On a 1970s home with flat roof: Tear off water damaged wood fascia and R&R a few framing members. Tear off two layers of old roofing. Repair/replace water damaged roof decking and about 60 sq ft of plywood soffit. Install TPO roofing over tapered ISO board. Install new metal fascia, drip edge, and in some places custom gutter. Although this was quoted as a 20-day job, it took much longer and there are still outstanding uncorrected issues some 6 months later.
Although I got a strong sense of professionalism from them during the pre-contract phase, I have been disappointed in nearly every aspect of their service since then. An expensive roofing job was not done properly and substantial problems continue many months on. It seems inevitable that the next step will be to hire a lawyer. Here?s the story: After receiving the contract and down payment, Custom Roofing communicated very little about what would happen next, or when. Workers showed up at random times with no advance notice. After several weeks of work on fascia, soffit, and framing, our first indication that roof tear off was likely to happen soon was arriving home to find a dump truck in the driveway backed up to the house. Not only was there a lack of communication from them to me, but it seems like my communications to them fell on deaf ears. Several items required rework because they were not done correctly the first time, despite detailed conversations and sketches of what I wanted. But the most serious problem is that the roof does not drain! Although he agreed to use tapered ISO board to establish some pitch, this was not done. When I arrived home from work one evening to see workers installing ISO and TPO, I observed that they were not using tapered ISO. I immediately notified Custom Roofing that I didn?t see the tapered board. Their response was (verbatim) " After the next rain, we will know the areas that will require the tapered insulation. We will install the tapered insulation at that time." Four months later, there is still standing water and the problem has not been addressed. They largely ignore my phone calls and emails. But standing water isn?t the only problem! The metal fascia/drip edge/gutter was improperly constructed so that a) the gutter doesn?t drain (it has two ½? drain holes for about every 30? of gutter! And these holes are so small that they immediately become blocked with debris), and b) much worse, when water backs up in the gutter it doesn?t just run over the edge, it runs back behind the fascia and into the roofing space where wood must be rotting at this very minute! During rains, water actually runs out of the soffit vents and from behind the fascia! This would have been avoided if they had used a two-piece construction, as sketched, rather than three-piece which must have somehow been easier but a really bad idea! When I emailed pictures of water running out of soffit vents and from behind the fascia, the response I got back was "I understand from a General Contractor in your area that there not just a little rain but (3) inches in (1) hour." Yes, that is absolutely true. But I don't think that there are any conditions in which water should be seen draining OUT of the roof through soffit vents! Besides, it doesn't take 3"/hr to cause this problem. Nearly every rain produces water draining from behind the fascia. There were other problems: I was startled to get a phone message one day while the roof was wide open asking me for a $10k check the next morning (while I happened to be out of town)! This seemed a bit like hostage-holding! I understand incremental payments, but I think it would be appropriate to give some advance notice when a payment will be due. That lack of notice was consistent with virtually every other dealing with the company ? they are very poor at communicating with the customer. (Note that at no time did I ever threaten to withhold any payment. In fact, I provided the requested check one day after they asked for it, when I was back in Columbia. So the "surprise payment" schedule just seems wholly unwarranted and very unprofessional.) Did I mention finding loose metal fasteners (screws, nails) dropped all around on the driveway, lawn, etc? I have quite a nice little pile of screws, gasket-head nails, metal trimmings, etc that were found on and around the driveway and yard. Dangerous to people, tires, animals. Oh, and that screw penetrating the ceiling in the guest bedroom -- I?m not sure what to do about that one. Sticking right through the ceiling. Am I a happy customer? No, most definitely not! I did not rate "price" because, so far, I'm out lots of money and I have a leaky roof. If they ever fix the problems and finish the job, I guess the price will be fair. At least, compared to other estimates, it was reasonable. But maybe the other offerors would have given me a roof that worked the first time and so would have been a better value.
