After we wrapped up the office and remaining window project we thought our next up would be our main bathroom and then the kitchen. BUT as life is lately: things changed, decided to put interior renos on hold, and we shifted our focus on the exterior because it really needs some love. So, from top to bottom, Phase One: WE ARE GETTING A NEW ROOF!
Seemed simple but this turned out to be anything but that. When I started writing this post right at the beginning of the project I had hopes in this being an easy and fun job in which I could happily share. But this will be more a journey of what we learned and what to watch out for. We would never want anyone to go through the same experience.
I’ll first start off with ONE of our first hurdles: In preparation for the new roof we also finally addressed the stupid, slanty-old-chimney stack that house’s our furnace pipe run through on the back of the house. That thing has been irking us for years but we kept putting it off. We went back and forth on what the best option would be: remove it to the roofline or repair and bring it down to shorter height. We did not want to remove the entire thing to the basement level since that’s a huge project and I hope to have exposed brick in the kitchen one day. We chose to do the latter. The whole experience with that did NOT go well (I won’t go into detail) but the company we hired had to come out THREE times to repair this. It didn’t look too terrible but the flashing was just awful and mortar just wasn’t sticking. At that point we decided to just take it down to the roofline but the same company wanted to charge us an additional 2k to do that job. Thankfully we have awesome neighbors who offered to help us (when I say us I mean, Danny) do this ourselves. Turned out to be super simple with just a little research on parts but couldn’t finish until the roof was done.
THE ROOF
Back to the roof: About a year ago we started getting quotes for the roof because we knew this enviably would need to be replaced. Initial quotes were pretty basic but as we got further in it turned out that we need to do a FULL tear off and start from scratch. After meeting with FIVE roofers we settled on working with All Surface Roofing. Peter, the estimator seemed to be super honest and non-pushy. He even told us a year ago that we didn’t need the new roof right away and should hold out until plywood prices dropped. We continued to speak with him over the course of months and felt like we were making the right decision to go with them. They weren’t the cheapest quote we received but also wasn’t the highest. The company checked out, they had a good reviews, and had no hits against them. Everything was going smooth until the first day…
First red flag: the crew was late and they were slightly confused of the scope of the job. It was also unclear to us who was the lead. All of them showed up in their own cars and clothes rather than company branded but I didn’t think too much into it knowing it’s a messy job and we figured they were just the demo crew and not the actual roofers.
The tear off was INSANE. Having been home for one major home renovation earlier this year, I knew it was going to be loud but this has hit whole new levels. Noise coming from ABOVE is way more terrifying. At one point they were knocking and scrapping so hard that a small surface mount light upstairs fell off. Just as we suspected, the tear off proved to be a lot more work than a normal roof change due to all the cedar shake underneath. It was a mess outside and we are STILL finding nails. The crew also was not following the weather and tore off the entire front right of the house before a downpour so water got into our attic.
The entire job was quoted to be done in 3-4 days. By the end of the 4th day shingles had just started to be put onto the house and Danny’s studio hadn’t even been touched. They ended up having to come on the weekend and into the following week. The crew started to thin because they needed to be on other scheduled jobs so work slowed down even more. Every day they showed they would say they were only a few hours away from being done but the entire day would go by with no end in sight. One of the days they left around noon so we figured they went to lunch. By 3pm they were still not back. Danny and I had a complete freak out thinking they just took off. After calling a few times to just be told “We’ll call you back” and never did, the two-person crew comes back letting us know they left to work another job! Zero communication or consideration for us. We understand things take longer than quoted but this whole thing just started to become intolerable.
At this point we started noticing a lot of errors and poor craftsman ship. When looking from the back of the yard we could see one of the edge vents was crooked, fascia boards were cut so poorly they looked like a child did it, materials were missing, etc. Danny and I started to compile a list of items and after many emails and calls they finally sent over the “Project Manager” which we had never seen yet. He kept saying everything will be fixed “tomorrow”. Giving him the benefit of the doubt we agreed. A few more days had passed and still the job was not done errors continued. They even removed gutters, bent them in half and threw them away so we had NO gutters until who knows when.
By DAY EIGHT, we had had it. We were able to get the owner on the phone and they admitted that this crew was actually sub-contracted and not from their company at all. It was crushing news. The amount of trust for this company completely shattered. The owner agreed to create a detailed punch list that must be followed by THEIR “home crew” to repair/finish and for us sign off on.We appreciated that but nothing was going to fix the amount of emotional stress and miss work brought by this. We even ended up firing them for the gutter portion of the project and hired someone else though it would be a month out because we could not handle anymore errors.
After weeks the roof was complete and we haven’t had any leaks - yet. There are still some issues/damages to the house that were created from lack of the crew caring or paying attention but everything is fixable, as frustrating as it is to do.
If you’re planning on getting a new roof or have to do a tear off such as this, here are some lessons learned:
ASK MORE! Who will be there day of the project? Get their name before-hand. Ask if it will be their crew or do they sub-contract. Get that in writing in your contract or via email.
Take a million photos. I thought I took a lot but there were things I missed. Take picture of materials, labels, everything.
Get a list of materials is possible. Get a break down of costs prior to signing. If they can’t provide it, don’t hire them.
Do they cover damages to windows? (One of our new ones got damaged - they ended up sending a check for it… $900+)
I know these seem obvious and we thought we covered all corners but we missed things. I took this all really personally because this was our home, we are trying to improve it, and this was a very expensive project (close to $25k at the end - thanks supply chain issues!) and you should only have to do a roof on your home once, hopefully. But, what is done is done, we learned A LOT of valuable lessons, and the new roof at least does look decent and has improved our home. Here are some more before/after photos. Some going back to before the windows even.
GUTTERS
A month after the roof we finally got our new gutters installed. We hired Armada’s Exteriors after hearing about a good experience our friends had with them and it was the best choice we made in this whole project. They went up easily and the crew was professional and kind. White gutters is not our ideal with the house right now but leaves us with a blank canvas for when we are ready to paint.
We decided to install rain chains rather than a downspout and I am so happy about these. They add more personality to our home, make a calming noise when rain flows through them, and fun to watch. I know they won’t stay shiny and copper forever but love them for now.
We still have a long way to go to making this home where we want but we have already come far. Going to take the next 6+ months to chill on major projects, save, and prepare for Phase 2: Siding Repairs & Paint!
