Al Berte & Sons

Hiring Al Berte was a huge mistake. He was dishonest, unreliable, hard to reach and the job was done so shoddily that subsequent roofers (including two personal acquaintances who were not motivated to trash another contractor's work) have in the ensuing years shaken their head in astonishment at his audacity. We were new homeowners and kinda green. He did not pull permit & we did not know enough to know that he should have. --This hurt us when we later went to our town inspectors to complain. His people moved relatively fast, but they left a mess (including nails all over driveway). He had lifted some planks on our porch on an unrelated matter and left the planks there with nails up despite numerous calls. When I fell through the whole on porch while holding a newborn in my arms, I left a blistering voicemail. He then came and fixed that. As time passed, we realized he had not stripped most of the roof at all. At least one surface has so many layers it is actually illegal. (Too many layers means a heavier roof, which collapses earlier in a fire, endangering inhabitants or firemen.) One surface he did strip began to leak almost immediately! After repeated calls, he came back and patched it. He only pretended to do 'flashing.' On the top roof, he pulled rubber taut and merely glued its edge to the aluminum. The rubber roof did not hold. After some years, we noticed mildew odors in the house, and had a roofer check the rood. The [cheap] underlayer was soggy. the rubber roof was completely unstuck along one surface. Shingles have slipped (too many layers mean the nails aren't long enough to hold shingles properly). He did a decent job on the turrets, I'm told by other roofers, though even there, he cut corners, using the wrong kind of shingle on the corners. The state attorney general's office, having established that Berte had several prior complaints and that he had in fact defrauded us, reimbursed us his fee and pursued him legally. We were lucky to get our money back. Do not even think of hiring Al Berte.