Contractor Installed Black&White Roof!

11139 Views 79 Replies 11 Participants Last post by AaronB., Jan 8, 2005

gotjacked?

Discussion Starter · Dec 15, 2004

We hired a lisc. bonded contractor to put a roof on our home.

The home is an 1800 square feet ranch home, plus has a two car garage. Is not steep.

His crew of 7 guys tore off two layers of roof, laid plywood, and laid new roof all in 11 hours. This seems like an awfully short time to do a good job. What do you think?

More important though, is the fac that our roof is not BLACK AND WHITE. The roofer put slate grey roofing on most of the house, which we picked from a catalog that he gave us. BUT he put this ugly white looking stuff on our patio, and the white stuff goes up along the roof a bit too. It makes our house look like a shack!

We contacted the contractor and asked why our roof is two colors. His response was that with the roofing material we picked that white was his onlin option.

We said, look you told us to pick a color. We picked slate grey. You NEVER told us that our roof would be slate grey and white! We told you at the start that the house was being reroofed so that we can sell it. And, we told you that we wanted the patio to look nice - not with any ugly rubber or unmatching roofing.

His answer was that the contract did not specify that our roof would be one color - so basically tough crap for us.

I think that he should either:
A) Make our roof all matching AND make sure that our 30 year warantee still stands per our contract.
OR
B) Refund our money so that we can get another contractor to do the job right.

My Dad told me to call the contractors board.

What is your opinion on this. Is it reasonable for us as homeowners to expect one color roof? Does this guy have a leg to stand one? Is it reasonable for him to give us two different colors for our roof?

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Grumpy

· #2 · Dec 15, 2004

Please show us pictures of the problem.

You said liscenced? What is he liscenced for and did you see proof of that liscence? When you say bonded, what is he bonded for? A bond is usually an insurance policy that a contractors insurance carrier issues. When I say I am bonded, I am not lyeing but most consumers have no idea what that means. I have issued a $10k bond to the state of IL and various other municipalities in order to operate my business.

I wouldn't say it's an awfully short period of time. The production is faster than my own crews production but not by a whole heck of alot.

online option?

I am not sure how steep the patio is but if it is too low slope, shingles are not an option. You say rubber but I assume you mean modified bitumen? Typically if the roof is 3/12 pitch or less you don't want to install shingles.

If you wern't happy with his work, why did you pay?

Grumpy

· #6 · Dec 15, 2004

If the patio is flat, you can not put shingles on it. He could have put on a black modified instead of white.

It is his fault for not explaining you that the roofs would be different colors, and perhaps suggesting you choose another color where he could match... however singles on a flat roof are not a good idea.

I'm not so sure your porch roof has a 30 year warranty. Usually 10 year is the base warranty on a modified botumen roof. YOu probably have 30 years on your shingles only.

LOL Glass I agree with you however I'm saying the same thing you are saying, just I am saying it more tactfully. Personally I wouldn't have been in this situation because I'd have explained that though there are multiple colors available in the bitumen, the selection is limited. Also having said that if the porch is only a square or two, I'd lay it over for free with another color of the customers choice just to have a happy customer because my reputation is more important than the few hundred bucks it would cost to lay over.

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Grumpy

· #8 · Dec 15, 2004

I think we do understand, and I think we'd understand better with pictures. I agree that is not reasonable on his part.

Grumpy

· #14 · Dec 16, 2004 (Edited)

Roofer1 said:
In this Case the contractor should fess up and give the homeowner a new job.

Before I go so far as to agree with you I want to see pictures. Though I am leaning to that side of agreeing.

Grumpy

· #15 · Dec 16, 2004 (Edited)

gotjacked? said:
I would like to do that Grumpy.

Actually Pipe said that

Yes I would believe that is true, since I void my warranty if there is any changes or damages done to my work by another company or person. This is pretty common.

Personally neither of you have a leg to stand on in court. I say this because the color of the porch wasn't specified in the contract so it's your word against his. Only the lawyers will win. Time to call your lawyer since he called his. It's all over now, you both lose.

Grumpy

· #18 · Dec 17, 2004

Mike Finley said:
At this point if he is going to lein the property just take it before the court and let them decide. If the judge rules in your favor the lein will go away.

Another Yachy payment for jacked's lawyer.

Grumpy

· #22 · Dec 17, 2004

There are collection laws in regards to how often he can call/contact you in regards to colelcting a debt. I think it's something like twice a week.

Hammer time I would think that a judge would side with the verbage of the contract. For example saying the "Shingle" would be black, doesn't mean the flat roof on the porch is going to be black because it doesn't have shingles. Now saying the "Roof" will be black means the whole roof will be black. See my point?

Also you said wintin reason, and colors are so different... I'd still like to see pics, which I understand Jacked is trying to get us... I am not making any decisions until I see some pics. I know that slate gray is a medium to dark gray color and I know that modified bitumen comes in varying ranges of grays as well.

