I just had a total roof replacement on my 3 story Victorian and was very happy with the advice given and the work done by Universal Roofing.
I knew I needed a new roof-I have a small flat section, but the majority of the roof is a very steep shingled roof, as well a porch roof. The old roof was at least 25 years old, and there was some shingles that had been blow off in sections, as well as some damage a decade ago from a neighbors tree digging into it. Water was getting in, though only occasionally during heavy rains.
I got an initial quote from a roofer who had some some earlier work for me, and he said he could put a second layer of shingles over the existing layer, since it was only one layer. He quoted me $9K for that, which initially seemed in the ballpark.
I got a second quote from Universal. Joe Taylor came out and when I told him about the first quote, he said that putting a second layer would be a bad idea: wouldn't hold up long, and that since my attic wood slats were the originals, with no wood underlayer, the slats wouldn't hold up well with nails being driven into them without an underlayer. I was of course a little dubious, thinking I was being upsold into a very expensive job.
He told me to call my insurance company. I scoffed and said why would an insurance company pay for a 25 year old roof that needs replacing. He said to call. I did call, and again with Joe's help, surprisingly got the Insurance co, Homesite to basically foot the vast majority of the $40K bill. When the Homesite person came out to inspect the roof, Joe came and was helpful in being about to understand what the insurance company needed to make a decision to pay. Joe's experience with this situation really made this very easy for me, and again, I never would have thought this would be covered by insurance.
A final kudos: I was very worried about a total tear off destroying my front and rear gardens that were just coming into bloom. I'd seen a full tear off of a neighbor's house and was mortified about how the workers destroyed their from garden. I mentioned this a lot to Joe, and he and the foreman, and the entire team, really went out of their way to protect the garden. I of course was around the entire time to make sure they would, but they really did go out of their way to keep my garden intact.
I am very pleased with the job done, the care given and would highly recommend Universal Roofing. read more