I posted about my own house frontage leak almost a year ago. Finally I got up there and removed the railing and popped couple shingles..

www.dropbox.com/sh/ptc1nts95qyljus/AABraPjCHKQE-0NytgRg21Dma?dl=0

As an amateur carpenter wannabe, I couldn't describe my feeling when I saw the three butchered 4x4 PT post. Beyond speechless. This is a subdivision built by a builder about 10 years ago(30+ houses), known in this town to be the most expensive street (a working class town).

The PT post is 3-1/2", the composite post is 3-1/2" too.. Being composite material, it is not as precise, so I am guessing they couldn't slide them in and did a hack job.. good thing those railing are cosmetic only.. It reminded me how my ex-handyman cut doors to fit old door frame, wavy!!

The "post left" shows that they tried to use some flashing, but didn't do it right and water got to underlayment.. It rained yesterday and it was all wet..

I bought a roll of roof flashing and a chisel from lowes (peel & seal aluminum, thicker flashing). shaved the bottom of post down to about 3" - 3-1/4", flashed it properly and put everything back in half a day. For that, a contractor wanted $3K to tear everything down and rebuild it..

I feel for you and know what you mean.

Pride of workmanship, high skill and wanting a good reputation are a rare thing these days. So many are just into whatever they do simply to make as much as they can as fast as they can and to heck with taking time to do something right.

Just one more reason many of us are DIY types.

Some major things I see are that:

1. People who do things right and take pride in their workmanship are worth a lot of money.

2. Many people want jobs done as cheaply as possible.

This sets up problems and leads to the high quality people only working on very high end work -- multi million dollar high end homes. Why? Because the owners of these places know quality and demand it and, most of all, are willing and capable of paying for what they demand. So, to make what they are worth, the best workers only work for these people.

What does that leave for those who want things done cheap and quick? The dregs, the misfits, the alcoholics, drug people, thieves and slop workers who could care less.

Like I said, that's why many of us just do it ourselves.