Eavestrough and flat roofing on front porch
I want to share my experience with Better Contracting. They installed flat roofing on my front porch and replaced the eavestroughs on the main roof of my home on Dec 23, 2006, that was 5 months after giving me an estimate. I patiently waited since I've given them a deposit. How I wished I never had to contact them again but 4-5 months later, eaves corners started leaking. After repeatedly calling them, they repaired it. We've had more rain that average this past sping and summer. So eaves were leaking again especially the front corner plus the downspout and the joint connecting to porch eaves. I called them requesting a repair on July 30th, imagine it's almost winter and still waiting for them to fix it. I had a second opinion from [competitor] but they don't do repairs. I had the eaves cleaned last week prior to it freezing and the guy told me that it was poorly done,and commented that the joint was installed by someone who obviously does not know what he's doing. He said that even the flat roofing was not properly sloped to drain water away from the house, well I know that now. I kind of noticed that mine looked different from my neighbour but I am not the complaining type. He can't believe that these guys are from Mike Holmes website and who are suppose to MAKE IT RIGHT. This time, I've had it with this contractor and have given them 48 hours to fix it otherwise I'll file a complaint to BBB. I have left messages at their office but did not hear from them. I emailed Steve Graves and Mike Holmes but I don't know if they will do something about it or even honour the 5 yr warranty on the contract. I just want homeowners to be aware that even if you think you've done careful research, you can still be ripped off. I'll keep you posted if there's any resolution to this.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $4,000.00
- Company Response
We have completed a full inspection of the work completed for this customer. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the flat roof even though the eavestrough cleaner fancies himself an expert. Yes, the eavestrough corner was leaking due to the deterioration of the caulking. Having your eavestrough cleaned and the caulking replaced is part of the maintenance required to all eavestrough at least once a year. Maybe if the eavestrough cleaner was more focused on his own job he would have caught that. Regardless, we caulked it anyhow. Yes there was a leak at the downspout - the elbow was disconnected and lying on the ground! We do give the eavestrough cleaner credit for cleaning out the downspouts as some companies say they will but never actually do it. We do ask that in the future you replace the elbows when you are done. We also replaced the elbow for this customer since we were already there.
Point of interest: We are now out about $300 for the cost of sending out a crew to fix something that we were not responsible for in the first place. We did the right thing by fixing it for the customer anyhow yet they have not bothered to update their posting like they promised. Their rating also continues to affect our overall rating. Fair system? You decide.