Day Two & The Saga Continues . . .

Waking Up To An Air Compressor
Obviously, Paul got his watch adjusted because I woke up to an air compressor starting up around 7:05 this morning. I got up, washed my face, put on some clothes and told Doug good morning in the Living Room. I commented on Paul getting here right on time. Doug started laughing. Oh no! I asked him "what happened?" He said Paul wasn't here, just the workers showed up. I asked him where he was, if he wasn't here. He said that his piece of junk truck, you know the one ate up with nail holes and leaks oil all over every one's concrete driveways, caught on fire or at least the battery blew up. I scuffed, as if to say "it figures".

It wasn't long before ol' Paul drove up in his truck. I guess it survived that blown up battery. LOL! He also had a couple new workers come with him today. Alright! Now, maybe we can get some work done. Since Doug was home today, I let him handle it. I stayed inside with Katie today. I didn't feel comfortable allowing her to go outside to play because they were really throwing shingles, nails and other debris over onto the ground. Later, Millard drove up and I let her go out to spend some time with him. Right off the bat, I picked up three nails on the ground. During the day, I kept tabs on the whole roofing project through Doug. He was going on about how entertaining it was.

The Building Inspector
Around lunch time, I saw a reflection on the wall. A white truck drove up in our driveway. Something caught my attention. The logo on the side of the truck's door read "Building Inspector". Oh no! The inspector came out and began talking to some of the workers because once again Paul was missing in action. Next thing you know, Paul called one of his workers on their cell phone. He wanted to talk to Doug. Doug got on the phone and Paul began asking questions like what was our home address. Paul was at the courthouse purchasing the Building Permit, he was suppose to have bought yesterday. Meanwhile, the building inspector put the workers on hold, which means, no one on the roof working until the permit and Paul comes back to the work site. The inspector said Paul will be charged $300 (I think) for penalty fees not purchasing a permit until the last minute. When Paul came back, he told us the courthouse charged him an extra $25 penalty fee for not getting it yesterday. The drama continues.

Oops! My Mistake
Doug got to noticing in the back of the house, some of the workers began putting on shingles without new felt paper down. What? Doug brought it to Paul's attention and he tried to wiggle his way out of it. Paul told Doug, well I think it says on the contract "if needed". Doug had to remind him, "no, it says new felt paper period". The roofers had to rip out a lot of shingles to correct their mistake. Then, Millard brought it to Doug's attention that there was only 1/2 inch of our gutter exposed for drainage. Doug called Paul over and showed him what was going on. The roofers had to go back and fix that portion. I will say this, with very close supervision, they did a very good job on the roof. Now the real test is if it leaks.

I finally got Katie to lay down on the couch and take a nap. Later, I went outside to check things out. It was getting close to 6:00 p.m. and time to clean up. Paul convinced one of his workers to pull his own pickup around to the back of the house and hook it up to the garbage trailer, which wasn't much of a trailer to begin with. The young boy, Jordan, was very hesitate about doing what Paul asked. I understand Jordan's point of view. He had a pretty nice GMC pick up truck and I wouldn't want to drive it around the house with tons of nails all over the ground. That was running the risk of getting a nail in your tire and causing you to have a flat. Besides, I hope Paul hired Jordan for his labor and not his truck. Jordan is only 19 years old, Leslie knows him, and he didn't know better. It was as if he was afraid to tell Paul "no". He spoke to Doug about it and Doug advised him to tell Paul how he felt. Poor Jordan, he hooked up his truck to the trailer anyways. He did tell Paul that he didn't think his truck would pull the weight, but Paul convinced him otherwise. Jordan's truck is suppose to be a 4 wheel drive ready, but apparently Jordan couldn't get it to work. Needless to say, Jordan and Paul are suppose to be here around 7:00 tomorrow morning with a load of dirt to put in our back yard. Every time Jordan would hit the gas, he would dig his tire down in our yard. Ugh! Doug was mad and he had enough. Paul kept talking about how he had some grass seed in the back of his truck and that he'll just throw some out there to replace the grass, Jordan destroyed. Now first of all, what respectable roofer would just so happen to keep grass seed in the back of his pick up truck. (red flag). Doug went out in the yard and told Paul in front of everyone that this wasn't acceptable and that he would be bringing in some dirt to fill in the ruts, not just seed because grass can not grow in ruts. It was a mess! Luckily, Jordan said that he would be glad to take care of the dirt and grass because his uncle is a landscaper and would be willing to do the work for free. Well, Paul was telling me 30 minutes ago on how he was going to have to let Jordan go tonight because he dug up my yard. Now, he is giving Jordan another chance because Paul heard the word "FREE". You should have seen it. Jordan couldn't get out of our back yard without tearing it up, so Paul got his other employee to get his piece of junk to tow Jordan out of the back yard. This I had to see. At first, Jordan didn't want Paul hooking a chain to his truck and towing him out. I didn't blame him a bit because the way Paul was doing it could have messed up Jordan's truck. Paul got him towed out of the back yard. Now, he had to drive the trailer down the driveway and park it across the street from our house. I told Paul myself that no one had better mess up my front yard. He said, "oh, no ma'am! We won't mess up your yard." I told him that I would be taking some one's head off, if it was messed up like the back yard. I grabbed a magnetic device to roll around the yard and driveway for nails along with Jordan. Bless his heart, he couldn't apologize enough to me about messing up our yard. I told him that it wasn't his fault and that he tried telling Paul differently. Jordan is just a kid, the way I see it. The person whose head is on the chopping block with me is Paul. I have to say, Paul did do the honest thing, he told Doug to hold off on the rest of the payment until tomorrow, when they've corrected all their mistakes.

