The video features four speakers sharing their experiences with roofing contractors on an older home built in the 1950s. Speakers recount negative encounters: contractors cutting costs by leaving old roofing material in place, violating code, lacking material knowledge, and overpromising timelines, which resulted in inferior workmanship. They emphasize the importance of due diligence when selecting contractors, highlighting the need for experienced crews who respect historic homes and understand the homeowner’s emotional attachment. Honesty, integrity, and trust emerge as essential qualities; one speaker describes a service model that begins with a thorough inspection, asks basic questions, and guides customers to appropriate solutions or referrals. The discussion underscores that a reliable contractor should foster an ongoing, win‑win relationship rather than a one‑off sale, ensuring quality work and peace of mind for homeowners.
Chapters
That's probably the worst experience that we had. They were trying to cut their costs by leaving that old roof up there, which was against code. They didn't have to have it hauled away. They didn't have to spend the manpower to do it.
They don't have a clue what the material is. They really don't, let alone how it goes down.
They shouldn't have promised me that it was gonna be done properly in that amount of time.
So initially when we came into the building, there was a lot of roof issues. We started attacking the worst roof. So it wasn't like we were doing the entire roof, we were doing the worst area. So we would hire some smaller contractors to do that, but they just didn't have the knowledge to do the type of work that needed to be done on this building.
Well, it was nice to be having guests coming soon and having to go through all that trouble. When you want something, you have to have the right person doing it. Otherwise it won't work.
You know, didn't do our due diligence, you know, how much experience that company had in the past of doing the job that we needed done, you know, and we ended up having an inferior product because of that. There's those kind of people out there all the time. You hear Better Business Bureau things all the time, right? So when you're doing a project of this size, you've really got to, you know, look into who's doing it.
This is an old house, like it was built around the '50s. I have lots of good memories in this house. The fireplace burning and crackling. Grandson plays the piano and I like to sit there too to listen. I love to feel the companionship. The person that comes and does the work has to see my house as his own. People that would be sensible enough to see what I would want and need. But at the same time that we do a good job.
I think that's the biggest thing for many of the contractors is their honesty and integrity.
That is one of the problems that I saw in the field, and every day I saw it. And today my customers, they still call my cell phone because they're asking me, "What is the problem?" And if I can guide them to what the solution is and I can help them with that service, great. If not, I'll guide them to the right person. Most people that come to us They come to us because they had a bad experience with another contractor and they're scarred. So it takes a lot of time for us to make sure that we present to them what we are, and what we are is a solution to your problem. We don't know how we're gonna fix it right now. We'll do an inspection, we'll ask you basic questions that we need to know so we can assist you better, and then we'll give you a solution for the problems that you have.
I mean, roofers can come out and say you need this, this, and this done. If you got 10 roofers out there, you're gonna get 10 different recommendations from these guys. What's the correct recommendation? It's the one that comes from the guy that's been around for a while that you feel knows what he's talking about, gives you some options, and you feel comfortable with.
And it's the same kind of thing. You have to find people that you trust and that, you know, when you talk with them, you know, you feel a trust from them. You don't feel like you're trying to be sold something. You know, understand that it's an ongoing relationship, right? And it's got to be a win-win relationship.
Bad experiences and good experiences until we found the perfect people that we're working with now. Once it's tried and proven, it's good business, you know?
