OT Worth Less Contractors

I guess I need to vent. I hired a contractor to put a new roof on the house, I knew I was in trouble when his crew couldn't even remove the down spouts from the gutters. I finally fired him when he laid paper over all nails instead of pulling them.

This from a man that had 24 years experience. I hired him because he said he had a five man crew, so I figured they would get the job done fast. Well he showed up with kids, he was running a day care from what I could see.

I hate to say this but we need some gun control laws, my wife had to lock up all my guns, so I set here in Montana with winter coming on with no roof. It seemed like years ago to the local bar and get better help than you can find now. End of Rant

You mean to tell me that son-of-a-bitch moved from Ohio all the way to Montana and took those shit ass dummies. Yup, that's exactly what happened to my neighbor. Then he had to hire another roofer to tear off what was done and do it right.

Makes you feel any better the uk is much the same. Nothing fucks me off more than incompetence especially certified so by a trade control board. We have thoes for gas, electric and refrigeration. Nothing like a back handed monopoly!!

Last year air source heat pump. Fully working order, but just running more and more. Over here you can not buy refrigerant with out being qualified. So AC monkey turns up, puts in double the charge, then removes half then fucks off. 3 weeks later im back were i started because he clearly did f all when it came to fixing the leak. Would not mind, but none of my sources can get R410A, i can get nearly all drugs with out issue all be it for cash but fuck me if i can find a source for R410A. Now it would not piss me off as much, but the reasons dumb smucks like me can not get it is to stop systems being filled and leaking out in no time because hacks are not fixing the leaks correctly!!!

Other ones a customer who has bough a second hand machine, like £80,000 worth of machine second hand off a dealer, gets a free 12 month warren-tie. 2 months in i get a phone call, have to go in and rebuild the fucking thing fixing every bodge they have done and its not a short list at that! Test run before i go in the 2 hours we ran it we had one jam do to stuck together sheets and ran more booklets through it than he's been able to get through it in the 2 months in 2 hours! Needless to say the dealer went frigging ape shit down the phone at me about touching there machine that was under there supposed repair contract. Its the third time i have told that dealer to F off too when he has phoned me complaining about me going in and fixing stuff they have failed to and i have been employed by the customer to actually get it running!! Got a feeling it won't be the last, but they are really going to get some one hurt some day.

These days i just do everything my self its just less time and effort than using outside sources for a who bunch of things. Roofing is one of thoes things you get the little details right and you never have to even contemplate it again. re-roofed the garage 7 years back neighbours had theres done by the pro's spent a vast amount of time telling me how it had been professionally done - no hack DIY and had a proper warrentie (mine has 5 layers of torch on felt as under-felt was so cheap and i got such a deal it seamed bonkers not to double it up then double it once more for luck, full lead flashing to the house wall etc, no expense or effort spared, took me three days but above all i spent ages filling in all the gaps, there no unsupported felt on my roof just 3/8" of solid bonded felt!) There pros nailed it onto there still soggy chipboard roof, strong wind last month ripped it clean off. Some of the pieces Landed in my garden, took it back to em and enquired about how its time to see how good the pro's warren-tie is!!!

Roofs are like toilets, essential to modern day life and a item you don't want to have to fix when it goes wrong! because yets face it a roof never starts leaking on a nice dry non windy sunny day does it!

What really bothers me is I'm a little old to be roofing in the middle of winter. I had cancer treatment some years ago and don't take to the cold very well.

I've decided if you call a contractor and he can come right out you don't want him, the good one are already booked for half the year.

ronf said:

W....................

I've decided if you call a contractor and he can come right out you don't want him, the good one are already booked for half the year.

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You got it. Plus, don't bother to ask for three references as even the most worthless can give you three names and numbers of peeople who will vouch for him - his mom's neighbor, his uncle and a guy he owes money.

At least with some of the the trades (general contractor, electrical, plumbing, hvac) you have to be licensed. Others (masonry, rough and finish framing) you have to be at least somewhat competent. Roofing is the trade where anyone can do the work, and where most of the idiots wind up.

This is why I do all my own roofing and just hire some young guy to do the heavy lifting and hand me the next shingle to be nailed. I don't even trust "professionals" with a nail gun as it is too easy to overdrive the nail most of the way through the shingle if you don't hold the gun just right and have the pressure set just right.

Since your roof is already off, here are a couple of suggestions:

Go down to a local roofing supply company and ask them who they would use.

Or buy all the shingles, carefully remove the wrapper from the first bundle and follow the printed directions exactly using a helper or two. Down here there is a company that is a construction temp labor agency. I call them up, tell them I need someone with X skills for X days and the person or two I need come down my driveway on the appointed day.

