Water intrusion is still behind most construction lawsuits. What has changed is the reason. Material shortages have eased, but the labor problem has not, and the biggest hole is in supervision. Superintendents are stretched thin and often cannot tell good work from bad. The work keeps getting handed down to lower-tier crews nobody trained. That mix is building defects into projects right now, and those defects will show up as claims for years. A construction defect expert witness who came up in the trades can show exactly where the oversight broke down.
Water Still Wins Most Construction Cases
For more than a decade, water intrusion has been tied to roughly 70 percent of construction lawsuits, according to data tracked by the American Institute of Architects. That number has held steady. The reason behind it has not.
For a few years, the pandemic got the blame. Crews could not get the specified product, so they used what was on the truck. That story has cooled off. Prices have settled and materials are easy to get again.
The labor story never cooled off. In the 2025 workforce survey from the Associated General Contractors of America, 92 percent of firms said they were having a hard time filling open positions, and 45 percent said worker shortages had delayed at least one project. Skilled tradesmen are retiring faster than they are being replaced, and that will be true for the next decade.
If you handle construction defect cases, that is your pipeline. As a construction defect expert witness, Fortress BEC sees these failures in the field years before they land on a docket.
The Gap Is Not Just in the Field. It Is in Management.
Everyone talks about the missing craftsmen. That is only half of it.
The other half is the people who are supposed to watch the craftsmen. Superintendents and foremen should know as much as the crew, or more. That is the whole point of the job. We walk onto projects and find site supers who cannot tell us whether the detail in front of them is right or wrong. Some are running three or four jobs at once. Some have never installed the system they are inspecting.
When nobody on site knows what right looks like, wrong gets installed everywhere. One bad detail on one panel becomes one bad detail on an entire wing.
“After nearly 40 years in this business, I am seeing more cheating now than I ever have,” Jeff Martin says. “I expect it gets worse before it gets better.”
Subbed Out, and Then Subbed Out Again
The chain used to be short. The general contractor hired a roofer. The roofer had employees. The manufacturer came out and trained those employees on the system.
Now the roofer wins the job and subs the labor. That sub may sub it again. The crew that actually touches the roof carries bare minimum insurance, gets paid by the square, and has every reason to finish fast. Nobody trained them on this system. So they install it the way they did it on the last job.
That matters to your case in a very practical way. By the time a claim is filed, that crew is gone. There are no training records, often no real payroll records, and sometimes no way to locate the installers at all, let alone depose them. The paper trail stops at a company two or three levels up whose people never set foot on the roof.
A New School Roof That Two Sets of Eyes Missed
We were at a brand new school in the Carolinas for a manufacturer warranty inspection. We were not the project consultant. The job already had its own roof consultant.
The roofer had subbed out the metal work. Between 60 percent and 70 percent of a standing seam metal roof was already installed, and it was out of spec. The consultant on the job had not caught it.
Jeff called the contractor on the clip spacing. The contractor told him he was lying. They pulled panels off the roof to settle it. Jeff was right. The whole wing came off and was rebuilt.
Here is the part that should interest a litigator. That roof was still open. Somebody was able to look. On most projects, nobody looks until brick, metal panels, ceilings, and waterproofing have covered every bit of it. At that point, the only way to look is a lawsuit.
Questions Worth Asking When Supervision Is the Issue
A construction defect expert witness earns the fee partly by knowing which records should exist. When oversight is the weak link, these questions tend to open the case up:
- Who was the superintendent, and how many other jobs was he running at the same time?
- How far down was this work subbed, and who actually held the tools?
- Did the manufacturer ever train the crew that installed the system?
- Did the specifications call for a mock-up, and was one ever built?
- Are there in-progress photos? Who took them, and do they cover the whole roof or just one corner?
That last question does more work than it looks like it does. Good contractors take progress photos and hand them over without an argument, because they have nothing to hide and a reputation to protect. Lower-tier crews either do not have photos or will not release them. And one photo can be staged from the single area that was done right.
Why a Construction Defect Expert Witness Should Come From the Contracting Side
An engineer or architect can explain the theory, and that has value. But most cases are won or lost over what happened on a roof at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday.
Jeff Martin went full-time in commercial roofing in 1987, in his family’s business, after growing up in it. Mark Stewart spent 31 years at a roofing company in estimating and production. Between them, they have installed, fabricated, estimated, and run crews. They know what a real day looks like, how much a real crew can finish, and what a foreman says when he gets caught.
That is why they can usually tell when the other side’s testimony does not match the field. A construction defect expert witness who has only read about installation cannot do that.
In one case, we were brought in to help defend a $2.9 million claim. After our analysis, it settled for $700,000.
The Bigger Worry
Jeff’s concern runs past leaks. Every part of a building is still put in place by human hands. If those hands are less trained and less supervised than they were a generation ago, we will be reading about the results for the next 20 years. A leaking window is a headache. A structural failure is a tragedy.
Inspections are cheap. Litigation is not. Both are cheaper than a failure.
Talk to Us Before Your Next Case Lands
Fortress BEC handles building envelope forensics and testimony nationwide, on both sides of the docket. If you have a water intrusion case, or you expect one, call Jeff Martin at (864) 965-8668 or email [email protected].
Inspecting what you’re expecting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a construction defect expert witness actually do?
We review the plans, specifications, photos, and correspondence, inspect and test the building, determine root cause, and put it in a written report. If the case goes forward, we sit for deposition and testify. Along the way we help counsel understand what to ask and which documents should exist.
Do you work for plaintiffs or defendants?
Both. Our findings come out the same either way, and that is exactly why they hold up under cross-examination.
Can you help if the work is already covered up?
Usually, yes. Infrared surveys, electronic leak detection, moisture readings, and targeted openings tell us a great deal without gutting the building. Where a component cannot be reached, in progress photos and installer records often fill the gap.
When should an attorney bring in an expert?
As early as possible, before the theory of the case is locked in. The first conversation with us is free. Jeff will look at your photos and documents and tell you whether we can help. If we cannot, he will try to point you toward someone who can.
