Our roof developed a small leak and was in need of minor repairs. We decided to go with ACE Roofing after reading many positive reviews on yelp. We were visited by Paul, who came out to our house and assessed what needed to be fixed. His initial assessment was favorable, and one my wife and I agreed with. After he left we felt confident that our roof problem would be taken care of. He informed me that he would be sending an estimate/contract via email, and that he would be in touch. About a week later we received a message on our answering machine from Paul, wherein he gave a very vague list of things to be done, and (what I thought to be ) a high price. I returned his phone call and informed him that we had not received a contract. He said he would send one right over, and thereafter we scheduled a time for his repairman to begin work. A week later, still no contract, and the repairman (Ignacio) showed up a day early and unannounced. Ignacio worked with one other man for about an hour, and left. We received another message on our answering machine a day or two later from Paul saying the work had been totally completed and that we should give him a call to pay the ($850) bill. I informed him that we still had not received a contract, and that the work was most certainly not done. He apologized and said he would send the contract right over via email, and we again scheduled Ignacio to come work on our roof. Ignacio shows up a few days later, on a day when rain was strongly forecasted. I approached him, said hello, and asked if he had my contract. He looked at me surprised and said, "you don't have a contract ?" I said no, will you please tell Paul to send one, and he said , "yah sure sure, sorry you don't have one yet." I asked him to show me what he planned on fixing that day. He said he intended on fixing a rotten piece of trim and that was all that was needed to complete the work on my house. I informed him that Paul and I had agreed that decking needed to replaced. He argued with me that the decking didn't need to be replaced, and that my roof was fine. It was at this point that I told him I was a structural engineer, I had taken pictures from my attic of the underside of the rotten decking, and that it most certainly did need to be replaced. After this he apologized and said he would get started right away (in the rain...!). I told him I didn't want him working on our roof in the rain, to come back, and that I wanted to see a contract from Paul.
I remained very friendly with both Paul, and Ignacio, and continued to give this company the benefit of the doubt.
Ignacio showed up a few days later, with a helper, and performed two hours of work. He replaced a few sheets of plywood, replaced some shingles, and a piece of trim. After Ignacio left, I still had no contract, or list of items to be completed by ACE roofing. The only thing I had was a phone message from Paul that was vague. When I spoke to Paul after the work was completed, I told him we were not happy with the price. He said that the price was high because we are receiving a warranty from a bonded licensed company. (Personally, I could care less about a warranty offered by a local construction company. They could fold up tomorrow, start under a new name, and having my warranty taken care of through the bonding agent would be a huge hassle. I just wanted the work done well, and didn't want worry about it. ) Paul said he would send the contract over right away, and that if we were unhappy with the price he would make it right. I told him my wife and I were going to have another roofer come look at the work completed and give us an estimate, which was a plan of action Paul agreed with. A few days later I sent Paul a note, and told him what we were willing to pay, to which he agreed. The price went from $850 down to $200. My wife was so mad. She felt like they were trying to take advantage of us. I don't know if it was that, or they were just very disorganized on our particular house.
At first glance Ignacio's work looked good. However, when I went out to paint it this last weekend I noticed that he left out the plywood decking clips (or H clips) that help to transfer the roof load evenly at the plywood joints. I have already put the check in the mail. I have not yet called them to relay that something was left out, because I am just sick of dealing with them. In retrospect I wish I had gone with another roofing company. When I look back at all the reviews on yelp, it seems like most of them are for having complete roof jobs done. We just needed a patch or two, and ACE was not the company for the job.
I don't normally give things one star, but I had quite a bit of trouble, and the work was not completed properly. read more