There is a web site called Journal of Light Construction. Go there and become a member to get access to the archives and read the articles on roofing even if you aren't doing it yourself so you can stand there and supervise which is what I do with any contractor on my property. YouTube has some good videos FROM THE SHINGLE MANUFACTURERS that you can watch.

Good luck.
Steve

We already have the roof ready with snow and ice guard around the eves, I'm putting metal on. I've used it before so know how it goes, but this is a hip roof house with 4000 sq ft, not a two day job. The currant temp is sitting at 33 degrees. We had hail in the area this summer and all roofers are swamped until next spring, plus I'm 130 miles from any city of a decent size. I'm resigned to doing it myself, just pissed off because I never wanted to do it.

I got a new roof this year. 5 man crew and a translator, they were done in 2 days. And they carried the shingles up the ladder.

Translator barely spoke English though.

Carried shingle up the ladder? What?

Here, the shingle supplier delivers the shingles, on top of the roof, a day or two before the job starts.

Last guys I had that carried shingles laid the ladder on our copper gutters, and made them into pretzels. They offered to fix them, but I did not trust the bastards. They went out of business soon after, but had been around 30+ years. Must have been the new generation owners.

Buddy of mine had his roof done by a "reputable" contractor that was a big advertiser on the local 50KW radio station. First thing they did was to drop all the shingles (yes, it was the company) in front of the garage door. With his wife's car in the garage. And a doctor's appointment for her kid in 90 minutes. She was so pissed she moved them herself.

Shingling day comes, all the rusted out trucks are from southwestern states. The wife goes to talk to the foreman. He puts up his hand, calls the office, and has her talk to the lady in the office. The office lady then translates to the foreman. He says something and hands the phone to the wife, and the office lady translates back to English.

I won't even go into the problems with the job. My friend goes to sue, and the company has conveniently gone out of business. But the owner's daughter now conveniently runs a roofing company...

JST said:

Carried shingle up the ladder? What?

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Lol. I know. I think that's what they mean by "jobs Americans don't want to do".

Crazy mexican roofer walking in 14/12 - YouTube
Hire this guy.
I agree with what has been said if they are available immediately walk away.
I referred my roofer to a good friend,Bill calls and said holy 3 months before he can start,I said its worth waiting.
He was happy he did.

Assuming you pulled a permit.

Ask the inspector for list of who not to call and who they recommend.

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This is why I do everything myself. I'm not a carpenter. I probably do things wrong. I don't have all the tools. But, at least I can only blame myself...

Tony Quiring said:

Assuming you pulled a permit.

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Do you need a permit to replace a roof? 'Round here you only need a permit for new construction or renovations that might increase your property value.

Permits are about collecting taxes. There might be some incidental code enforcement, but $ is the real motivation.

I'm in Montana in the country, there are no permits needed.

You need a permit to replace a roof here . . . you even need one to replace your water heater.

I just finished painting the trim on my house. Took 5 weeks of evenings and weekends and I grew more and more agitated as I pressure washed, scraped and repaired trim that had been painted previously over dirt and mildew. I still have white paint chips everywhere to clean up because it just blew off the house in big chunks. It's been painted 4 times now in 20 years by three different contractors and now me.

Looks good today and I think this paint job will last 10 times longer than the previous ones. After pressure wash, then scrape, then wash with TSP, then primer, then paint.

I built this house 20 years ago when my business had fewer than 8 employees and we had four kids with one on the way . . . time sure flies! I'll also never use wood trim again, James-Hardie now makes decorative trim in all the same shapes I originally used made of concrete and fiber. I'll let the next owner deal with it.

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To keep this machining related, the radiused gutters were made from molds machined on a large 5-axis mill that I did the controls for at Janicki Industries . . . and the shingles were made on a machine with my controls from Pabco roofing, Joists from another machine running my controls from Trus-Joist . . . always buy from your customers when you can!

As previously stated, if you want a good contractor you need to plan ahead as the good ones have a long backlog.

Many places require a permit for any work that total cost is more than certian amount.

For a roof you should check as the permit includes the inspector who should be making sure it is proper.

You do not pay until passed.

Usually no permit if DIY but the value rules apply.

Neighbor was doing DIY roofing and inspector noticed in passing for other work and red tagged it.

It is due to instances as the op that the inspectors are there.

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that's one of the reasons I own a coil nailer,
and why one buys roofing material from a roofing suppler not homedepot
and have them deliver it on the roof stacked on the ridge line.
they send out 2 or 3 guys with a truck with a conveyor on it
one guy on the roof one guy feeds the conveyor
worth every penny they charge for delivery