My husband and I want to share with the neighborhood, our experience with a contractor that…read morefrequently solicits work in Stevenson. In fact, when we first hired him, it was from a neighbor referral. Unfortunately, we have not had the same positive experience and, instead, would like to share a warning. Grab a glass of wine, it's a long one.
We hired Badger Contracting to replace a roof on our 1958 Gordon Sugar home in 2018. It was a warranty claim and the owner, Barry Flacks, was initially friendly and responsive, and clearly understood the insurance game. The crew he hired, however, turned out to be unfamiliar with flat roof construction and, on first attempt, failed to retain the MCM aesthetic. Despite a street of identical houses they could have used as a reference, it was starting to look like an 90's builder special (and with a moat of rusted nails yeeted into the grass).
Throughout the project, they were tearing out and re-installing elements. By the time the roof replacement was "complete," there were half a dozen patches already in place on our brand-new roof. We were not impressed, but he was paid in full--as it was an insurance claim, there wasn't much we could do.
We called Barry back a few months later when the ceiling in the living room started leaking. And then a few more months later for the same. Then they came back when there were mushrooms growing in the master bedroom closet. Another time, they had to come back to switch a downspout that was mistakenly installed upside-down and catching debris. This was around the time he told us that he never used that crew again.
Badger returned frequently--well beyond our 5-year labor warranty which we asked to be extended on good faith. It was clear his profit margin on our roof was shrinking, and it showed in the way we were treated. None of these return trips were prompt, communicative, or friendly. We would come home to men on the roof without even a return phone call, and then no update on work performed. Over and over again.
We were never out to ruin anyone's livelihood. We know Barry has a working relationship in the community and we've wanted to believe that our experience was a one-off due to a poor crew and, other than not passing on Badger's contact info, we kept our experience to ourselves. Our most recent experience with Barry, however, has convinced us that we need to share the continuation of this story.
Our 8yo roof failed inspection when we went to sell. Badger came out and performed a repair on soft spots identified by his crew (but we discovered not everything on the inspection report). Then Barry lied to us about the work performed when he insisted that the roof wasn't regraded and that the soft spots were caused by a clogged drain, "maybe a mouse." But we were on the roof with the roofer. We spoke with him about the work and the crew leader pointed out the low spot, the pooling, and acknowledged it being the cause of the rot--not the drain, which was adjacent. We took a dozen photos as he re-sloped that area. The roof in that area wasn't sloped correctly to begin with.
Second and third inspections were performed by certified roofing contractors. They both identified the same additional repairs that needed to be made and submitted their own quotes for repairs. Understandably, after Badger failed to catch (or repair) what their peers had noted, our buyers did not want Badger to return. When we presented those two estimates to Barry and asked that he cover the cost of the lower estimate, he delayed correspondence through the weeks leading up to settlement--not responding until well after we closed. We covered the expenses of the repairs at closing because an 8yo roof should be sound and it was the right thing to do.
Again, we asked for reimbursement. Five weeks later, Barry reached out to say that he will not be reimbursing us because 1) he doesn't agree with the three inspections noting the same areas of concern; 2) he feels his crew should have been permitted additional opportunities to address repairs; and 3) it was on us as the seller to negotiate the cost of his failing roof into our sale price.
So here we are. Dropping reviews across the internet and hoping to avoid small claims court, but certainly not opposed to traveling down that road.
