new roof, both shingled and flat
Cass Roofing was contracted to put a new roof (consisting of two flat surfaces, and one shingled) on my house in November 2005, which they did. Months later I started to notice problems - inside the house, there were several places where there appeared to be water damage on the ceilings caused by leaks from the roof. And on my porch in particular, there was a leak that actually made it through and dripped on my porch floor whenever it rained.
Cass claims to have a no-hassle warranty. "We guarantee our service with an iron-clad, 10-year warranty that covers every inch of work we perform on your roof. If you are not satisfied, we gladly fix the problem." is what it says on their website. So I've called Cass numerous times over the past few years to have these problems fixed. Usually they don't answer my first or second call, and on the third Barry Smith (the owner) has called me back and then come over. He gets up on the roof, appears to be doing something, comes back and tells me the problem is fixed. Only when it rains again, I discover the leak over my porch is still happening, and over time the various water damage stains on my ceiling are getting worse.
A while ago, my partner and I decided to get up on the roof ourselves to take a look at one area which we suspected was a problem. Low and behold, there was a major gap in one location adjoining our flat roof, a gap that should have definitely been noticed by Cass - it was so large you could put your hand through. We patched it up ourselves as best we could.
Finally, four years after the initial job (and with more unreturned phone calls from Cass) I've given up on ever having Cass fix their supposedly guaranteed roof properly. I had another highly rated company on this website come in to assess what Cass did and they found numerous problems, including metal flashing that had been cut too short so it could be slid easily under aluminum siding (but was not large enough to do the job), areas where there should have been flashing around my chimney and front dormer but there was none, a dearth of ice shield, and a flat roof that was not properly tied in to the main house wall (they installed it over the aluminum siding instead of underneath it, which leaves room for water to get in). I will now pay the new company $4200 to correct all of the problems - almost as much as the initial job with Cass.
Bottom line: With Cass you get what you pay for (or even less). Run away, run far, far away!
- Approximate cost of services:
- $4,600.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Better service standards, to industry best practice
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Only go with companies that come highly recommended by people who have used them, and who still have good results on their roofs even a couple of years later.