I should have written this review years ago because I have used Tortorice Contractors 3 times. Their work is excellent and the first two times I felt that I got good value for money. The last time I felt overcharged.
The first time I used Tortorice was several years ago to replace the shingles on my roof. They made a special effort to get vented drip-edge, a product they were unfamiliar with but which had been recommended by a well-respected roofer in Michigan who is a personal friend. The price was fair, the work was done efficiently and the site was cleaned very well.
In the summer of 2015 three shingles on my ridge vent blew off in the big windstorm. Considering that other houses in my neighborhood lost as much as 50% of their shingles I knew I had a quality roof. I hired Tortorice to replace the shingles. At that time they had a minimum 1 hour job at a cost of $139. It only took 15 minutes to replace my 3 shingles so the workman spent the rest of the hour putting additional adhesive under all of the other ridge shingles and generally checking out the whole roof. Again, I felt I had gotten good work for a fair price.
This year I needed 3 new gable vents for my attic. I found that Tortorice's minimum job is now 2 hours at a cost of $289. Extra hours are $90 each. That was OK because I knew the job would take more than an hour. Several rows of aluminum siding had to be removed to do the job properly. The workman arrived at 1:50 (10 minutes ahead of schedule,) looked at what needed to be done and gave me an estimate of "as high as $500-600." That was OK as I didn't know at that time how long the job would take. I didn't ask for a written estimate as previous experience led me to trust them.
The workman also told me that he would have to go out and buy the new vents and return to their office to get a taller ladder. My housing development is only about a mile from Tortorice's office so I would have thought they would have known that almost all of the houses are 2 stories. He left at 2:00, returned at 2:45 with the vents and ladder and got right to work. He finished at 4:30 having spent 1 hour 45 minutes actually working.
When the bill arrived it was for $599 for the entire job, no breakdown of parts and labor costs. I phoned the office but the receptionist was unable to give me a breakdown. She transferred me to the workman's voice mail. We spoke later and he observed that the cost was within the estimate. True, but I still wanted a breakdown. Either they were charging me for the time that the workman was buying the vents and getting the ladder or there was a very high mark-up on the vents. It turned out that I was paying for the extra 45 minutes while he was getting the vents and ladder, which put the job over 2 hours. I was told that was company policy.
I have dealt with a lot of contractors in my time, including a major restoration of the family homestead in Michigan that involved 4 contractors and took 13 weeks. In all other cases the workers arrived with the tools and materials needed for the job. No other contractor has ever charged for the time to get anything. So I do feel that Tortorice's policy is unusual.
Would I hire them again? Maybe. I stress that they do excellent work. However, in future I would ask for a written estimate of time and cost of materials. read more
