Metro Roofing replaced the flat roof on my downtown house in early 2006.
I was always unsure of the quality of the job. My roof was replaced in the middle of the winter when daylight hours are very short. Before signing the contract, I asked if this would be an issue, and was told not to worry about it - there would be plenty of daylight hours in which to get the work done. To my surprise, when the work day came, the first guy didn't show up until after 10 AM. It was about 10:45 before the rest of the crew arrived and started work. 2 good daylight hours were lost. Sure enough, at about 4:30 PM when the sun was setting, I climbed the ladder and took a look at the roof - it was about half done. Joists were still exposed, and patches of the old roof were still attached. So, about half of my roof was built in complete darkness. I've always had a sinking feeling about that. And I was right. The roof has been leaking since day 1.
The roofers weren't even the true disappointment. The sheet metal crew who capped the parapet wall are the real reason for the bad review. They came a few days after the roofing crew. My girlfriend was watching through the window as they were arriving, unloading and prepping the work. She was appalled to see one of them relieving himself on the tree in our yard. Not a good first impression. But they did their work and I never thought much about it.
After the work was done and because of my concerns, I had a home inspector take a look at the roof. He was shocked that he was looking at a new roof. He noted several bare spots where the tar was exposed with no gravel protection, and that there were a few large areas of water ponding. He pointed out that there was no Gravel Stop at the edge and that over time, my eaves would fill with gravel (which they did). He also noted a lack of caulking on the parapet cap. Plus, since the site cleanup was done in the dark, my yard was a mess of gravel and bits of old roofing. I called Tony and asked that he come back to inspect the work for himself. He never did. He sent the foreman from his roofing crew who put down a bit more gravel and did a more thorough clean up.
The parapet cap was constructed in several pieces, joined together with folded seams. None of the seams were caulked. I'm not sure if this is normal, but I am sure it contributed to its failure. I'm not a roofer, and I don't have access to the CRCA specifications, but my eyes and my common sense tell me that the fasteners they used to attach the sheet metal were too short.
So about a year ago, there was a really windy day. And on that day, about half of my parapet cap came unfastened. Some of it fell back on to the roof, but a few pieces actually blew off and on to the ground. I don't need to tell you what a tragedy that would have been if someone had been passing by, or in the yard when a 4 foot long, sharp edged piece of 26-gauge sheet metal came flying down. We were lucky.
The roof came with a 10 year warranty. So I emailed Metro Roofing to ask them to come and take a look at the damage and fix it. I got no response. A month later, I called Metro Roofing and left a detailed voice message. Again, I got no response. I called once again and left another voice mail, this time pretending to be a new customer. Finally someone called back and I got to explain the problem in person. I heard a lot of excuses about wind speeds and CRCA specs, but they said they would call back and arrange for an appointment to come and see the damage. They never called back. I called again, this time even offering to pay a service fee, and was again told that someone would call to make an appointment. AGain, big surprise - no call, no contact from them. I even went to their location in Ajax to see if I could talk to someone in person. It's an empty office. I should have known. I have contacted Metro Roofing six times over the course of a year to give them a chance to rectify this problem and they have pretty much ignored me. I'm left with no alternative but to post this review and warn people that METRO ROOFING DOES NOT HONOUR THEIR WARRANTY.
I see a lot of 10 star reviews here, and I'm genuinely happy that some people have had a good experience. But a company or contractor has to be judged on how they handle problems, as well as the easy stuff. Metro Roofing failed to handle my problem. Even if it turned out that the work was done to spec, and that the roof would have failed anyway, it doesn't change the fact that no one from Metro Roofing ever came to inspect the work that I was initially unhappy with, and no one has ever come to look at the failure of the sheet metal work. Unacceptable.
