major kitchen and primary bath remodels also climbed in 2022 and again in 2023—by 20 percent and 11 percent, reaching $24,000 and $15,000, respectively, the Houzz report found.
'Is This a Serious Question?'
The unusual ceramic-like patch prompted a wave of reactions from commenters on Reddit who were equally baffled.
U/kalvick wrote: “This solution cannot possibly be for real.”
U/Nikki-C-Puggle-mum added: “Is this a serious question? It looks like he just took a broken piece of ceramic dinnerware and crudely siliconed it in place. No that's definitely not normal and it likely won't last long, if you are in a place with lots of snow and cold winters. Even just the heat from the sun will loosen it up in time.”
Others leaned into humor, such as u/Whole-Peanut-9417 who posted: “I thought somebody dropped their cake.” U/Spencergh2 added: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GROUND!”
Some commenters expressed frustration on the resident’s behalf.
U/GuaranteeComfortable asked: “How did you pay for this piece of decoration? By credit card? Tell them it was a fraudulent charge and that this person is charging for fraudulent service.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via the Reddit messaging system.
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