JIMMY BALL ROOFING

This is an addendum to my review of July, 2012 for Jimmy Ball Roofing. We had some high winds and heavy rain about a week ago. A couple of days ago, I went into a room that I use mostly for storage. The room is kept closed and I seldom go in there. This time I discovered that there had been a bad leak and a section of ceiling had been damaged.. Outside, I could see that some of the shingles had been lifted up around the edges by the wind, allowing water to blow up under them and leak down through the attic to the room below. Now, please believe me, I would NEVER again have Jimmy Ball set foot on my property for any reason. I had a person recommended by the local Lowe's come to put a tarp over the damaged area until the insurance adjuster can get here to examine it. Here is the bad part - the shingles on the WHOLE ROOF were not nailed properly when they were installed, and they did not use enough nails, so the shingles all over the house are in danger of slipping or being blown off. I of course had no way of knowing this, since I have no knowledge of construction nor no reason to go up on the roof. But when the insurance adjuster comes, he is most likely going to deny the damage claim because of the improper installation, not to mention that I am going to get stuck for the cost of the rest of the roof. I paid for supposedly 30-year-shingles that have been on the house for seven years, and are now useless. If you value your property, your time, your money--look elsewhere for a roofing contractor.

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When we bought our house the first we needed to do was to replace the roof. Just looking at it you could tell that the previous owner did a lot of patch work (different color shingles) and tried to use layers of shingles instead of wood to cover a gap. Jimmy Ball came out and did the estimate then met us at a roofing store so we could pick out the shingles. At this point we were told that the work would take about 2 days but we couldn't really schedule the work because it was starting to get cold and he 2 warmish days. Luckily the days lined up about 1-2 weeks later and Jimmy's crew showed up to do the work. The crew was a foreman and 4-5 roofers. The foreman sat on the porch and asked for coffee while the crew worked. I thought it was a little weird, but it worked for them. On the first day the crew got all the old roof off, the bad spot fixed, and the tar paper down. (I wish I had read the other reviews before the work. If I had I would have looked around more after the first day.)
The previous owners also left us with about 6 big truck loads of junk. I asked the foreman if it would be ok if we filled their truck up at the end of the day after they loaded all the roof trash. An agreement was reached that for an extra $200 they would top off the truck on day 1, top off on day 2, make an extra trip, and a friend of the foreman's would come by to pick up all the scrap metal. I'm not sure if we got ripped off on the junk deal, but then and even now I don't care because it saved me a weekend of driving back and forth to the dump.
Day 2 was much like day 1 except the roof when on. After the work was done I walked around the house with the foreman. Their trash truck left some tracks in the yard. I mentioned them but was told that I could just take a shovel and level it all out and they would come back in the spring to throw some seed and straw down if we wanted them too. I wasn't happy with the answer but 3 days earlier Comcast laid a cable through our yard to install service to the house and pretty much the same thing, it's our problem unless we want to wait until spring. I guess my frustration was drained from Comcast so I didn't think too much about the roofers comments. Other than the tracks in the yard, everything looked pretty clean and a lot of the junk was gone so I was happy.
It's 6 months since the work was done now and the roof did well through the winter. I have seen more roofing nails than I would have liked coming from somewhere and had to deal with 2 flat tires because of them. The melting snow and rain must have washed them out of flower boxes or other landscaping structures.
I rated the price as fair (C) because the price was about the same as Lowe's quoted us on another property we own. It was not a great deal, I think it was pretty much market value.
Quality would have been an excellent (A) if the tire tracks had not been in the yard and less nails would have popped up.
Responsiveness/Punctuality was fair (C) they showed when the should have but I never got the impression of any extra.
Professionalism was good (B). Jimmy seemed to know what he was talking about and did what he said would.
Overall, the roof got replaced in 2 days and when a contractor the work done on budget and in time I think it's a good thing. Something to note is that we never saw Jimmy Ball while the work was being done. Not a big issue for me but I thought it was worth noting.

