Up On The Roof (Day 1)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ksNvivbEI

                                                  

(Click on the above link for musical accompaniment!)

There they are... up on the roof.  The start of our sky-high adventure. I'm surprised this photograph came out at all as we were huddled down in Bob's studio, avoiding the inevitable noise and danger- like partial sheets of old festering plywood flying off the roof and landing stuck in the ground. It looked like a hurricane had hit!

But I'm ahead of myself. The first thing that happened was a truly gigantic truck arrived and somehow wedged its way up our driveway to drop off... our new roof in bundles.

Oh boy! I'm like a little kid! I LOVE when huge equipment comes to call. But in all honesty, Bob and I agreed that our roof could have come on a small pick up truck because here's the delivery:

That's it! It sat for a few days with Bob and I tempted to rip open the packaging to make sure the right color roofing material (Shasta White) had been delivered. (it wasn't...) But we were afraid if we "tampered" with the package we wouldn't be able to return it if it wasn't the right stuff. Which, of course, it wasn't but more on that later...

So the roof crew arrived on a day that promised to be super hot with really high humidity and we both thought, "Nope they're not coming! Probably put it off for cooler weather." But show up they did at 7:45 Monday morning. The crew all looked to be about 18 years old and only one young man (besides the supervisor) spoke English. But hats off to them! They got right to work, ripping and pulling up all our nasty, rotting roofing and throwing it down with gusto, as referenced earlier. See above picture of Men on Roof.

This is where problem #1 occurred. Our roof is stripped, we're waiting for the next stage... and we hit a major snafu. The company is suddenly quoting us another astronomical amount of additional money for "decking" (the plywood or similar sheeting). All of it needs replacement- entirely understandable as we knew there were leaks and spongy places. Bob went up and corroborated. But how did we think this was included in the price? (*1)I understood that the roof guys woudn't know the full extent of plywood needing replacing but let's just say that when a figure more than another third again of what we were quoted was bandied about, I freaked out. Needless to say, steam (along with blood and bile) started shooting out the top of my head. Turns out this must be why our contract was so much cheaper than the other companies. Bait and switch indeed! 

(Some of the lovely rotten boards pulled off of our roof.) I was on and off the phone all day, yodeling at some smooth office dude named Donny who kept saying, "Gosh I understand you're upset..." They started by quoting us 60 sheets (!!!!) of substrate at $150 a sheet. I was truly stuck between a rock and a proverbial hard place as the roof is removed and no one can get to work until we "approve" the cost of the sheathing. If I refuse, we've already paid a deposit and have no roof. I argued with these weasels back and forth saying I could go to Lowe's (or Home Depot) and without a contractor's discount, this stuff would cost me $17 a sheet! Quite the mark up!! And I had the quotes from thee other companies that came in- for the same material- at $90 a sheet (still plenty of mark up). How 'bout this company blithely requesting an additional $9000??!!??!?! And it's 100 degrees and humid and I'm now foaming at the mouth.

As anyone who knows me knows, I am nothing if not presistent (as our my sisters- especially Beatrice). I kept calling back and suggesting I/WE WAS/WERE NOT HAPPY. Through much sheer tenacity, I got them to lower the cost of the material and saved us over $3000. Yes, we still had to cover the additional plywood, but at a much lower cost. (*2)

This is the pile of materials and tools at the end of Day 1. I'm sure the roofers were exhausted. I was exhausted, Bob was exhausted and we were not happy customers. But again, in all fairness, the guys on the roof were really good, their supervisor was sympathetic to us, saying he heard this all the time. Apparently the sales people deliberately underestimate and side step the real cost of the decking. (*3)

So as the sun went down on the day, we were angry and I'm plotting my attack once the job is done. Not only is t head of A1 going to hear directly from me, but the Attorney Generals office is going to get a call. Stay tuned for Day 2. 

(*1) In our defense, their sales guy made it all sound so reasonable and we had interviewed five other companies, so many figures were swirling around and many facts and figures and pages of stuff were flying.  

(*2) Another gasket-blowing moment came when Corrine (some how related to the A 1 owners) got on the phone and started talking to me about FINANCING!!! I was so pissed I stated, "We do not need your stinking financing at probably something like 20%!!" Thank god we had the money but nothing like waking up suddenly thousands of dollars poorer!!!!

(*3) Nick the saleman is still going to hear from me after all the dust settles. He never came out and said, "You know that plywood? That's going to run you a substantial additional sum as we charge at $150 a sheet so be prepared. He alluded to having sheets available "as needed" and made it sound like it was included. Live and fucking learn!!!