Home Improvements

Sgt PSN · May 10, 2010, 08:54:36 PM

So my landlord has some roofers replacing part of my roof, along with the other homes they own on my street. They started last week and ripped up a bunch of shingles and placed them in a huge pile, right at the very edge of the roof overlooking my driveway. And then on Friday, they left for the weekend and left all that crap on top of the roof. Well, this time of year in the desert we get a lot of strong winds of 50+ mph. So all weekend long, I had the farging shingles blowing off the roof and landing on my truck (btw, I traded in my 4runner for a Tundra last week....which now has some tar on the windshield and hood), not to mention that all of last week I kept finding McDonald's bags and wrappers in my driveway and along the side of my house. When I left for work this morning, they hadn't shown up yet. When I got home they were on the roof working again. As I walked in my house, I noticed 2 extension cords plugged into my patio outlet that were running up to the roof. I asked my g/f if she let them use our electricity and she said no. My patio has a 6' privacy wall and gate around it, so they actually climbed over the wall to plug in their crap.

So when I called them out on the pile of shingles and the trash and them using my electricity without asking, they acted as if it were no big deal and claim they do it all the time. So, for those of you with some contracting experience, is this a normal practice when working on someone's private residence? Leaving piles of debris all over the place and trash and just helping yourselves to the resident's electricity (by scaling a wall to get to the outlet)?

Drunkmasterflex · May 10, 2010, 08:59:55 PM

No and farg no. You should always leave a job site clean and presentable. They are not allowed/supposed to leave loose sthein on the roof. They should absolutely ask if they are not readily available outside.

If I were you I would have a talk with my landlord about the help he has hired.

Sgt PSN · May 10, 2010, 09:10:10 PM

Already called the landlords...unfortunately they live out of town and are sometimes hard to get a hold of. In their absence, I've still asked to speak with their boss who is on his way over. I've already found a bunch of nails on my walkway, which is what I'm really pissed about now. Well, that and the tar spots on my new used truck and the day's worth of juice they added to my electric bill.

LBIggle · May 10, 2010, 09:39:07 PM

your a marine, right? show them what using a nail gun is all about.

Sgt PSN · May 10, 2010, 09:47:41 PM

Wow.....so I just got off the phone with the owner of the company and he flat out said that he knew on Friday there was going to be problems getting a dump truck to collect all the roof debris but he had a weekend planned in Vegas so he went there instead. So I told him he shouldn't have gone to Vegas until he got his business taken care of first and his response was that I don't understand the real world. What?

He also said that he couldn't believe I had a problem with his guys using my electricity to listen to the radio. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is them not farging asking and climbing over a 6 foot wall to get to the outlet.

Is this guy farging serious?

Drunkmasterflex · May 10, 2010, 09:58:36 PM

Most people don't care if it is easily accessible they shouldn't be climbing over walls to get to it. And they should definitely be cleaning up nails. It is one thing if they make one mistake, but that there is people just not giving a sthein about other peoples property.

SD · May 10, 2010, 10:02:24 PM

My Mom just had the roof on her house replaced. They parked a dumpster in the driveway and threw the old shingles/nails/crap into it. There was no mess whatsoever with the exception of loose shingles that fell onto her deck but were cleaned as soon as the workers went home for the day. Like we do in the military, you don't go home for the day until your shtein is clean, at least that's how it is on a ship.

Sgt PSN · May 10, 2010, 10:15:59 PM

That's the thing that really irks me......they started this early last week and the piles of debris kept getting bigger and bigger. I've really been dealing with this crap since last Monday but it's only been small pieces of debris. It wasn't until they took off for the weekend and left all the trash on top of my house that I really got pissed. They did the same thing with the other 3 houses on my street that they're working on too.

Funny you should mention "like in the military" because it was after I told him that I'm in the military that he said I don't know what the real world is like.

Diomedes · May 10, 2010, 10:42:42 PM

The people doing this work are borderline criminal fargs. Decent roofers do not behave anything like this Sarge. I have never heard of roofers actually leaving a pile of loose tear-off on a roof. That's got to be against some law somewhere. The law of common sense at least, if not the law of self preservation. Talk about liability hell. I don't know man, that's farging bad.

The litter is more common but also unacceptable. Problem is, you're not the client, your landlord is, so you have no real complaint here, unless you want to complain to the landlord about it. The people who behave like this don't give a shtein what a person who isn't paying them says.

All decent roofers clean up the job site for nails using large magnets. Good roofers take the time to do this thoroughly.

Your expectations and complaints are all reasonable. On my jobs, we always leave a clean ditch. We never break and enter. Nothing is ever left loose on a roof. When we farg the client's tenant's girlfriend, we always wear rubbers.

Sgt PSN · May 10, 2010, 11:09:41 PM

Quote from: Diomedes on May 10, 2010, 10:42:42 PM
Problem is, you're not the client, your landlord is, so you have no real complaint here, unless you want to complain to the landlord about it.

This is why I ultimately decided to hang up on the guy during our phone conversation because he was getting belligerent and swearing up and down and I wasn't about to get into a pissing contest with him. Because if I do, then maybe he decides to pull his crew off the roof and leave the job unfinished or something. Then my landlord is pissed at me.

No worries now though. Dude's wife put him in check and they came over and she pretty much made him apologize. And naturally, it turns out that the story he got from his workers was completely different when they had to explain it to him with me standing in front of them. They pretty much fed him a line of bs over the phone so when I called him, he was under the impression that I was being an unreasonable prick who was pissed off about them using my electricity. He ended up firing one dude on the spot.

SD · May 11, 2010, 12:04:55 AM

Quote from: Sgt PSN on May 10, 2010, 11:09:41 PM
He ended up firing one dude on the spot.

That had to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside

Foreman: You're fired
Laborer: No speaka English

Sgt PSN · May 11, 2010, 12:11:12 AM

Out of the 4 dudes on the roof, 1 mexican, 2 white, 1 soul brutha. He fired one of the white dudes (the one who climbed the wall) because he lied to his boss about it.

shorebird · May 11, 2010, 06:33:12 AM

Sarge, any contractor stupid enough to leave a pile of debris for the weekend anywere on the property, much less on the farging roof, should be fired on the spot. Your in a bad situation because your renting and didn't hire them. If I were doing it and couldn't get a way to haul the debris, I wouldn't have torn the shingles off, and neither would any other contractor worth his salt.

Actually, I'm shocked that there are idiots out there who are stupid enough to operate like that.

Ok, so now I see after reading the comments after your post one of the guys was fired. At least the owner is not a total idiot.

Sgt PSN · May 11, 2010, 10:53:05 AM

The owner is still a total idiot because he knew that a dump truck wouldn't be available on Friday and still elected to go to Vegas for the weekend. To me, that is absolutely inexcusable. If you own a company and you know that there's a problem, you farging fix it before heading off to Vegas to get blasted. This guy's spending the weekend with his face up a stripper's ass and I'm cleaning tar off my windshield and picking up loose shingles all over the place and he still didn't understand why I was so pissed.

Drunkmasterflex · May 11, 2010, 11:44:09 AM

I don't even have a problem with him going to Vegas, he should have a competent enough crew that will clean up after themselves. And in reference to what Dio said there are definitely liability issues there, with both the landlord and the contractor.

Like Shore said you always clean up really well for the weekend. Really you are supposed to clean up at the end of each work day, but especially for the weekend.