# Contractor Installed Black&White Roof!



## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

We hired a lisc. bonded contractor to put a roof on our home.

The home is an 1800 square feet ranch home, plus has a two car garage. Is not steep. 

His crew of 7 guys tore off two layers of roof, laid plywood, and laid new roof all in 11 hours. This seems like an awfully short time to do a good job. What do you think?

More important though, is the fac that our roof is not BLACK AND WHITE. The roofer put slate grey roofing on most of the house, which we picked from a catalog that he gave us. BUT he put this ugly white looking stuff on our patio, and the white stuff goes up along the roof a bit too. It makes our house look like a shack!

We contacted the contractor and asked why our roof is two colors. His response was that with the roofing material we picked that white was his onlin option. 

We said, look you told us to pick a color. We picked slate grey. You NEVER told us that our roof would be slate grey and white! We told you at the start that the house was being reroofed so that we can sell it. And, we told you that we wanted the patio to look nice - not with any ugly rubber or unmatching roofing.

His answer was that the contract did not specify that our roof would be one color - so basically tough crap for us.

I think that he should either:
A) Make our roof all matching AND make sure that our 30 year warantee still stands per our contract.
OR
B) Refund our money so that we can get another contractor to do the job right.

My Dad told me to call the contractors board.

What is your opinion on this. Is it reasonable for us as homeowners to expect one color roof? Does this guy have a leg to stand one? Is it reasonable for him to give us two different colors for our roof?


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Please show us pictures of the problem.

You said liscenced? What is he liscenced for and did you see proof of that liscence? When you say bonded, what is he bonded for? A bond is usually an insurance policy that a contractors insurance carrier issues. When I say I am bonded, I am not lyeing but most consumers have no idea what that means. I have issued a $10k bond to the state of IL and various other municipalities in order to operate my business.

I wouldn't say it's an awfully short period of time. The production is faster than my own crews production but not by a whole heck of alot.

online option?

I am not sure how steep the patio is but if it is too low slope, shingles are not an option. You say rubber but I assume you mean modified bitumen? Typically if the roof is 3/12 pitch or less you don't want to install shingles. 

If you wern't happy with his work, why did you pay?


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

He is lisc with the CCB. I have checked out his lisc. $15K bond - $100K insurance.

The patio is flat BUT. Before he did the roof the roof was all one color. He put on black shingles and white rubber looking stuff. When he asked us to select a color, and we chose black shingles, he never told us that would mean that we would have a roof of two different color.

Furthermore he today he said that had we selected grey shingles from his other catalog we would have had a one color roof. Therefore one color roof is totally possible. 

We are not roofers. When he told us to select a color and we selected grey, we assumed that was for the entire roof. We feel that he should have told us that he intended to put on two colors. OR he should have suggested the other roofing material so that we could have one color.

I even told him at the start of the project the importance of having the entire roof looking consistent.

Yes it is bitumen. But bitumen is available in colors other than white. As I said, I believe any reasonable person would expect that when hiring a contractor to reroof the entire house that the contractor would use one color. And any reasonable contractor would notify a consumer if they were not planning to do so.


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

I forgot to mention that we have only paid half of the money. BUT if he does not fix the roof we are stuck with either having someone else fix it and losing our warranty. Or being stuck with a grey/white roof.

The bottom line is that I want one color roof with a 30 year warrantee and I don't want to pay any more than the $8,500 that we originally agreed on.

Also I'm kind of paranoid about always paying my bills. So it upsets me that he thinks we owe him money. I'm afraid that he may try to put a lien on the house as we are trying to sell it or something. 

We just want this all cleared up - bills paid - roof nice - so that we can sell our house. We planned on putting it on the market in three weeks.


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## Glasshousebltr (Feb 9, 2004)

Wine wine wine, I'm sorry, but it's a flat roof on a patio, I think your making a mountian out of a molehill. But if it "really" bothers you, just have him lay another color over the white. But I think you should negotiate the money. It cost to be too dam picky.

