We started an addition for our house and decided to build it ourselves. The one thing that we didn't want to do was the roof as it needed to happen quickly to avoid water damage to our existing house we were living in. It was a big project.
I spoke to Ben and Guin Giles and they seemed awesome. Ben would talk about all the experience he had ad nauseum and Guin always knew the right thing to say to assure the customer in their choice. Their quote was the same dollar amount as the others we looked at and they were local. The project would total over $80,000 and the one thing we were promised is that they took water damage "very seriously" and the roof would go on quickly. We were told by Ben he could have a crew of 9 out to ensure this would happen. The roof consisted of new trusses, sheathing, underlayment, metal, new fascia, and soffits. Roof size was just over 5,000 square feet. The contract we signed stated 2-6 weeks of time for the roofing and we figured in 2-3 weeks of time for the truss work even though they had stated in email 1.5 weeks.
The progress went very slowly. It took them a month to do just the truss system on the house. We spent Easter Sunday up until 2AM with buckets of water pouring in from our attic floor down our ceiling fans. We had water damage to our ceilings throughout the existing house, damage to oriental carpets, and ruined our ceiling fans. Ben from Giles was there too until 2AM trying to stop the water from above and this actually came across to me as they cared. This however is where it started going down hill. Ben said he would be there the next day and never showed up. No phone call, no text message, nothing. Their employees showed up to try and finish up, but no check in from the owners for days. We ended up telling them we were withholding the 5th of the 5 payments until the water damage stopped. 4 weeks later, they had the plywood on the roof and underlayment, but we were still having water damage. It quickly became apparent the communication problems between Ben and Guin. Even their employees made comments about it in a joking way. So over 8 weeks into the project, they left to go do another roof that they were scheduled for as they had projects overlapping. They really never came back. We were notified to contact their attorney at 8.5 weeks into the job who informed us they were considering the contract null and void.
They still have $15,000 of our money for supplies and we are having to file with the Attorney General to get it back. They did deliver some of what we paid for, but not all of it and we can't use the supplies sent now as they walked off the job.
Worst yet, the building department failed multiple items of the work they did and now we have to pay someone to fix what they did wrong.
I would NOT recommend using this company at all. According to several attorneys, they violated their own contract. They cut and ran when they figured out they messed it up so bad that they probably weren't going to make any money on the job.
I'm sure they will respond that they can't address this until the legal matters are resolved, and we look forward to that resolution as well.
UPDATE!!
We spent over two years fighting this company in the courts for damages caused by them. We had what they called a contract for the work to be done and they walked without finishing the contracted work. It was a large job for a new roof with a new truss system, new sheathing and metal roofing.
We started getting water damage to the existing house half way into the project and held the last of the $5K contracted labor payments until the water damage stopped (contract had a balloon payment at the end for the other half of the bill). They did make some effort to stop the water damage, but ended up going to another job and never came back, even after we paid half the last payment to keep things going.
They sent us an IM and said our contract was void, as we didn't make the last labor payment, even though it was agreed upon before the build started that the final payment may be delayed, as well as the fact that the house was still not watertight when they left.
After deposing both the owners, we learned of some very shady dealings along with the fact that they kept $6K of our supply money instead of purchasing supplies with it, so for all purposes, the last payment was overpaid by thousands of dollars.
On top of that, we paid around $30K more to fix their work. Entire areas of the roof had to be removed and put back together. According to court documents, when we paid the supply money up front, they transferred most of that deposit into their personal bank account and were using it for personal purchases including iTunes, and dining out. Somehow itunes streaming is a supply they needed for our job, because when we give them money to cover the cost of supplies - that doesn't mean their own operating expenses, or multiple meals at Bellini's read more