ROBINSON COMMUNITY BUILDERS

We'd had record rain, and my roof, judged to be about 5 years old, was not able to take the downpour. Turns out that the roof was likely older than we'd initially hoped. (We'd bought the home as-is knowing it would need a bit of work.) I found these guys through the Service Magic website after calling list after list of roofers who were backlogged with work. I think I called 25 roofers--three times each-- and got 3 calls back from all of that. Meanwhile, water was leaking into my bedrooms, so we needed someone fast. I was extremely uncertain about going with this company since there are no reviews of their work. Also, the "community organization/nonprofit that uses 'previously disadvantaged' workers" part of their tag was initially a bit off-putting. I mean, this is my home- my biggest investment-- so I am about business. As I said, however, we were desperate. When the gentleman came for the estimate he took time to make a diagram and explain to me what was going on with my roof, which I really appreciated. He also brought copies of the licensure and insurance. I hired him after pricing out other contractors and getting stood up over and over again. I also called to check the validity of the contractor's license and found that it was indeed valid (however- it only lists the owner on the license, not the workmen or his partner, who initially came for the estimate and who performed the work). He agreed to begin the work immediately with a deposit for half of the final amount. I made out the check to Robinson Community Builders but was told to write it to the owner, Darryl Robinson. This bugged me, but I did it anyway. Except for the men being RIDICULOUSLY LATE (I'm talking 4-5 hours late) the work went fine. The crew was polite and efficient. The repair wasn't perfect, but I was okay with it. But then, a week later, they began work on our second roof. From the beginning, it was a disaster. First, the gentleman (same guy who gave me the estimate) quoted me one price over the phone (He had observed the issue with the roof/ceiling the week before), but brought over a contract with a different price on it. The difference was about 8%, so not insignificant. When I asked him why the price was different, he said "That's just how much it costs." Later, the owner, Darryl, corrected the mistake, but did so after setting the price for an additional leak (unrelated to the roof-- it turned out that our toilet was leaking as well). I did appreciate that he went back to the original price. Second, the work crew came over to complete the roof work in the rain, which as a layperson I had heard was a big no-no. They told me it was finished. The next morning, my roof was still leaking, the floor was wet, and some of the ceiling had fallen in. I called the owner immediately. He initially (on the phone) tried to tell me that the wetness was from the toilet, but I knew that wasn't true-- when it rained, water had poured in. When it stopped, no water. That's a cause-and-effect if there ever was one. He told me that he was "coming right now"-- 9:15 am-- to re-do the repair. No one had shown by 4pm. Third, the workers came out again, late, after standing me up the previous day. This happened twice more for the interior work: they set a time, I took off of work, they didn't show or were hours and hours late. It was infuriating-- I had to re-draw my entire schedule FOUR TIMES when they didn't show at the agreed-upon time. Never once were they on time. And finally, they did not seem to have enough drop cloths/ plastic to cover my floors as they did the work, and asked me multiple times for something to put down to protect it. They ended up using nearly a whole box of my garbage bags to cover the floor, and I had a BIG clean-up after. This was a small inconvenience, but annoying nonetheless. Overall, the lack of timeliness and professionalism has made the relatively reasonable price totally null. There also seems to be a distinctive difference in the work ethic of the owner and his partner. Because of this, I would not use them again, though their mission seems like a good one.