Price: I contacted few of the top rated roofers in homestars. And professional roofers was the most expensive one. The cheapest quote that I got was $1200 less than professional roofers for exact same type of shingles. However, I decided to pay more and go with professional roofers because two of my friends had already gone with them and highly recommended them. One of them had a warranty issue and he told me that when he called professional roofers they showed up the next day. So I though to myself I might be paying more but I will have more peace of mind.
Sale process: Called their office and they setup an appointment with their estimator "Diego". On the date of appointment Diego showed up one hour early when I was not home. So I never got the chance to talk to him in person about the estimate. But that was not a problem because the materials he left for me at the door was very comprehensive and explained everything very well. Also every time I had a question I just sent him an email, which he responded to within short period of time and when I called him on his cell he always picked up the phone and politely and patiently answered my inquiries. Over all it was a pleasure dealing with him.
Quote: The quote included stripping the roof, replacing all vents, adding a solar vent, replacing the exhaust vents, metal closed valley, ice and water on 3' roof perimeter and critical areas. Price given was for IKO Cambridge and it came with 15 years non-prorated warranty. However, it did not include asphalt felt on the entire roof. I wanted to get the asphalt felt installed on the entire roof, so Diego told me it will be $250 extra. Over all the quote came to $5600 + tax. My house is a small 2 stories detached with the total interior space of around 1650 sqft. Not sure exactly what the roof area is. But over all it is a small roof and does not have very sharp slope. As mentioned in the above, the price was higher than the price I got from other roofers and I felt it was a bit over priced.
Installation Appointment: When I made my mind to go with professional roofers I contacted Diego and he setup an installation appointment for me for around 2 weeks time which I thought was very good.
Installation: On the install date, the guys showed up early in the morning. Unfortunately it was raining. They told me not to worry and they will come back the next day. The next day they showed up again early in the morning and right away started to work. The guys were extremely pleasure to talk to, very polite and very friendly. They worked almost non-stop and by 4 PM it was all completely done. Amazing and hard working guys with good ethics.
Inspection: The quality control rep came to check the work. He went up the roof and checked everything. He spotted something and asked the guys to take care of it. On the edge of the garage roof I noticed in one area the shingle have caved and there is gap in there. More of a visual problem because there is another layer of shingle under it as well as water and ice protection. I asked him about it and he said he will fix it. He bent the shingle over the edge of the roof with his hand which made the gap smaller
Warranty: The quality control rep just asked me to bring the warranty registration form and he signed. He told me to go online and register my warranty on the web site which I did. I have not got a confirmation email or anything yet. No on really has explained to me how the warranty works. All I know is that there is 15 years warranty.
Cleanup: The guys did a nice job cleaning around the house. It is all spotless.
It has not rained yet for me to comment on if there is any problem with leakage or not. If I do not write anything about it later, it means everything went well :)
Over all: I think over all it is an 8/10. I deduct one point for price and one point for little things here an there
Update: So I already had the opportunity to use the warranty and I can comment on it now. The day after the roof got installed I noticed the bathroom fan upstairs sounds different. I used a tissue to test to see if there is air flow and there was not. So I figured the fan vent is blocked on the roof. I called the office and explained and they said someone will come to look at it. Got a call when I was in the office and it was from pro roofers. The guy said someone will show up at 11 to fix the problem and I should be home. I asked if they can come at another time and he said no, the repair person can come between 11 - 12 only. So I cut my meeting short and drove back home ASAP. When I got home, I noticed a square vent on the roof is missing. I did not know if that was for the fan or it was one of those vents for attic ventilation. So I called and let the guy know the vent is missing, he informed me that the repair man cannot come at 11 and he changed it to 4:30 PM. I was not happy since I left important meeting at work to rush home.. but I thought it is fine. Then I heard in the radio that there is a chance of severe thunder storm at 4!!!! At that point I was not happy at all since I had lost another day of work for no reason. I called the office and they ensured me the guy will show up. The QA rep showed up without the repair man. I told him about the problem and missing vent on the roof. I told him there were 3 vents in front and 2 in back and now there is only 2 in the front. I told him I even mentioned this in email to Diego before. He wanted to see the emails and I showed it to him. He still was not sure. So I showed him the pictures of the similar houses in the neighbourhood that has the vent in the front of the house. He said the builder might have forgotten to put a fan vent for my house and was not yet convinced that the crew might have mistakenly covered the hole. He suggested to look at picture of my house in the google map which we did and my good luck it clearly showed the fan vent was on my house before the company changed my roof. The next day the guys came and removed the shingles in that area to look for the hole. They eventually found it and installed the fan vent. They then put back the same shingles that had removed back.. When the put the shingles back on the roof they looked warped since they had just ripped them off the roof but they told me when the weather gets hot they will settle again and they will stick to the roof again. They used some cucking to stick the shingles to the roof so it will be more straight. I was worried that water gonna leak through the nail holes on the removed and re-installed shingles, but the office assured me it will not. Looking on the positive side, the company honoured their warranty and came back to fix the mistake. I appreciate that.
No matter which company you go with make sure you take a picture of the area of roof that you can see from all sides, so you can compare it with the finished job to make sure everything is in place.