I needed to replace my approximately 25-year-old roof because of a suspected leak and general deterioration.  There was an obvious  "dip"  in the roof so when I called, I told Jimmy that I knew some of the wood sheeting was warped and would need replacing.  The estimate that he left me made no mention of replacing the sheeting.  When he came back for me to sign the proposal, I again mentioned the sheeting and he said that he would check it and replace it if necessary.   I was not able to be home for the entire day that the work took place.  When I returned that evening, the new shingles had been installed and there was still an obvious dip in the roof.  I pointed this out the next day when he returned to be paid.  Mr. Ball told me that the wood looked fine when the shingles were off and that we needed to wait a couple of weeks, that after the shingles "settled" the roof would probably be level but that he would come back and check it, and if necessary they could  solve the problem by going into the attic and using 2 x 4s to "prop up" the area and make it even.  This did not sound exactly kosher to me but I went ahead and paid him.  After looking at the area of the roof that  I pointed out, he apparently thought better of leaving his "Roofing by Jimmy Ball" advertising sign in my yard and took it with him.
Before the first week was up, I went into my kitchen one morning and found standing water on my ceramic cook top, which could only have come from the range vent.  I called Jimmy and informed him of this and told him he needed to come back immediately and take care of the problem.  He blamed the leak on a heavy rain storm that hit the area overnight.  I have lived in the house for many years through heavy rains, blizzards, high winds and nearby tornadoes and never at any time had there been a leak around that vent until he and his crew were on my roof.  He rather impatiently told me that he would come and look at it.  He did not.  The next time we had a heavy rain, the same thing happened.  The water ran down the outside of the metal duct work, into the cabinet area over the stove and soaked and ruined one of my cookbooks.  I called him again, and he did not answer the phone.  I left him a voice mail informing him that the leak had recurred and he needed to take care of it.  No reply.  Long story short, I had a friend call him from another number and that call was answered.  The friend said that he wanted to talk to him about a roofing job and gave my address, which was not recognized by Mr. Ball, and they made an appointment to meet the next day.  Mr. Ball did not show up, claiming sickness, and they rescheduled the appointment for the next day.  He did show up for the second appointment on Thursday, May 17, with an associate.  His excuse for not returning my calls was that he had been "injured"  (I won't go into detail on this but the word "karma" comes to mind) and had not been returning any calls (odd that he spoke with my friend with an unfamiliar phone number). The associate checked the vent and it was found that the vent was caulked improperly and had a crack in it.  The associate re-caulked  the vent and they said they would be back at the end of the week to take care of the uneven place.  To date, there have been no more leaks.
On Saturday, May 18, two of Mr. Ball's associates came and lifted the shingles.  These guys, being more honest than Mr. Ball, cut out and replaced the damaged area of wood and replaced the shingles.  The roof is still far from perfect but looks better than it did.
I will consider this a learning experience for future reference.   I fully expected that the wood on the entire front roof area would need replacing and that he would certainly take advantage of that opportunity to charge me extra by doing so.  I cannot imagine why he did not.   The blatant disregard  for my concerns about the leak around the range vent is totally unacceptable and makes his "labor guaranteed for three (3) years" statement a joke.  I would not recommend Jimmy Ball  Roofing (he also does business as Jimmy Ball Construction Company) to anyone for any reason,

They put it on wrong; it has rusted nails sticking up through it and it's leaking. They have not finished their job since then. They left a bunch of debris in my gutters, nails in my yard, and did not clean up their mess. My front porch gutter fell off because they didn't put the flashing on it, so it leaked and rotted the wood under the roof. There are lose shingles. I've got leaks in my kitchen, bedroom and over the basement steps and it looks a new leak is starting in the living room. They've come once after I've called and called to have a look, but didn't do too much. I have a 3 year warranty on the work that they're not honoring. They did not give me a contract, but a proposal, which they did not live up to. I paid extra for a 30 year architectural roof that they put on wrong. I've had to hire another company has come to do an estimate to fix their mistakes.

I would not recommend anyone to use them! Be sure to check out your roofing company and make sure they have a liscense and provide a written contract. Do not pay them up front. Make sure they are doing what they say their doing (like installing the correct roof, flashing, drip gaurds, and felt).

IF YOU NEED ANY ROOFING DO YOUR HOMEWORK EVEN IF IT COST A LITTLE MORE. AS THEY SAY YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!