Raise The Roof

Wow, it's been awhile since I last posted. So, first, "Hi! I'm baaaccckkkk!"

Second, a lot has been going on, but let's focus on the most recent event in which I was forced to put a brand new roof on my rental house . . . only 3 years after the roof had been "replaced". You'll understand why that is in quotations in a few minutes.

Mid-December I get a call from the property management company about a leak in the roof. Great time to get a leak in a roof, right? Right before Christmas when everyone has a ton of money! Perfect timing! Splendid! They write up an estimate to fix the leak, and it is $3,600.

I tell them I am going to check with my insurance company. The insurance company recommends a contractor, who shall be referred to as "Unnamed Contractor" from here on. Unnamed Contractor comes out and gives me a much different quote, so I decide to go with them. However, they neglect to tell me that their quote was only to fix the INSIDE of the house, not the outside. They finally come back with an outside quote, and it is similar to the property management company. At this point, I realize something is not right, but I'm not to the point of throwing this company to the curb because I trust my insurance company wouldn't recommend a poorly rated contractor (HA!) I begrudgingly ok the estimate, and then pay a deposit.

Two weeks later, the roofer of the Unnamed Contractor finally gets up on the roof, and then he calls me. He proceeds to tells me we have a much larger issue at hand, and that when the roof was "replaced" the only thing they did was put shingles on top of shingles, which in his words is a "major no no!" Basically, the previous owners paid for a brand new roof, and instead all they got was new shingles on top of old shingles. Basically, nothing was professionally handled.

He continues, and tells me I will need a full replacement on the roof, and when I ask how much he thinks that will cost he guesstimates "in the teens."

Cue mental breakdown.

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I call for backup, Babs.

For those of you who don't know my best friend, Babs, she knows someone who can help with almost every area of your life. She's never met a stranger . . . like EVER. Anyway, she introduces me to Brock at Team Roofing because she has a feeling, as I did, that I was getting fornicated with by both the property management company and the Unnamed Contractor.

Brock introduces himself and begins to explain what it is exactly Team Roofing does. It was founded out by Chad Cruce in 2001 after hail storms ripped through the Southeast, and unprincipled and greedy contractors were performing subpar work on homes. He wanted to change the roofing industry by making teamwork and integrity part of his company. Brock continued telling me they offer free inspections, walk their clients through the claims process, and will install a new roof.

Additionally, one important thing about having Team Roofing walk you through the estimation process, whether it be for an insurance claim or for a comparison estimate, is that most estimators won't even get on the roof and look to see if there is any damage. They will just give you an estimate based on what they think is wrong. It seems that this is what Unnamed Contractor had done with the first estimate on the roof because if he had truly gotten up there he would have seen double shingles and realized what needed to be done the first time around. Then there would not have been a second phone call to tell me later how bad it really was, which lucky for me caused me to seek another opinion.

After speaking with Brock, I gave him the go ahead to check my roof out, and also provided him with the quote that Unnamed Contractor had provided me.

Once he had inspected the roof, he did confirm that the previous owners and I were the victims of unscrupulous contractors. I needed an entirely new roof, and he said that my insurance would not cover it because there was no storm damage. I had suspected that this was the case, but felt better by getting another point of view. I am glad I did because we started comparing the two estimates between Team Roofing and Unnamed Contractor there were some glaring differences.

First, the Unnamed Contractor did not even calculate the correct amount of shingles that needed to be removed and then reinstalled. This leads me to believe they purposely did this in order to tack on more money at the end of the job by stating something along the lines of "Needed more shingles than previously estimated," and "Did not calculate two layers of shingle removal." By their lack of calculating just those two things, I feel they would have tacked on about $2,000 more. Team Roofing got it right the first time because they have satellite software they can use to correctly calculate the amount of shingles needed.

Secondly, the unnamed contractor was trying to tell me my entire roof needed ice and water shield, when it is not needed because I don't live on the coast or in the North. The only reason I would need this is to protect from ice and/or hard straight line winds. In Birmingham, it is completely unnecessary, and they were going to charge me $2,067 to put that all over the roof.

Thirdly, pricing was all around better with Team Roofing. They came in $259.86 cheaper than Unnamed Contractor, and Team Roofing did that with the upgraded shingles! And with the regular shingles they came in $475.86 cheaper!

In conclusion, I may have had to pay for a new roof, but I'm 100% satisfied with the job that Brock and Team Roofing did, and I would recommend them to anyone! In fact, the house where I live now is about to need a new roof, guess who I'm calling? Team Roofing and Construction. They have four different locations two in Alabama, one in Tennessee, and one in Georgia. If you need a roof, give these guys a call because it isn't just me that is ranking them as the best, so is the Better Business Bureau, Angie's list and a ton of testimonials on their website! Go check it out in the link below!

I normally don't make posts like these, but when I to spend a lot of money on something like this, and I see that it was done correctly I want to give praise and recognition. So let's be Classic Peg, and "Raise the Roof" for Team Roofing & Construction!