I felt childish posting that, but those opportunities are rare.

Wow…not what I was expecting!

Guess I'm the only one who pictured OP in a gang bang with the entire corporate office of Comcast... and hating it

>a few years ago

The key phrase ^...

EVERYTHING is much more expensive than a few years ago.

>Horizon

Google their address lol

Thank you for this cautionary (and beautifully written) tale. It’s one of the most useful posts I‘ve read on this sub in a long time. I too expect to need a new roof soon. An open-ended clause in the contract, to the effect of „we won’t know what we’re dealing with til we take the old roof off,“ is seemingly impossible to avoid. I guess the best one can do is try to deal with a company that has a reputation for honesty, and hope for the best.

Baltimore's a pretty sizeable city with a whole lot of unique vibes. Starting from UMB you can go in almost any direction and find something interesting, especially with some street smarts in hand.

For two things that are a reasonable walk/bike/bus ride south from UMB, I might recommend the American Visionary Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Industry, both are great and have plenty of other cool stuff nearby

they probably do mean OSB, but OSB is NOT equivalent to plywood, especially not in this application.

No. They do not wear out. What happens is they are made or installed poorly, or some other piece fails and allows the joists to get wet which then rots them out. That's why particle board is bad. It will absorb water like a sponge and rot any other wood pieces it touches.

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Unless they are failed, you are just wasting money replacing things that are fine. Houses last hundreds of years without any replaced parts if they are well made and well maintained. The replaced parts they DO get are due to water or bugs usually.

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I never have issue getting it touch to an agent by saying something like “connect with agent”

I'm fairly sure he means OSB and it is fine. Depending on the OSB used (Advantech or Legacy) it is at least equal or better then some of the plywood you get today. Not to say that ignoring a contract is ok, but people in here are acting like they put up chip board from Ikea furniture.

Right it's either good or bad but a 70-year-old one is going to fail much sooner than a brand new one. No?

I paid $4k to get my roof replaced by the Roof Guy of Baltimore, LLC with a rubber coating. That seems like an insane amount

Ummmm, I’ve had Brother’s Roofing replace two roofs and they never used the fact my roof was removed as leverage halfway through. The second house had some sheathing water damage, issues with the chimney flashing, and a few rotten joists where birds had pulled up the roof and nested. They just fixed it along the way and let me know afterwards that they chimney would also need to be repointed soon. This should be a don’t use these folk review.

Yea I'm going to need follow up. You payed for 1 joist v 15 joist and that saved $5k. So they were charging unit $360 per unit price of joist. Where is the other $14k coming from?

> The crew showed up early and tore off the old roof in a single day, an impressive feat. The crew foreman called me in the early evening to give me a field report and to drop a bombshell on me: the cost of repairs would be an additional $20k. I was expecting this moment (I knew there might be some repairs required and they would only be revealed once the old roof was off) but I was not expecting the pricetag. I expressed my shock at the price tag and asked if there was anything "not absolutely necessary" that we could trim from the repairs to get the price down. His answer was a flat "no." Moreso, I would have to remit payment immediately. Half tonight and the other half tomorrow. > > This moment is the main reason I'm writing this post. If you own an old house and you're getting your roof redone, you are going to experience this moment. You will have zero leverage in this moment. I literally did not have a roof on my house. Rain was expected on Thursday. The foreman even sent me a screenshot of the weather to turn the screws on me.

This is a scam that has been around for decades, and it works for the very reasons that you cited. We're not all experts. We don't necessarily have the visibility and knowledge to check them on their work and claims either.

Likewise, when they do these things, as you noted, you are literally without a roof; and they know this which gives them incredible leverage. What they did was blatantly illegal, but no shortage of people have paid up because "that's a nice house you've got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it."

On that note...

> They used particle board instead of the plywood specified in the contract. Do I want to fight them over it? No I do not. They also installed a section of the downspout incorrectly so it leaked. It took a week to repair and once again their communication was poor. I had to harangue them to get it done.

> The total cost came to $31,500. I believe the work was done well and the roof is high quality (although only time will tell).

You absolutely do want to fight them. Particle board is fine in IKEA furniture. It is not fine in roofing materials, nor is it what you contracted for.

They fucked up the install of the downspout causing a leak, and failed to fix it in a timely manner.

They charged you almost twice what your original cost was for an inferior roof that is most certainly not "high quality" by any measure and you think they did you a favor?

The only thing you should be doing right now is drafting your complaint to the MD AGs office, and seeing who might be interested in determining whether or not you have a cause of action.

Loved going to Baltimore Brigade arena football games

> you signed a contract for $16.5k of work and then they didn’t honor it every step of the way

that's not how it works. The quote didn't include replaced rotten joists, which you can't see until the roof is pealed off.

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I do this for a living, all I can say is those are high numbers. I did a complete tear off and new joists to replace all the failed ones and brand new roofing membrane for under 15k a few years ago. Do your homework and hire right. No one should EVER be holding you hostage when there's no roof on your home. Replacing old 2" joists with new when they're not bad is a waste of money. Those 2" joists pocketed into the brick are REALLY strong. Also are some people confusing "particle board" with OSB - OSB is fine and allowed just not on the sides it's got to be fire treated Ply.

This is less for you and more for everyone else. I was in a very similar situation last summer. Row home, multi-level roof, a ton of tar everywhere, and a noticeable sag in the roof with leaking upstairs ceilings.

Ended up going with TSW roofers. I don't know anything about this stuff and had to research, but they were definitely not the lowest quote. Went with them because the methods and materials seemed better. EPDM membrane, all new plywood, plywood on walls and eaves, aluminum capping on perimeter walls (it's an end unit). Also made the choice based on vibes if I'm being honest. Not a very solid basis for a decision but I had a better feeling about them. Quote was $20k.

Anyway, Brandon from TSW noted the sag and made it clear we wouldn't know the extent of the damage until the roof came off, and there would be additional charges if the joists needed replacement. He said the roof felt solid despite the sag, and it's okay for them to sag a bit, but there was no way to know how bad it was. Makes sense, no choice but to agree.

They got the job done in three days. I'm struggling to remember the damage they found under the roof but it turned out not to be as bad as we were bracing for. Ended up paying an additional $3,000 for the hidden damage under the roof. Brandon texted me photos of the roof in real time to explain what was going on and what needed replacement. Definitely did not try to extort me when I had no roof and made sure I understood what I was paying for.

The thing that really assured me they were good is that my neighbor is a contractor and he can see my roof from his home office. As the crew was clearing out after finishing the job, I overheard him outside telling the crew how great the roof looked and what a great job they'd done. He didn't know I was eavesdropping. The next time he saw me he said "I can tell that roof wasn't cheap."

Should probably post this as a yelp review or something. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend TSW. There were other good things about them too (very respectful of our neighbors property, return visits to check on something I thought might be an issue) but you get the picture. Putting a new roof on an old house was the last thing I wanted to deal with and they made it as painless as they possibly could.

I hope you report the contactors and also leave them a bad review on Angie's list and Google reviews or wherever you found them.

This will sound tone-deaf, but this is why I will always buy new construction homes. Everything is up to the latest code and I don't have to worry about the roof or HVAC for decades... I would rather pay up more to not deal with issues of old homes.

Where are you coming from?