Sam The Handyman

Sam is no handyman. I hired him to clean my eaves/downspouts and install eaves covers.

First rain fall, I had a HUGE leak which I later found out that Sam had forgotten to clean my downspouts. I called him and he couldn't come out to fix his mess for several weeks. This resulted in weeks of maintaining the eaves so I don't have a flood in my basement.

I eventually hired someone else to clean my downspouts as I couldn't wait any longer for Sam. This new guy had told me that there were spaces between the eaves covers. I called Sam on it and he eventually came out to re-install pieces that were missing. This is something that I shouldn't have to do if it was done properly in the first place. What is the purpose of putting eaves covers if there is going to be gaps!

One year later, I had a roofer come out to do some repair work, only to find out yet again that there were STILL gaps between the covers. I could not believe it, yet again someone who got on my roof had told me the same story. I then called Sam back to tell him about my findings, and he said he would not come back to do any more work. Beware, this guy does a half fast job and does NOT guarantee his work.

We hired Sam to do some work after speaking with him and really enjoying his laid back approach. We've found a lot of contractors to be quite pushy but instantly liked Sam.

Unfortunately the work turned out to be very poor. We had him take a look at our skylight which appeared to have leaked in the past but which we had never had a problem with. He said that installing a rubber flashing all around the skylight extending out by a couple of feet would ensure that we never had problems. Sounded fine to me so we had him do the skylight work as well as some much needed caulking around a door and window as well as repairing a piece of siding that had come loose.

So as for the work...

The caulking was terribly sloppy. There were giant gobs everywhere and smears of it on adjacent flashings. His siding repair job consisted of drilling a couple of big silver screws in to hold it in place. And the skylight (which hadn't leaked in the several months we had owned the house)began to leak a few months later.

We called Sam who went back up on the roof and said it was probably our roof that was the problem but that he would put some more caulking around this rubber flashing he'd installed. The damage to our ceiling below the skylight was dismissed as "That's easy for you to fix". Anyway, fast forward a couple of weeks to the next big rainfall and voila... more leaking!!

Now I'm a pretty handy person but was very busy with work and things at the time we had the work done. I didn't really have time to do it myself figured that a professional might do a better job than I. A professional job was not what we got. Frustrated by the latest leak and not wanting to rely on someone else's opinion any longer, I go up to the roof to see what is happening and take a good look at this rubber flashing. The rubber flashing is itself leaking and trapping and holding water underneath it.

Further, the real problem (and a fairly obvious one) is that the skylight has a ridge where the plexiglass goes into the framework of the skylight. That ridge was collecting water and has only a few chunks of old dried up caulking remaining. Water was running off the dome into this ridge, through the housing and into our house.

I ripped out all of the rubber flashing he installed that was trapping water and recaulked the plexiglass and wow... no more leaks!!

All in all, we got taken by this guy. Although he is very pleasant, his work is sloppy and unprofessional. I could not recommend him to anyone.

Sam came out to my house last August to fix a leak caused by an improper skylight installation. He charged $280 to go up on the roof and repair the leak. I wasted my money; don't waste yours. Sam told me the problem was straightforward and he planned to be on the roof 30 minutes;he was up there almost an hour because my sister went up to monitor the work. He would have done a minimal job of caulking around the area but she insisted he apply Gold Bond to do a proper seal. His work was esthetically sloppy but he did come back to fix it when we called him on the same day to say we could see big globs of caulking on the skylight. Sam said he guaranteed his work before he left. In April, the roof started leaking again and we tried to call him back but he had blocked our number. We used another phone to get in contact and he did finally come back. Again, my sister went on the roof once it became clear that his "guarantee" meant he intended to just apply some caulking. She insisted he put a little Gold Bond, which he did grudgingly, but assured us the roof was fine, the skylight sealed and there would be no further problems. One week later, the problem is worse than ever and water is literally pouring through the wall we paid him to repair last August. I have now called in a roofing company recommended on Holmes on Homes and hope they can repair the problem. The $280 spent with some was money competely wasted. Don't waste yours.

Had a leak on our metal roof and after a few estimates from roofing companies that suggested we replace our skylights ($$$), Sam was able to come in, correctly identify the problem as flashing/water direction issue and correct the problem immediately.
Sam is honest, fast and very knowledgeable.

I have learned that although he calls himself a general handyman he really specializes in exterior home issues.
If you have leaks, call Sam!

I'm surprised Sam is not on homestars yet, so I hope this review read to give us homeowners another great handyman resource!

(From his web page)
- Skylights, install and repair.
- Eaves, repair and install
- Water leaks, fixing all types of roof, basement and dormer leaks
- Installing and repairing sidings, vents and house wind turbines
- House thermal proofing, sealing houses, doors, windows for new and old homes
- Basic plumbing, basic electric and assorted handyman jobs around home
- Full home fixture before sale as to pass buyers testing