NILLES BUILDERS INC

"We regret that this consultation and bidding process took longer than the Schultz's would have preferred. After discussions and an on-site visit with them, we did send a proposal to them on April 2, via email... Assuming that they may not have received it, we are re-sending this proposal today by email AND US mail. Perhaps they can still use it as a comparison with their other estimates as they select their contractor. Thank you, Brad Nilles, owner Nilles Builders, Inc."

"We'd like to respond to this very negative description of our roofing work at this address in St. Paul. Nearly all of the alleged facts in this review are either completely false, or mostly false. We did not complete this roof reshingling in August of 2010 as alleged. Truthfully, our work was completed and inspected and approved by city building officials, approximately 4 years ago in late 2006, and our contract amount was for much less than the alleged $12,000. We did not "forget" to install chimney flashing. Forgetting to flash a chimney would be like forgetting to wear clothes in a January snowstorm; in fact, we provided all new flashing at this chimney, promptly at the time of our shingle application, without ever "forgetting" the flashing, and without any chimney leaking four years ago or any time since. According to our records, we have returned to this address for three different service calls since our initial roof reshingling. None of these calls have had anything to do with our actual roofing work; they were concerned instead with the aging dysfunctional rain gutter system which our company did not install, and other soffit, fascia and siding problems related to this homes 100+ years of age, and long-term lack of proper care and maintenance by its owners. When we were hired for this roofing work in 2006, we found a roof shingle system badly decomposed and leaking at multiple sites, and an aging rain gutter system consisting of some very old rusty tin half-round gutters, possibly as old as the house itself, and some less ancient K-style gutters designed to be installed against flat, vertical fascia boards, but instead hung loosely from the roof edge with toboggan hangers because this old houses' fascia system has large crown moulding, with no straight surfaces. We recommended to the owner then that this ill-fitting and mostly useless gutter system be replaced, or at least disposed of, but the homeowner refused to acknowledge their futility. The K-style gutters can't fit tightly to the crown moulding, and are not secured to the crown moulding; they only hang loosely from above, from the roofs' surface. The homeowner alleges that this sad old gutter system had "never" been a problem in the 20 years prior to our work on the adjacent roof. We'd challenge anyone reading this to drive by 829 Portland Av. right now, street side and alley side, glance at the gutter system and decide for yourselves if any part of that fiction is believable. Of our three gutter-related service calls since 2006, the first 2 were done gratis, not charged to the owner. The most recent visit, earlier this year, was charged to her because ice damming was a chronic problem with St. Paul rain gutters last winter, and the gutters at this address. had admittedly experiences serious winter ice stress. Earlier this summer we were called again to visit this residence for a gutter problem, but the actual truth is that each of these several (several, not "ten+") calls was returned, only to find an answering machine on the other end. We played phone tag, and then she stopped calling. We answer our phones all day every day, and the owner also has our roofing supervisors cell phone number. For her own reasons, this homeowner has chosen to make our company a scapegoat for a house badly maintained, and specifically for a rain gutter system inappropriately designed and long beyond reliable repair. We've been shingling St. Paul area roofs, and installing rain gutters, for 32 years, and we've been a member of the Better Business Bureau for the past 18 years. We're proud of our work history, and deeply grateful for our thousands of customers who have appreciated our very fair prices, our difficult and dangerous work, and who feel no need to defame us years after our hard work has been provided. Sincerely, Brad NIlles Nilles Builders, Inc."

"We are writing in response to the complaint by the Member about roofing work allegedly done by our company at his residence, at this address in St. Paul, over 14 years ago, in spring of 1996. We no longer have records of any specific projects done by our company in 1996, but we can state that we have received no calls or communications from that address within the past 10 years. Disparaging our company because we allegedly sent a "Mexican" crew implies that all craftspeople of Mexican descent are substandard by nature, and that firms that hire Mexican roofers are guilty by association. Actually, our company employed no persons of Mexican descent in 1996, but we have from time-to-time hired people of Mexican heritage for various services, and we are grateful for and proud of their fine work. Also, if this homeowner's insurance company has found his roof to be a "total loss", as he alleges, it would no doubt be because of severe storm or hail damage. Since spring of 1996 there have been over 20 catastrophic storms in his area. The storms of May 1998 alone caused massive wind and hail damage which resulted in many roofs being replaced by insurance companies in the near vicinity of this address.. Holding our company responsible now for the accumulated damage of 14 years of serious storms is absurd. We have been in business continuously in St. Paul since 1978, and we are proud of the thousands of area roof reshinlging projects we have successfully completed. We have been a member of the Better Business Bureau continuously since 1992. this member has never made a complaint with the Bureau about our work, nor has he contacted us directly. We think this complaint 14 years after the fact is blatantly dishonest. We've worked 32 years to become a very good roofing and construction company, and if we ever actually worked on this house, we would have done our work professionally and well. Sincerely, Brad Nilles Nilles Builders, Inc."

"11/23/09 My name is Brad Nilles and I am the founder and president of Nilles Builders, Inc. and this is our response to this complaint. We actually spent a lot of time with the member discussing the design of a simple shed dormer on his house. Our architect had over 40 years of experience in designing residential additions and renovations, and Nilles Builders had already been in business for almost 30 years. But he believes that he knew, and knows, how to design and build a dormer far better than us. Our architect did do a second draft of the dormer drawings, at no charge to him, which the member approved in writing. His main issue was that he insisted on our designing and building a space which he intended to use illegally, as an unapproved bedroom suite, even though we, the city agency officials who funded this work for him, and city building inspectors all explained to him that the space he hired us to build into this house could never be permitted to be used as a sleeping room. We believe it is utterly unfair for the member to complain now about his dormer design, or having paid too much for it. As he well knows, our estimate, and subsequent billings for completed work, were significantly less than other estimates he received. Also, because he was given city funding from a low-interest, tax-payer funded program, we received no advance payments for any of our work, and each of the several project payments had to be approved in writing by St. Paul funding agency inspectors and by himself, which they, and he, did. We had to be in constant communication with him, and with the funding agency officials, which we obviously were, or they and he would not have paid us. The city building inspectors who inspected our work, and the funding agency inspectors, and himself, all knew that we did a good job when promptly signing off on each of our several payment requests. For him to denigrate our work later, when he could have simply refused to authorize payment to us at any stage of this project, seems dishonest, spiteful, and in full contradiction with his own earlier behavior. We are proud of the good work we provided to the member, at a very fair price. We'd challenge him to invite city building inspectors back to his house today, and verify to them that he is not using his second floor illegally. More importantly, we'd ask him to stop defaming our business character in order to punish us for his not being allowed to violate city building Codes as quickly and blatantly as he wanted. We believe our fault was not in failing to communicate with him, or in failing to execute his project well; instead, it was in not telling him what he wanted to hear, and in not assisting him in violating building Codes which he found inconvenient to follow. Thanks for your attention.... Brad Nilles/ Nilles Builders, Inc. 525 Ohio St., St. Paul, MN 55107 651-451-9574 (home office)"