Ok.....lets hear it Grump. (gotjacked, the following posts will be Grumpy laying into me for my lack of customer relations)

Bob


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

If the patio is flat, you can not put shingles on it. He could have put on a black modified instead of white. 

It is his fault for not explaining you that the roofs would be different colors, and perhaps suggesting you choose another color where he could match... however singles on a flat roof are not a good idea.

I'm not so sure your porch roof has a 30 year warranty. Usually 10 year is the base warranty on a modified botumen roof. YOu probably have 30 years on your shingles only.

LOL Glass I agree with you however I'm saying the same thing you are saying, just I am saying it more tactfully. Personally I wouldn't have been in this situation because I'd have explained that though there are multiple colors available in the bitumen, the selection is limited. Also having said that if the porch is only a square or two, I'd lay it over for free with another color of the customers choice just to have a happy customer because my reputation is more important than the few hundred bucks it would cost to lay over.


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

You don't understand. My patio is flat . . . BUT the white part goes up on to the roof and it is visible.

All we want is the contractor to make the color match. We don't care if he lays over. He is not willing to do a thing. That is not reasonable on his part.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

I think we do understand, and I think we'd understand better with pictures. I agree that is not reasonable on his part.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

gotjacked? said:


> You don't understand. My patio is flat . . . BUT the white part goes up on to the roof and it is visible.
> 
> All we want is the contractor to make the color match. We don't care if he lays over. He is not willing to do a thing. That is not reasonable on his part.


Well, the good news is that he hasn't been paid in full. Most people who have a problem seem to be even worse off because the contractor has been paid. You need to let him know that you aren't happy, and you aren't paying him until you are. The very worst you should come out is paying for 1/2 of the cost of doing it the way you want it.


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## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

Grumpy said:


> my reputation is more important than the few hundred bucks it would cost to lay over.


Gotjacked? - Do you see what this says? It costs a few hundred bucks to do the layover (don't confuse contractor's cost with customer's price).

If it were me I'd call the roofer and tell him that we can either find a resoltion that addresses both my concerns and his interests or I'll use the outstanding 50% (+/- $4,300) to hire someone else to fix the problem and when it's done I'll send you whatever is left.


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## Roofer1 (Nov 29, 2004)

*I am with the homeowner even though I support Contractors*

In this Case the contractor should fess up and give the homeowner a new job. Case in point


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

Yes - we asked him to fix it. He refuses to do so. He also say that the warantee is invalid if anyone else touches the roof. We told him we will not pay until it is fixed. 

He is filing suit and putting a lien on the house (the work was just completed on Tuesday). BTW - he hasn't even bothered to come out and see the work that his crew did. AND we checked out some of his excuses (code. manufacturers rules. etc) for not fixing the roof and found that they were all untrue statements.

Since he is filing suit and putting a lien on the house we are very stressed. I guess that we have to get an attorney. Kind of stupid over something that he could easily fix.


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

PipeGuy said:


> If it were me I'd call the roofer and tell him that we can either find a resoltion that addresses both my concerns and his interests or I'll use the outstanding 50% (+/- $4,300) to hire someone else to fix the problem and when it's done I'll send you whatever is left.


I would like to do that Grumpy. But the contractor says that if we lay anything over what he has don that our warantee from him becomes invalid. We are not sure if this is true or not. What do you think?


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Roofer1 said:


> In this Case the contractor should fess up and give the homeowner a new job.


 Before I go so far as to agree with you I want to see pictures. Though I am leaning to that side of agreeing.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

gotjacked? said:


> I would like to do that Grumpy.


Actually Pipe said that 

Yes I would believe that is true, since I void my warranty if there is any changes or damages done to my work by another company or person. This is pretty common. 

Personally neither of you have a leg to stand on in court. I say this because the color of the porch wasn't specified in the contract so it's your word against his. Only the lawyers will win. Time to call your lawyer since he called his. It's all over now, you both lose.


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## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

gotjacked? said:


> We hired a lisc. bonded contractor...we picked from a catalog that he gave us. My Dad told me to call the contractors board.
> Is it reasonable for us as homeowners to expect one color roof? Is it reasonable for him to give us two different colors for our roof?


