Siding
We got three quotes from Angie's list A rated companies. Dale was very responsive and mid-priced. We liked his approach so we selected him. His crew was ok, not the quickest but they did a fine job. During and after the job Dale was very responsive. So far so good. The reason for the low rating is associated with what happened after the job was completed. Shortly after the job was completed we noticed a leak in our 1st floor ceiling near where the chimney goes up and meets with the siding. Dale was great, he came right out and put a bead of caulk along both sides of the chimney. We thought that took care of it. The next good storm we noticed that a few of our soffit eaves were hanging low and in another area the siding seemed to pop up to lift up the soffit eave. He sent a guy to fix it. He struggled and did his best but it was never really resolved. As time went on we kept an eye on the leak/stain and hoped that the soffit eave wouldn't get worse. We called a few other contractors about the low hanging soffit eave and they all said the same thing - there was a missing J channel - just call your siding guy - he'll fix it, no problem, it should be covered by a warranty. We called Dale a few times, he insisted the eaves were cut too short and that the only way to fix it was to replace all of the soffits and he gave us a verbal quote ($3900) that included removal and replacement of perfectly fine gutters (we had them replaced before the siding - Gutter Guys did a great job). It just didn't seem right to us. Late April/early May 2014 we noticed that leak again. The stain was much worse. We called Dale. He said that the problem was related to a roof leak (we have a new roof) or that bad soffit. We called again after getting a few other opinions. We told Dale that several contractors told us to get help from our siding contractor. Dale said that the leak was definitely not due to his siding. Fix the soffit you'll fix the leak. Again, for $3900 it just didn't sound right. Finally we found a contractor that agreed to do the job. For not much money and very little time he installed the missing J channel and fixed the low hanging soffit. He also went around the perimeter and refastened the loose siding. He said it was just shoddy work, wrong type of fasteners, poorly installed etc.... He was very surprised we weren't able to get it resolved by our siding contractor. All this is minor. The big problem is the leak. We found the leak. Water was getting behind the siding right where the siding meets the chimney exactly where we see the stain on the 1st floor ceiling. We determined that flashing should have been installed along the chimney. We've since looked at other houses with new siding. They all have that flashing. We did contact Dale. He said the flashing isn't required. No comment about the low hanging soffit eave. We called Dale many times. He says he visited our house and he assured us that there was a J channel and that the eaves were cut too short. Even after we told him that several others said that wasn't the case. It's a bummer, he is a nice guy and was very responsive during the quote effort and even during and shortly after the job. He pretty much always returned calls but we just couldn't get him to fix the problem. I guess we have a warranty but what good is it if we couldn't get him to fix the problem? We've learned a lot. It's a long review. Sorry it's not a good review but it is accurate and it does reflect our experience. We left Dale a v.mail at the end of the repair project. Told him that the J channel was missing, was replaced, soffits are fixed and the leak was in fact due to the siding installation etc... Haven't heard from him. If anything the ratings above are generous given what we've had to do and spend to get this resolved. P.S. We've had several good storms - no problems with the soffit eaves, no leaks either. Update: Very simple here. No flashing along either side of the chimney was the reason for the leak. Your only attempt was to caulk. We contacted you several times to investigate further. You refused and stated that the problem could not be from your installation and was likely from a roof leak (not possible - the roof is new) or from the low hanging soffit eaves (they were easily fixed and were not the cause of the leak). You said flashing along the chimney wasn't required. We disagree. We have not had any issues since it was repaired. No bad mouthing from any other contractors, I simply stated the facts that just happened to be from every other contractor we brought in to help us resolve the problem. It was difficult to get the work done because most said we should go back to you for the fix. We got frustrated and finally convinced a contractor to perform the work. We inspected the work every step of the way and I'm confident that my review and this update are 100% accurate.
