Contractor Installed Black&White Roof!

OK - I"ll stop posting after this. Here is my latest and last update.

I see what you are saying Grumpy. The thing is we have the money in the account and told the roofer we would pay in on the spot. All he had to do is come out and do what you said. He however told us that to do so would violoate code, that no such product existed (eg that white was the only color option he ahd), and therefore tough crap for us- and 'pay me now or else!'

This has gotten totally out of control. I think he has a screw loose. I'm glad we have an attorney. He is harrassing us with ridiculour messages. In the latest message he said, "I"m going to make your life hell. . . . I'm going to garnish your wages. . . I'm going to foreclose your house. . . .I'm going to embarass you at your work and your husbands work. . . . you now owe me over $5,000 (the balance for the job is only $4250). . .pay me or I will annialate you."

You see, this is how unreasonable he has been from the start. How can we pay someone who behaves this way. It's in the attorney's hands now.

your pretty much screwed either way now even if you win. you may not have to finish paying the contractor but you will instead pay your lawyer. and put up with all the aggrivation the next 6 months until it is finalized. You will be even worse off if there is not a color specified in the contract. The work is acceptable. It is sloppy and would look better if the porch and house were the same color. It is a shame that there are contractors do not take as much pride in their work as they should but this is true with all things. It is also part your responsibility to be more through before you sign the contract. i also find it hard to believe you looked at any other aspect of the job except the bottom line. Color is one of the main things a homeowner wants to know. unless they are shopping price only.
One other thing to note if this rolled roofing is just 90 pound Granulated you will only get 7-10 years life from it. less if you live in a region where there is snow and ice.
What i would do is offer to pay a lesser amount say $500.00 less to settle. Call another company to change color and pay the differnce. no sence in lining a lawyers pocket as well as the contractors. Like i said the job is acceptable but sloppy.

gotjacked? said:

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One thing is sure, next time we hire a contracting co they are going to have to have been in business 30+ years!

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I understand your frustrations and why you're thinking what you're thinking, but don't take out on everyone because of a few bad apples in the bunch.

I've been in business for over 15 years. The only thing I'm guilty of is
over-accomidating my customers. I know this guy who inherited his business from his father about 35 or so years ago. He's been in business(or should I say the business has been around for over 70 years), for longer then he's owned and he's known as a swindler. Ran that business right into the ground. I work hard keeping my good name. I treat and take care of my customers. A majority of my customers have been burnt. So I basically hold their hand through the projects and make them feel at ease. I know a few guys that are honest. But, again I can understand your feelings and frustrations on contractors because for every good one there's 30 or 40 bad ones.

The first or second time you're burnt by a man or a woman does that mean you should stop looking for your perfect person? No, it means to watch your A$$ the next time.

Just as customers, contractors get burnt too.

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.

gotjacked? said:

Most of the homes in our neighborhood are selling within days. Naturally we are roofing, painting, landscaping, and staging to make sure that house shows at it's best and sells quickly.

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If I had known that from the beginning my advice would have been completely the opposite.

I am personally extremely familiar with a market such as you are describing. If your home is located in a true sellers market you are trully barking up the wrong tree here. Homes in the market you are describing will sell - with the porch roof missing! I've been there, done that, seen it. Believe me, if you are truly in that market you are throwing your money away by putting it into the house, if you invest $20,000 rehabbing your home you won't raise the value of the house by $20,000, it doesn't work that way. You simply don't need to put major money into homes in a sellars market in order to get them to sell. They sell themselves.

I have witness over and over again typical scenarios such as, a seller lists his house for $200,000 that needs a new roof ($5,000) new carpet ($5000) and the deck needs to be rebuilt ($5000). Somebody looks at the house and says you need $15,000 worth of work, I will give you $185,000 for it. In your market the seller never takes it because he doesn't need to, the house sells for the $200,000 everytime, infact in that market the house usually would sell for $205,000. In a sellers market all you do is cheap cosmetic work, in a buyers market is when you have to spend money on major improvements just to get an offer.

What does all that mean? It means you are really, really, making this into more than it is. You may not have gotten what you wanted, you are probably 100% in the right, however, in reality that porch roof color is so irrelevant to selling your house, you should really consider what it is worth in the long run in regard to the mess you are about to go through and how much it is effecting the value of the house. You also might consider getting a new realtor if they have contributed to any of this in regard to advice on staging your house to sell.