Switalas Construction

OVERPROMISED & UNDERDELIVERED We hired Switala?s Construction to tear off and redo two flat roofs that were holding water. Jim, who we worked with, was scatter-brained, cocky, forgetful, and TOLD us what we wanted rather than listening to us. If you like workers who smoke, show up late and leave early, leave a mess in your yard, take three weeks to do a week?s worth of work, put up a tarp so poorly that rain water leaks into your kitchen ceiling, don?t communicate when they promise to, and overcharge you by $10,000+ then Switala?s Construction is the company for you. Our ?before? and ?after? pictures are nearly identical ? in a bad way. The second roof never even got finished, with excuses such as ?not enough men? and ?workers in poor health.? When we made Jim aware of the fact that one roof was still holding water months later, his only solution was offering to ?come look at it.? DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! Stop reading this review and go look for a more reputable company!

The installation was done in two days. It appeared to be done well. The job included warranty by CertainTeed with a SureStart PLUS Certificate until 2061. Warranty proved completely useless, see below. I had leakage on one section of the roof over a bay window just before Christmas 2017. I called and Jim Martin came out the day after Christmas to take a look. Since there was 5 ft. of snow in the yard and an 8 in. ice dam on the roof no action was taken until it was possible for inspection in the spring. I had to call twice in April 2018 before Jim came out again to the house in May 2018. No ownership of the problem was taken by Switala, even if I had not requested any compensation for the damage done to local ceiling, wall and floor. After that I tried to have them come out and provide me with a repair to prevent recurrence. I received no response to any of my requests after May 2018, which were made by email and certified letter. Stay away from this company.

They came right away given a leak we had and had a huge crew. The work was done in two days which was impressive. We had a few shingles that were raised and they responded And fixed it that day. They also came back to fix two minor issues that were not completed during the install. In general I was pleased with the office staff and owners when I spoke with them. The foreman had limited communication with me and did not have great supervision of the crew. The biggest complaint was the poor job the crew did with cleaning up the debris from the tear off. They did come back two times and both times filled two buckets of nails. I also picked up about 200 nails and other debris including a lighter on my own. The owners were apologetic and professional but future customers may wish to be alert to this issue.

unknown

I signed a contract last July. Several calls could not give a start date or even an "I don't know" call back. I got a call in January saying they would start that day.  I was amazed they could work in the cold like they did. Each day, they came bright and early and went to work. A crew came and tore off the old stuff. Another team replaced the siding. Yet another did the gutter work. All the workers were very nice. I was impressed with the clean up each day before they left. When the snow melted, I did find numerous bits of aluminum and vinyl and nails, etc. which was a little problem in that my dog does not wear shoes. My other problem was that an upstairs phone line was pulled out and now cannot be replaced without unsightly wire over my new siding.

I had them come out and give me an inspection on my roof after I found some trouble areas when digging around in the attic. I called and set up a time to meet with them. Carl showed up on time and was very professional. He went over everything and was very easy to talk to. Price was a little steep but for the time of year and the ability of them to get the job done quickly it wasn't too bad. Date of repair- they showed up, took care of everything that was discussed before hand. They were in and out in about half a day. Left nothing behind. Overall they did a decent job. Roof/Flashing looks good. No more leaks!

unknown

Excellent job all around. Great company. Eric came gave us quotes quickly. The house was completely sided, trimmed and gutters put in with soffits. Also 2 car garage sided, trimmed as well.  The guys that completed that were very proficient, cleaned up every night, and great personalities. Project took roughly week and half. That job was roughly 14,000.  We then had them come back for estimates on garage flat roof, carport roof, and carport trimmed and soffited. This job was split due to weather and was competed in Jan.2015. Those jobs were split between several people.  All well rounded guys and polite.  Would definitely recommend them to anyone. Great people and Great company. :)

unknown

Our consultant, Jim Martin, was very knowledgeable and we were impressed with his approach to our roofing project. We accepted their quote and signed a contract on June 27, 2013. We waited several months and did not hear anything from the company so we began calling at the end of August. From the end of August until October we made several phone calls that were not even returned. By September our roof was leaking whenever it rained, something that we were trying to prevent by signing up for a new roof in June. When our phone calls were finally returned, they could never give us a time frame for when the roof would be completed. In October they started to say "maybe next week" but then there was always a reason why they didn't come. Finally they came out in early/mid-November and completed the roof but then we had to wait an additional couple weeks for gutters. Once everything was complete, my husband went over the punch-list items, things he wanted corrected/completed, with Jim Martin. We are still waiting for a few of the items to be completed.
So far we are happy with the quality of the workmanship overall. The punch-list items were mostly minor things (but still necessary). The workers seemed to take their time to do it right, especially the man who completed our balcony floor remodel. The balcony floor was the source of our in-house leak and we haven't had a problem yet this winter even with all the snow and snow melt. As promised in our consultation, Jim Martin reviewed the work when it was done just before handing us our bill.
It is a shame that the responsiveness was so bad that we wouldn't use them again because our immediate impression of the workmanship seems so good. We wished they would have just returned our phone calls and gave us an honest time estimate instead of avoiding and stalling. We also would have liked them to keep their word and finish the punch-list items without us having to keep calling them to bug them about it. I do not like having to hound them and do not look forward to attempting to call them again in the spring to complete what is left.

Very quick, very professional and efficient.  Would highly recommend!!

These guys were supper nice and did a great job.

It went very well.  I had two minor items that I wanted adjusted after they were complete and they came quickly and completed everything to our satisfaction.  They did great work. Quick, polite, well done.

By far and away the best experience I have ever had with a contractor. I couldn't be happier with the quality of the workmanship, the professionalism, and the cost of the job.