My Final Analysis
After analyzing Paul and his roofing crew, I've come to figure out the following problem areas he might have:

1. The lack of keeping good employees on the job for any length of time. Possible causes are taking advantage of the employee's abilities and possessions. I can't say for sure, if he pays them for a reasonable days work.
2. The lack of taking care of his employees. Such as supplying them with drinks like water or Gatorade. I've seen him bring them 16 oz. bottled coke or water once around lunch time. He doesn't supply them with any snacks or offers lunch breaks. I know Doug grabbed one of the Paul's water coolers and filled it up with ice and water. He came in the house asking me if we had some throw away cups to supply. I was glad to do so. I just fixed up my 4th of July basket and filled it full of chocolate candy and other knic-knacs. He grabbed a few and put them out on the table, we set up for the workers, for them to have a snack. I offered Doug some sweet green grapes, but he passed those up.
3. Poor management & business skills. He never seems to have it all together. For instance, he is very unorganized about everything. He throws a lot of his good tools down on the ground from the roof top. Thus, he either damages or looses them. He never makes a list of things he needs, causing him to leave the site numerous times to get tools or supplies. He is never at the work site longer than 4 hours at a time, without having to leave to run errands. Have you ever heard of the saying, 'when the cat's away, the mice will play'?
4. Not focused on the mission. He talks entirely too much to stay focused on the project. Most of the time, the conversation isn't even work related. Because of his diarrhea of the mouth, he can't supervise properly.
5. Questionable safety standards. He is irresponsible with purchasing a building permit within the city limits. He is irresponsible when it comes to making sure the site is safe after the job is over. He told Doug and I that he would run the magnetic devices tomorrow for any nails on the ground. No, I don't think so! He may be irresponsible, but I have an obligation to keep my child safe. After he left, Doug took two of the devices and I got the other one, we ran them every where. We felt confident enough that most, if not all the nails were picked up. Doug and I plan to run them around the property again tomorrow.

My Survey of The Roofing Project

1. Did we feel confident with the work performances during the project? I would have to say - No.
2. Could they have conducted their job performance in a different way? Yes. If Paul really had the 18 years of roofing experience, he calms he had, surely he would have known in advance, what he needed to do in order the get the job done in a timely manner. The time he was there, he could have stopped running that head with us and supervised his crew a little closer.
3. Were we upset with any of the mistakes they made? Not really. We were glad we caught them, but now the ruts in the back yard was inexcusable.
4. Despite all that's gone on these past couple of days, would we feel the job was done to our satisfaction? I would have to say "yes". Despite the black cloud over Paul's head, which is really his own fault, we really liked the roofing job.
5. Would we recommend this roofing company to anyone else, friends or family? Absolutely, NOT! Yeah, they were a lot cheaper than the other roofing company we were going to go with, but having to deal with all the mess. I believe I'm speaking for both of us when I say, all that we went through this past couple of days, really wasn't worth saving a thousand dollars more. That is if the other group were more professional in their work and not take shortcuts.

Photos


The above pictures are before photos, to show how ugly our roof looked. You can't really tell from these pictures, but our shingles were a Terra Cota type color. Again, UGLY!


The only man standing, pulled all the old shingles and felt off the roof.


The job is finished. Our new roof. We were really surprised how well we would like the color.

Here's a picture of a couple of the roofers. Paul is the one sitting down. He is a hum dinger!


We got the "Weatherwood" dimensional shingles with ridgeliner venting, instead of the traditional vents. We've heard a lot of good things about ridgerliners keeping your attic cooler during the Summer months. I guess we'll see.

Some more photos . . .