Roofwerks

We chose Roofwerks — after getting bids from three other roofers — because of their very good Angie’s List reviews and the fact that they were Certainteed Certified. Though I believe the roof itself (and gutters) to have been well installed, other issues with the company’s integrity and professionalism would prohibit me from ever using them again or recommending them.

Roowerks was in the middle, pricewise, with Baker Roofing’s bid substantially higher. The crew showed up right on time and quickly stormed the roof (I would not advise staying home for this – sounds like Armageddon). The main roof (and the flat roof) work was done, as promised, in one day. Both roofs look very good and seem to be well installed. There were numerous small issues that I suppose should be expected with this kind of work — hole in one bedroom ceiling, torn up interior skylight trim, junction box pulled off with cable left hanging, cigarette butts and other debris dropped into the house, 60+ nails in the front yard and driveway. It took multiple requests and over two months to get the ceiling hole, skylight trim and hanging cable fixed.

The gutters were well-installed (and apparently larger than the 5” we were quoted). The repaired soffit and fascia were painted white, despite our existing trim being almond. This took some back and forth to have repainted, but it was done. The crew used our contractor’s dumpster to dispose of their debris, despite being asked not to the day before, and haul-off being part of the contract.

The problem we had was with the soffit/fascia repair — not the quality of the work, but the charges. The repair work was quoted at $11/ft for soffit and fascia repair. We mistakenly believed this to be for soffit and fascia repair. In fact, we were billed $11/ft for soffit repair and $11/ft for fascia repair. Possibly our mistake, but something to watch out for. We also were originally billed $11/ft for sub-fascia repair (not mentioned in the bid). We believed this was excessive ($88 for an unpainted board costing under $10), and Roofwerks did reduce that charge to $8/ft. Still excessive, in my opinion.

We were out of town and not there to supervise this work (a fact they were aware of), and were shocked to receive a bill for 300 feet of repair work at $11/ft. (Baker had specifically estimated 70 feet in their bid.) The bill did not include any detail. When we asked our project manager to come out and show us the 300 feet, he did, and indicated approximately 30 feet that had been painted over, but we were able to determine were not replaced (backside, viewed from porch, not painted and clearly old boards) . Despite this indisputable evidence, we had to have another meeting (another morning off work) with the project manager, one of the owners and the head of the gutter crew — to go through the same exercise of being told boards had been replaced that clearly were not.

Though Roofwerks adjusted the bill down for those 30 feet and expressed their appreciation for us “working with” them, there was no apology for this obvious deception, and we cannot help but be left to wonder how much of the remaining 270 feet (much of which is hidden) was actually replaced and indeed, how many of the 27 sheets of plywood sheathing ($55/sheet) were actually replaced on the roof. Maybe all of it, but, understandably, we have our doubts. They also repeatedly neglected to include the $750 cash/check discount agreed upon in the contract. We thought we were saving money using Roofwerks over Baker, but believe, in the end, it cost us more. Overall, our experience with Roofwerks — especially the lack of contrition over obvious misrepresentation — left us with a bad taste.

Maybe all, but the experience — especially the lack of contrition — left us with a bad taste.