OVERALL THE INSTALL WAS GOOD, THE LEAKS ARE NOT.  tHE RESPONSE TO CALLS FOR HELP WERE PROMPT FOR THE EVALUATION, BUT ULTIMATELY LESS THAN SATISFATORY WITH CONTINUED ICE DAMNS AND LEAKS.

Several men showed up promptly at 8 AM and started to cover all areas of the house so nothing would be damaged when they removed the old roofing.  They  worked until around 7 PM so they could get all the roofing on the house before they left.  All the debris was removed before they left. They returned the next day to work on reinstalling the siding that was removed to replace rotted wood.  On Monday they returned to put up the gutters and completed any siding work that was needed.  All the employees were professional, neat, hard working and friendly. 

My job was realtively small and not time sensitive, however I receive their proposal in April of 2012, accepted it in May of 2012 and waited until December of 2012 for the work to be completed. 
The worked performed was of excellent quality and they performed a few extra pieces of work that I asked them to perform without charging me extra.  I suspect they did not charge me for the extra work due to the long wait time.  Provided the next job is also not time sensitive, I would hire them again.

Estimate / proposal process:
During the originaI proposal process, it took 3 separate visits to take gross then final window measurements.  In addition, It took 3 to 4 versions of the estimate to finally get a level of detail I was comfortable with that itemized the work to be done with separate pricing.  I attribute some of this to an extremely busy owner who is trying to cover much of teh administive end himself while also supervising multiple work crews.
Repair Work:
a) Switala installed doors I purchased.  Install was excellent and they fixed water damage areas thouroughly and did not take the quick way out by just covering it up. 
b) 3 large 3 pane casement windows were delivered in 25-50-25 design versus 33-33-33 design.  I was told this was an error by distributor which I believe.  However, this caused a 4-5 week delay to finish the job.  All casements were ordered slightly smaller than orginal window.  This was now an issue for the 2 front window as the originals were trimed with a boarder anyway.  The Rear 2nd floor 2 pane & rear 3 pane casement window required a new boarder to be added to compinsate for the slightly smaller window.  The inside drywall & trim was fine, but the outside exisitng siding was now a 1/2" or so short all they way around and hence the need to add a boarder which Switala tried to bill me for.
c) Shower exhaust work was basic, but work was excellent.
Final Billing:
I had requested a few additional items to be done that were not originally estimted.  For example. I originally has 1 door estimate, but decided to do 2.  Another example, the install cost for the 2 garage entry doors was much higher than the original estimate.  I was told it was due my request to add aluminum flashing which I believe was included in the original estimate (description was too general and not specific on what was included/not included).  WIth hindsight, I wish I had asked upfront how much some of the changes to the original estimate would cost because it would have helped avoid my big surprise at final billing.  The final bill was about $2,500 (about a third) higher than my original estimate.  I believe I rightfully owed about $1,000 of that, which I paid.  The owner did not dispute and I believe it was due to confusion between the work crew, owner, and the person that does the billing resulting from the few addiitonal items I added, not withstanding the extra exterior trim required becasue of the small window measurement error.
***Overall, the up front estimate process was cumbersome and I felt like I was being nickeled and dimed a little bit on the final invoice.  However, I'd have to say the quality of work was excellent and the honesty by the crew & owner of what work was required was top notch.  They also have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.  The owner, Rick Switala, is a really great guy!  He is honest and his work crew (that included his son) in my case did excellent work and I would not hesitate to use them again.  Communication was fair.  Being as clear & detailed upfront with help the rest of the process.  My hope is that better communication, especially where it adds costs, will improve the process next time so there are no surprises.  Thank you Switala for quality work done right!***

I like the fact that the guy who was here did a good job. The door looks great. I did not like the fact that the owner tried to bill me for extra because it took longer. Basically the guy who did the roofing job in 2011 and the one who estimated the door job at the same time was called by the company. The owner then said that there was additional two to three hundred dollar charge for extra materials and extra time it took this guy to do such a good job. I said that the quote the one who estimated gave me verbally was all inclusive. There was no extra for extra time. I wrote a letter to the owner two months ago. That was kind of a surprise but they never followed up on it and I am assuming that that is a dead issue now because I never heard from them. I had to call the owner several times and asked him when is he coming out to do the job. When we finally agreed when the guy is going to be here, he was here exactly when he said he is going to be and is here until his job is finished. He was punctual.

Our son needed to have his 8-year old roof repaired/tiles replaced due to high wind damage. He had another company (Scott's Enterprises) do the job the first time. They were pricey, and did a bad job. Same tiles blew off again and they would not back their work. So we called Stockmohr, but the guy that came out instead wanted to replace the entire roof and would not repair a small area and was somewhat arrogant. (The funny thing is we were at Stockmohr's store a week prior seeking info to replace our own roof. They were friendly at the time and helpful. We were considering them at that point to do our roof. Needless to say, that won't be happening.)

We heard Switala's was good so we checked Angie's list to see what others had to say. Based on the good reviews, we called and are happy that we did. They came out right away, did a very good job (even matched the tiles perfectly) and did not try to get our son to replace an 8-year old roof. They were professional, courteous and responded in a very timely manner.

Base on this, we asked them to give us an estimate to replace the roof on our own house. Word of wisdom: A small job and lead to a large one if handled with integrity, courtesy, and professionalism.

They are close and they are pleasant to work with.

Excellent communication

Very well.

They did a top notch job on all of the services.  The only issue that I had was the gutter downspouts were not placed to my liking.  They originally ran them right down the face of the house when it was obvious to tuck them into the corners for a more aesthetically pleasing look.  However, they did come back to rectify this.  Overall, we were very happy with their work and I would definitely recommend them to others.