What does 'we' imply. Is it you and your Dad or you and a 'significant other'. If it's not your Dad, what does the S/O think? 

It's reasonable for a homeowner to expect a a one color roof unless the contractor tells you otherwise. I'm GUESSING that the burden is on him, when it comes to the contract, to specify otherwise. 

As to the warranties, no one is going to warrant something he doesn't get paid in full for. The manufacturer's warranty for the materials will remain valid provided that the materials are properly installed and, only if required by the manufacturer, a 'certified' contractor did the installation.

If your so stressed out, have some fun - file a $17.3M 'pain and suffering' counter-suit in consideration of the emotional distress you've been subjected to. I hear Mark Garegos is looking for some work.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

In all seriousness - what warranty is he going to void? There are 3 warranties here, the material warranty with the manufacturer, which he has nothing to do with. If the installation was done to manufacturers specs that warranty is intact no matter what he wants to say. The other warranty is his labor warranty which I'm sure is not more than a year. Do you honestly think this guy would even honor his labor warranty with you after what you know of him? There is another warranty of merchantability which involves him doing an installation that is incorrect, that warranty has no time limit and he can do nothing to void it. The problem is getting him to honor it would mean a court battle.

All in all if you are going to be selling the house, who the hell cares about the warranty. The manufacturers warranty on the shingles is all that matters. If that was voided you would have to disclose to the buyers, it won't be voided as long as he did a proper installation and as far as you know at this point he did.

At this point if he is going to lein the property just take it before the court and let them decide. If the judge rules in your favor the lein will go away.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Mike Finley said:


> At this point if he is going to lein the property just take it before the court and let them decide. If the judge rules in your favor the lein will go away.


Another Yachy payment for jacked's lawyer.


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## gotjacked? (Dec 15, 2004)

Tried to get pics today but it was too dark and foggy this morning. Will go to work late so that we can get pics tommorrow.

He left two very obnoxious messages on our voice mail, full of threats. Says he will not pay his suppliers or his workers. That he will pay no one and that he will lien our property. I wonder what he did with the $4500 we paid him?

Have a lawyer now. The lawyer's words were, "this guy has really stepped in it". Said he will give the guy a call in the morning to try to get him to calm down. Wants to avoid a battle. But if the guy wants to battle the attorney thinks that given his obnoxious behavior that he would lose to a jury hands down.


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## Hammertime (Aug 8, 2004)

I don't understand something... What warranty are you worried about if you're selling the house. If I am getting this right...The finished look of a roof is customer satisfaction which is part of doing a job. I haven't seen a picture yet, but with any job..If a customer doesn't like the finished results within reason, again, within reason then it's the contractors responsibility to make good. 

Now, It didn't specify in the contract that their wouldn't be two colors. Which means that it didn't specify there would be two colors. If one would read the contract it would be easy to figure that there would be one color. I woujld have to think that any judge would side with the homeowner on the 2 color problem Being that the colors are so different. If they were two dark colors or two light colors that didn't exactly match but were close then I could see his fight. But you're talking of two opposite colors standing out against one another and the fact that the white porch roof didn't end at the porch that, in fact, it started up the main roof. I haven't seen the job but sounds to me the contractor pulled a fast one or someone made a grave error and when realized it continued on with the right color. 

Before you contacted a lawyer, did you contact your lawyer on the contractors word he hired one or his lawyer actually sent you a letter?

It seems to me that you need to have something in writing certified and regular mail telling the contractor that you weren't happy with the job becaue it could be easily manipulated that you were hostile and that's why the contractor didn't come back. So, I'm sure your lawyer will handle it now only at a great deal more money. 

In the end. I believe the contractor is still entitled to more money, just not all of it. I would call other roofing companies and get their opinions and estimates on what the cost would be to fix the roof the right way. Perhaps other people in the trade can shed more light on the problems at hand. Perhaps not, but, at least you'll have a general idea of the cost to fix it. to use in discussions and in court later on your behalf.


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