Can't say enough good things about these folks. Long story coming up. But in short, Josh and his team are amazing. I was highly skeptical, but Josh was so determined to prove their value that he rescued me out of a very bad situation, did an excellent job fixing the hole in my roof, did extra repairs and then refused to charge me for what was at least a $600-$1,000 job!!!!! I watched the entire job, took photos and video, asked questions. The guys on Joshs' roofing team were knowledgable, skilled, and very hard working. When I have any need for roofing again (or other jobs) Josh will be my first call.
Long Story:
I had an immediate need for a roofing repair. It had to get done in 4 days. i figured it was about a 5 ft x 5 ft or 10 x 10 area that the roofing material and plywood needed to be replaced due to wood rot.
In the past when I've needed major repairs done (including this year), I've found that he "unsolicited leads" are the worst. That is, you go online and ask for an estimate and then a bunch of companies you never contacted start calling you and aggressively seeking the job. In the past, I've found those folks to be poor quality, low knowledge, and extremely aggressive telemarketers. I've even had some come out and my experience has been horrible. So I almost always decline any caller whose name I do not recognize / that I called first.
In this case, I called about 20 different roofers and they all said they weren't available for weeks. Or in some cases the job was too small. I finally was forced to go with someone from Craigslist who was NOT licensed. After I'd made this decision, I got a call from Josh at 1 Oak. Because this was an unsolicited lead, I was not interested, but since Josh seemed pretty decent, I decided to tell him *why* I was not interested in 1 Oak. I told him my story of how unsolicited leads have always resulted in bad companies in my experience. I told him I had decided to hire the guy from CL. Based on the low price, the CL guy was giving me, Josh asked me if he was licensed. I wasn't hugely concerned about that given that I've hired unlicensed folks in the past, but a friend of mine pointed out what a bad idea that is for roofers, since they could fall off, and without them having insurance, I could be sued. That gave me pause. I looked up the guy from CL, and of course, he was not licensed. I decided to go ahead nonetheless, but Josh and I talked for quite some time and he really made a case for his business, pointed out that the person I'm speaking to should be the one on the license, gave me the website look it up online, told me a bit more about his business and the people on his team, etc. (FYI, he does hire out contractors, so it's not as if he's doing the work himself.) The time that he took to listen to my concerns impressed me, but I had made my decision at that point.
The next day the CL roofer came. He had seemed alright when he looked at the job earlier. But I later learned that he was incredibly rude, pushy, chauvinistic, and seemed bent on taking advantage of my situation. In the end, I kicked him and his team out of my property half-way through the job. Which meant I was left with a hole in my roof!
So now, I called Josh back and asked if he could help me out. Now I was REALLY in a bind and Josh had every opportunity to take advantage of the situation. But after talking, he decided to get somebody out here to help me the next day, Sunday! He said he wasn't going to charge me, but I didn't believe him and said, even if he did, I would insist on paying him. Well, the guys came just as planned on Sunday and got to work. I asked lots of questions and had done a little homework on my roof and how it should be repaired. Everything checked out. In addition, the lead roofer, told me a little story about how he had been injured (falling off a roof!) about a year ago and after that, no one would hire him, in part because his injury is still ailing him so he can't do the hard labor. But Josh hired him to teach others how to do the job. I particularly noticed the care and skill shown by his two workers, one who did the majority of the work and the other who mainly watched and did clean up. Both of them were incredibly hard and accurate workers. I was impressed. I took photos and videotaped a lot of the process. It seemed to me they went above and beyond to ensure the repair was solid and the edges, in particular, were secure from rain getting underneath.
In addition to that, I asked if they could help reseal the edge of the roof that was coming loose in some areas. They did all of that very thoroughly and also resealed the pipes.
I asked how much and they told me "Josh said not to charge you." I said "That's crazy. I'm writing you a check." I came back with a check and gave it to the lead roofer. He said, "I can't take it. Josh told me to take it from you and the rip it up. But I can't do that; it would be rude." Incredible! read more