I hired Universal Builders for a full roof replacement and honestly this whole thing turned into a nightmare. When I first met with their salesman Nick (superintendent), he told me straight up they wouldn't be the cheapest, but they'd give me the best quality, send their "A team," and that all the workers were Universal employees, not subcontractors. He promised me a professional job with good communication. That's what I thought I was paying around $30,000 for. Unfortunately, that's not at all how it went.
On day one, right after demo, I got hit with a massive change order for plywood decking. Nick had even promised there'd be a bathroom on site, but there wasn't. I had to negotiate the change order down, and then the next day I found out they were installing the wrong plywood thickness -- half-inch instead of the 5/8 I was supposed to get. Half the deck was already laid before I climbed up and caught it myself. They fixed it because I caught it, not because they were paying attention.
That set the tone for the whole job. I kept finding sloppy, unacceptable work. Flashing around the AC curb, chimney, and skylight was missing or cut short and filled in with caulk. The cricket behind the AC curb was too short, with a big gap just smeared over with caulking. Vents were caulked with pinholes left. Brand new shingles were scuffed and scratched because nobody bothered to use foam pads. I found razor cuts in the underlayment about to be covered up with shingles. Decking boards not nailed into rafters properly. Bent nails left in rafters, overdriven nails in new shingles. Pee bottles in my attic. Trash left around my property. And nails all through my gravel driveway because nonexistent or poor magnet sweeps until I demanded it. I've had to pull nails out myself just to avoid flat tires.
The "A team" Nick promised turned out to be day laborers paid cash by the day, not actual Universal employees. Every time I checked, I found something wrong. Instead of owning it, Nick and his supervisor Tony turned hostile. Tony even called me an "entitled homeowner" who didn't want to pay, and told me "this isn't our first rodeo" and that they had "tools at their disposal." Basically trying to intimidate me instead of fixing the roof. That was it for me, I refused to deal with them anymore.
Thank God I have cameras all around my house because every conversation and interaction got recorded. At a certain point I basically had to act like my own lawyer, building a case in case this ended up in court. That's how bad it got.
Eventually I escalated things to Lily in their office and Armon, the CEO. Once Lily got involved, things did improve, she was professional and actually seemed to care but by then it was already the end of the project, and all that was left was chasing corrections just to get the roof to pass inspection.
In Riverside county roofing contractors can self certify their permit, it's a county policy not something universal made up. But because of the problems not being remediated I wasn't comfortable with this and called the County myself to send out an inspector. Inspector Manuel Leal came out and wrote a correction notice with the same problems I had been pointing out: missing proper flashing around the HVAC curb, chimney flashing that had to go under stucco flashing, a cricket required at the garage to house valley, and vents that had to be properly caulked instead of smeared with caulk and pinholes left. He even noted "more corrections may follow." Without that inspection, Universal would've declared the job done and walked away.
In the end, the roof is finally complete, but only because I caught mistake after mistake, documented everything with photos, emails and got the County involved. Without that, this roof would've been signed off unfinished and below standard. For 30K, I shouldn't have to climb my own roof and basically act as superintendent to make sure things are done to code.
Even with all that, I still had to let some things slide just to get it over with, brand new shingles that are scratched or missing asphalt, broken pieces of shiplap that weren't damaged before this project started. I've got pictures and video of everything. At this point I just accepted it so I could move on, but it's a reminder of how sloppy this job was.
Universal charges premium prices but what I got was poor workmanship, broken promises, bad communication, and misrepresentation of who was even doing the work. If you hire them, make sure everything promised is in writing, document absolutely everything, demand County inspections, and don't sign off until it's verified. The one positive in all of this was Lily, she was professional and helpful but she's not the one out running projects in the field. By the time she got involved, the damage was done. Now I'll wait for the first real rain, check my attic for leaks, and if I find any, it'll be very telling to see how Universal handles fixing them.