List with different last item with just one "and"
I have no idea how to describe this. I run into this usage all the time in English, and to me it seems wrong, but considering how common it is, I'm wondering if it's actually accepted. Consider the following sentence:
Roger installed windows in offices, lamps in apartments, doors in schools and repaired roofs.
This is a list of three items that Roger installed, and the last phrase ("and repaired roofs") does not belong in the list. As such it would seem that the word "and" is missing before "doors".
Is this wrong English usage? What would be the closest thing to this pattern that would make it correct?
Yes, it's wrong. Yes, your feeling is correct that it is missing "and" before "doors". This is how that would look:
Roger installed windows in offices, lamps in apartments, and doors in schools and repaired roofs.
...Even then, many would still consider it wrong for one of two main reasons.
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It borders on being a run-on sentence, but isn't the worst of violators.
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It's just overly-complicated, has "bad mechanics", or is unnecessarily long...
...and the only place you are guaranteed to get away with a sentence having such a complex structuring of lists would be in an academic journal where complexity is king and paragraphs are much longer than styles allow elsewhere.
Looking closely at your lists within lists:
Roger
installed windows in offices, lamps in apartments, and doors in schools
and repaired roofs.
...You have two lists here, one for each verb (installed & repaired), both having the same subject (Roger). Many would say you should rephrase the sentence any of many ways to make these two lists more clear because "understandability" is the most important and universal grammar rule of any English style standard.
I tend to make the same mistake, a lot of us do, no matter how excellent our English kung fu is. IMHO, it relates to my theory about Word proximity habit. It feels like a list of "things Roger does", so our "auto-grammar" wants to make a list with "and" between the last two items. But, as with most things, our auto-grammar shouldn't be trusted. You have two lists; one way or another, treat them as two lists, not one.
Your example sentence is grammatical, but violates a fundamental rule of style: parallel structure.
The verb installed is elided in the second and third predicate, so a reader expects the pattern to continue. Not doing so is somewhat jarring.
If you simply put the bit about roofs first, the problem doesn’t arise.
Roger repaired roofs and installed windows in offices, lamps in apartments, and doors in schools.
Or, in my opinion, better:
As well as repairing roofs, Roger installed…
As well as installing … , Roger repaired roofs.