Clarkson Construction LLC

This is the first time I ever had to replace a roof, so I was at the mercy of the contractors. I got 5 estimates. Clarkson's was not the lowest, however it was the best value. From the day I signed the contract everything went really smooth. Dumpster and shingle delivery was as scheduled. Dave Clarkson would visit the job-site at least 2 times to inspect what he expected. The whole process took 4.5 days. The sight was left clean and neat and the roof looked great. I definitely recommend Clarkson for any of your construction needs. He also installed my new gutters.

From the start, these guys delivered on their promise. First, the quotation process was very professional. They met with us on the weekend (which went well with our schedule) so they could review our scope of work. We had a detailed quote in hand within two days as promised. Very punctual.

After ironing out the details for the quote, the work began, which was installing a new roof, removing an old rotten flat roof, and installing new gutters w/ leaf guards around the house . David's crew worked all day for two weeks to finish up the project.  

The first item, the installation of the new roof, was the easy part. The crew worked hard, and they removed the existing old roof and had the new shingles installed in one day! The project already looked great since we had the shingles installed.

 Next came the harder part, which was demolishing the flat roof and fixing the nearby soffit and fascia boards. We were planning on only replacing soffit and fascia boards where the flat roof tied into the main roof, but we found out that all the soffit and fascia boards on the house needed to be replaced due to water damage from the age of the older roof. David called to let me know, and he provided a clear explanation and a new estimate for the new scope of work. Honestly, I'm glad he recommended to replace all the soffit and fascia boards because now we changed the color to grey, and the roof shingle color looks great with it. Also, we were able to add some flood lights around the new soffit, and David's crew installed them while finishing the rest of the fascia/soffit work.

The final item was the new gutters w/ gutter guards. He installed the metal grating guards, which tie underneath the bottom shingle on the roof. I will never have to clean leaves out of the gutter on a ladder again! I simply use a broom to sweep the leaves and pine needles off the guards once a week.

Overall, I am very pleased with the work that Clarkson Construction performed at my house. They are licensed and insured, and they have an attractive material and workmanship warranties so you can have piece of mind on your home investment. I would gladly recommend them to anyone in need of home improvement projects!

This company came highly recommended to me. They do not use nail guns, which is a very good thing for my roof, since the decking is not plywood - there are cracks between the boards (a nail from a nail gun could go right through a crack). Also, not using a nail gun, you know when a nail went in a crack, so you can plug the hole and nail slightly above or below that point into the decking. If that?s not done, the nails tend to pop up later causing leaks (more on this point later). Anyway, I signed two contracts ? one for the roof and another to replace the gutters and some rotten fascia in late 2009. Dave said the job would take two days ? it took over 3 weeks. The roof was to be a 30-year roof with metal valleys (12? valleys like the ones that were there). The materials were delivered by Home Depot, which I found odd for a contractor, since I as a homeowner had purchased the materials 25 years ago from a roofing supply company when I replaced the roof myself. The correct shingles and tar paper were delivered, nothing else was correct. Wrong valleys, wrong flashing for the gables on the garage, and most importantly the bundles of ridge caps only carried a 20-year warranty. I called the manufacturer and confirmed that they did have (and recommend) a 30-year ridge product for the shingles I specified. I called Dave about this. His response was that he always used 20 year ridge material on 30-year roofs (no reason given) and that he forgot to write that in the contract. He said the 30-year ridges would be $800 more, which I reluctantly agreed to. The first day, 4 roofers showed up (usually there were only 2, and they never showed up before 11:00 am). One roofer (I?ll call him the head roofer) tells me that Dave is on vacation in Tennessee and gives me his cell phone number in case I have any problems (more on this later). I was amazed at the end of day one at how little they had done. Throughout the job they continually papered over broken board, which I had to repeatedly tell them about to make sure they would replace them before they were shingled over. Also, the head roofer continually tried to talk me out of the metal valleys ? he wanted to weave the shingles, using shingles for the valleys. I?ve seen that done, but that?s not what I paid for. Also, after they had covered the roof with tar paper, we had a light rain one night. The ceiling in the living room was stained. No biggie, I painted over the stain with Kilz. One day, my wife happens comes home from work early. The gutters are almost completely up, the rotten fascia has not been replaced. The guy refuses to stop working, and tells my wife that replacing the rotten sections of fascia was not in the contract (it was). I tell her to tell him I?ll be there in 10 minutes. He leaves. Another call to Dave. He comes back a couple of days later, and replaces the rotten fascia and puts the gutters back up. I?m not happy with the gutters either. In some places, he masked poor cuts in the fascia board with white caulk. The clips that hold the gutters to the fascia in some places are screwed in almost at the bottom of the gutter ? unbelievable. Lastly, while these gutters are larger than my old gutters, the old gutters had nice size oval cut-outs for the downspouts. This guy cut out a small circle ? just a few leaves and the hole is blocked. One night, my wife and I hear a motor running. The head roofer is parked in my driveway. He?s there for almost two hours and then leaves. No idea what that was about. Fast forward to September 2010. There?s a leak in the back bedroom that made a large stain on the ceiling. Called Dave, he could not find the leak, but states that he will have one of his men seal the area. I?ve taken pics, and await the next big thunder storm. We?ve only had a couple of light rains since then. Fast forward to Saturday, 10/30/2010. There?s a leak outside by the kitchen door. I get up on the ladder, the valley was cut too short, and water is dripping behind the gutter. I check the other 3 valleys ? all cut too short, but the other 3 have a short piece of valley (2 inches, maybe) slid in under the end. I also notice that quite a few nails are popping up, and the bricks on the front of the garage are stained black, I get up on the ladder to check that out, and find there?s a 5 foot section where the shingles don?t overlap the edge, water is leaking behind the gutter there too. Call Dave. He comes out and tells me that if its any consolation, the crew that did my roof no longer works for him. I tell him its not. I cannot believe he put a new crew on my roof and takes off for a vacation in Tennessee! He tells me he?ll get Pauli to fix the problems with my roof the coming week. The solution is to remove 4 rows of shingles from the garage and to go up 4 feet on either side of the valleys and put a 4-foot section of valley in place that does overhang the edge of the roof. Pauli will also take care of the nails popping up. Last Thursday I get home from work to find someone has delivered two 10 foot sections of drip edge, a roll of flat galvanized sheet metal, two tubes of caulking, one bundle of shingles, and the wrong valleys (narrower with a raised piece running down the center). Incredulous, I call Dave. Yes, he himself delivered the material. Obviously not enough shingles to do the job as discussed, and I ask why the drip edge? He?s changed his mind on how to handle the garage, and will install drip edge instead. I say no way, reason being a drip edge would cover the screws holding the gutter in place ? making replacing the gutters at a later date much more difficult.