We’ve been in the middle of a little roofing ordeal recently. In short, we had hail damage to our house back in April.
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The Durango got a little bit of damage, and you can see on the railing above that some of the lights got smashed. We didn’t really think much of it in terms of our house until some roofers were going through the area and offered a free inspection of our roof.
After a quick survey, they said the roof was totalled and we should get our insurance company out here. So we did and they confirmed an entirely new roof needed to be put in, and that they’d pay for the whole thing minus deductible.
(click to embiggify)
Our deductible is actually quite low (compared to friends going through the same thing) so I was pretty happy to get a new roof for such a low amount of money.
I’ve heard bad stories about door-to-door roofers, so even though the traveling shingle seller was a bringer of blessings, I stayed away from them and besides, they were headquartered out of town, which didn’t necessarily add any feelings of security. Instead I asked my friends who THEY used, if they liked them, etc.
One coworker said HIS roofer was all that and a bag of chips, so I called him up, had a nice conversation and scheduled a visit. My coworker was right – the guy was honest, forthright, helpful and just about everything I could hope for in a contractor. We scheduled the roof installation and waited.
About a week later, the roofers showed up early in the morning and proceeded to remove the existing roof. I left to run some errands with my daughter, knowing that it would be half a day before the roofers were done.
Then it started raining.
HARD.
My wife called while we were out and said that it was leaking in the house, and that Jaden was putting out bowls and pans to catch the dripping water.
(click to embiggify)
Good thing for us this roofer maintained his honesty and integrity, and is working with us to fix all the damage before we pay him for the roofing repairs. He’s also maintaining the responsibility to pay for all of it. In his words, “I want you to be happy with the inside of the house before you pay me a penny on the roof.” Man, it’s refreshing to have this kind of customer service.
Plus, the roof looks real good from the outside 
Our problem right now is that these types of internal repairs are more difficult than you’d think, since we have no attic or crawl space. Water damage is NOT a fun thing. We gotta get someone with powerful vacuums and mold treatment sprayers and have about 2 feet of the roof taken off along both long edges. Then it takes 2-3 days to do it all, since they have to take out all the blow-in insulation, wait for it to dry, then treat it with bleach, vinegar and water (or something like that), and then wait for it to dry as well. Then they blow in the new insulation and put the roof sections back on.
Needless to say, we hope it doesn’t rain those 2-3 days.
Meanwhile the house stunk of wetness, but that went away after about 5-6 days. We’re hoping the replacement of roof insulation will be the last of it. We also hope our exposure to mold or mildew wasn’t too bad – we all stayed at a friends house for 2-3 days right after it happened just to be sure.
Thats actually nice to hear he is standing by his work and not being a jerk. Good luck!
bubblewench – yup, he’s awesome. Today the insulation guy failed to show. Roofer showed up and he and I waited and waited and waited. ARGH.
UGH!
Still – you got yourself one heckuva good guy – it’s nice to hear good stories about roofers and workers in general!!
.-= Sybil Law´s last blog ..Since I’m too lazy to go back and link, this was from InStyle. =-.
Sybil Law – Word of mouth does a body good. Wait, um, is there a backspace?
Nice to hear that customer service is still alive and well in some places. As for the roof, that’s pretty nice.
.-= martymankins´s last blog ..Scooter Sunday – Season 2 Ep. 09 =-.
martymankins – I went up there today as they replaced a broken skylight and I’m impressed with it.
I respect that he’s a man of his word and will get the job done. It’s so easy for a contractor to walk away and say it’s not his responsibility or claim that it was pre-existing or some such load of hooey. I hope it all works out.
.-= kapgar´s last blog ..Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun… =-.
kapgar – me too!
I hope it all gets fixed quickly enough without further incident!I’m surprised they didn’t put tarps down or something while they were working on it.
For future contractor types of work, I’d recommend joining AngiesList. It’s been really useful for me.
.-= Avitable´s last blog ..Avitable Love Fest: 20 Things I Want You To Hear =-.
Avitable – hmm, I’d heard the Angieslist ads for a long time, but I had no idea until just now that you had to pay to be a member. I’m guessing it’d be worth it but I still balk at the price.
Dude that would so happen to me! Sorry to hear that. Was that the same guy Dave (Baker)used?
Christine – I don’t know who Baker used; this recommendation came from Peter. I don’t know I’d you know Peter or not.
Oh my yucka…things can never go ‘right’, can they. So glad you at least have an awesome roofer! Mold can be a scary thing…much luck with that.
.-= Tug´s last blog ..Number 4 =-.
Tug – we’ve since had the insulation guy flake out but now getting someone else who seems to know what he’s doing.
It sucks that it rained, but it’s great to hear that the contractor is a good one. As for the mold exposure, I wouldn’t sweat it. Most mold isn’t terribly harmful, causing minor respiratory irritation, unless someone in the family has a mold allergy. You hear lots of stories about mold causing major health problems, but the toxic black mold isn’t as common as its made out to be.
.-= Nobody´s last blog ..Pissy =-.
Nobody – yeah, with the exception of the third eye each of us has grown in our necks, most of my family has gotten by unscathed.
I’m glad you got someone honest. Dealing with jerks in these cases can take a toll on your humanity.
You don’t have a crawl space of an attic?! Where do you hide the bodies, then?
.-= Faiqa´s last blog ..If Michael Jackson Were Punjabi… =-.
Faiqa – we’re on 3+ acres with lots of neighbors with 10+ acres each. It’s not a problem of room.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz!!!!!!!!
Christine – doofenshmirtz evil incorporated! I unleash to the world my Wayninator!
Wow, that is a whole lot of hail!!! So glad you got an honest guy like that….definitely rare these days.
I remember a lot of that stuff having to be done to my grandma’s house when it was flooded by Hurricane Isabel. Definitely not fun. Hope it all goes as smoothly as possible.
BB – how bad is it that it’s so rare? Hopefully when the worlds economy collapses and we go back to a barter system, we’ll be able to still have things like epinions.com and angieslist.com
When one speaks of home improvements, more often than not, this is immediately connected to either interior remodeling or exterior house painting. For ardent DIY, remodeling and painting may possibly be a piece of cake but call on the best roofing contractors.
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http://www.workforceroofing.com/services.html
http://www.apexmasterroof.ca/
Normally I block comments with links such as yours as spam, but your use of the word ‘ardent’ caught me offguard and, well, here we are.
I really hate to hear about your roofing ordeal… on the other hand, those are some of the best hail damage pictures I’ve seen. Hopefully your roofing company took care of all the interior damage for you too.
.-= Fireman´s last blog ..Old Wood Roof Shingles =-.
It is good that there’s been a free check has been done in your area that time. Because your problem with your roofing can be more dangerous, if you failed to notice it.