Grumpy

· #23 · Dec 17, 2004

PipeGuy said:
Judging by his irriational reaction to your concerns, I'm guessing that there are nuances to this situation that we will not learn by hearing only your side of the story.

That's my point as well.

I am not saying Jacked is lying but there are always three sides tot he story. My side, your side, and the truth.

The pictures will be the truth. After seeing the pictures if the contractor is a moron I will say so. If jacked is being unreasonable I will say so... but not until I see pics.

Grumpy

· #43 · Dec 18, 2004

AaronB. said:
You would have to go to court first in Illinois to get a lien placed on the property.

You have to go to the court house but not court

You have to go to the court room to foreclose that lien and get judgement.

Grumpy

· #47 · Dec 18, 2004 (Edited)

Ya know... on an area that small it'd be very easy for anyone to coat the modified bitumen with a black colored coating.

From the picture the modified didn't look white though it is noticeably lighter than the shingles... Even if the flat area was black it still wouldn't be an exact match due to the shading of the shingles.

I think your roofer is not handling the situation well at all, however I think that the problem is not as bad as I originally thought. If it were my own house I'd pay the roofer.

Grumpy

· #57 · Dec 19, 2004

Aaron filing a lien is actually a much simpler process than our lawyers would like us to believe. It's a matter of some time and paper work at the court house clerk's office. BUT yes to the best of my knowledge you to get a judgement you have to go to court and "foreclose" the lien. I've never had to foreclose. Usually once I place the lien the customer is willing to negotiate... and Yes Aaron you can go around liening anyone you want... just like you can sue any person for any reason at any time. That is our legal system. I can lien your house right now if I wanted to, but I would have no grounds to do that and it would get tossed out immediately, but I could still do it.

Jacked, I agre your contractor is a schmuck and a poor business man... but saying the person needs to be in business over 30 years in kinda assanine. Read this: http://diychatroom.com/howto57.htm I've been in business for less than a year but I have been in the industry much longer. You've read my posts about fixing customers complaints because my reputation is worth more than a few hundred bucks. If I was your roofer I'd have been there on the spot once the color was wrong asking YOU what I could do to satisfy you. Infact that would be my exact words. Once a customer complains I review their complaint, if I think it has any grounds (doesn;t matter if I agree it is valid or not) I ask them how I can solve it, how I can satisfy them... then I do it.

I was involved in a roof job where the roof was done all wrong previously and the siding also done all wrong previously. To properly flash the roof we had to remove some aluminum siding. If you know anything about aluminum siding it will wrinkle if you sneeze on it. I did tell the customer we would have to remove some long before we started work, but it was my fault for not stressing that some might get damaged. The customer called to complain how the siding looked while we were working. I drove to his house inspected it, asked him if he remembered me telling him we'd have to remove it. He did remember but didn't realize it would get damaged. I asked him what I could do to fix the problem. We ended up replacing about 3 squares of aluminum siding for free... at a cost to me of $763. Iwas not happy about that, but my customer was happy and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

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Grumpy

· #64 · Dec 20, 2004

AaronB. said:
Grumpy, Then I have been lied to by a "trusted" attorney.

I have placed liens and never sen the court room. Has he ever placed a lien? Perhaps when he said that "you have to go to court" what he meant was "he has to go to the court house and see the county clerk."

Grumpy

· #66 · Dec 21, 2004

Well yes you have to go to court to get the judgement, but not to file the original paper work. Unless of coarse the lien laws are different in your county, however I thought the lien laws were a state law and not a county law.

Yup. Usually they pay when they get the lien notice. Sometimes they don't. Then you have to ask yourself... Do you wait until they want to buy their next car or take a loan on their property to get paid, or do you want to sue them to foreclose the lien? Decisions decisions.

Grumpy

· #68 · Dec 22, 2004

That's basically sueing them. It is done in court. The judge decides if youa re within your legal rights to foreclose.

The best way I can describe foreclosing a mechanicals lien is like a bank would foreclose on you if you stopped paying your mortgage. It's not identicle but sorta similiar. I too have never had to foreclose but that's how an attorney explained it to me.

Grumpy

· #70 · Dec 22, 2004

use my yahoo. Like I said for some reason your e-mail get's trapped in my hotmail junk folder.

[email protected]

Aaron, you must be a known spammer

Grumpy

· #72 · Dec 23, 2004

LOL that's about it. All your mailw as coming through until that one HI mail.

Grumpy

· #75 · Dec 28, 2004

AaronB. said:
but you would think diferently if you had to deal with the jackleg satellite installers or HVAC contractors, etc, who have no regard for those having to be responsible for water infiltration.

What Aaron said is exactly the reason this clause exists. I will NOT be responsible for damage caused by others. This includes anyone. My warranty covers repairs of my fault only. Why would I warrant someone elses mistake?

This is a very very common clause within the roofing industry.

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