Bates Roofing LLC

1) I contracted for work to begin when my renters went on vacation as we had agreed when they signed the lease last year. They have a large dog that has a doggie door for potty breaks during the day. Bates showed up one week early and started the wrok without asking or telling anyone. My renters told me 3 days after the roofers had already started. Two people from Bates Roofing told me the project manager did not notice the start date that was written on the front page of the contract. Two different Bates staff told me they had to start a week earlier since rain was forecasted for the following week.
2) During the work it did rain while my renters were on vacation. The person stopping by to bring in the mail said the rain was pouring down through the ceiling. My renter contacted me in a panic and told me the leak was near the front door. The roofing crew had not covered the roof completely with plastic as later reported to me by the neighbor. I called the project manager and got a messagethat his voicemail was not set up, so I called the Bates office. I was told the project manager would call me back. He never did, so that evening I made the 40 minute drive to the house to check for myself. I checked, but I was looking in the wrong area in the house. I later found out the leak was not by the front door, but in the middle in the livingroom, and sure enough there is now a long crack left in the ceiling. I have no idea if there will be mold or more cracking over time.
3) After the work was completed I went to the house to do some painting on the trim. Two pieces of roofing were left on the roof. On the side the trim was separated from the house by 1/4 inch. I called the project manager who came out that day. He tried to nail the trim back to the house but the wood had been cut too wide on the roof. He assured me the spot would be repaired and he got on the roof and pull off the scrap roofing tiles that had been left up there.
4) After the project manager left, I notice a hole over the gutter 3 feet long and one and half inches wide over the back door. I hadn't noticed it before because of the gutter. I took out a ladder for a better look and I could see right up under the inside of my roof. I immediately called the project manager back and told him I was concerned about rats crawling into the roof. This would need to be fixed immediately. He told me it would be taken care of.
5) A week later I returned to check on the work. The side trim area was repaired but the big hole over the back door was still there. In the meantime I had messages from the Bates' salesman that they wanted payment.
6) I contacted Bates and spoke with a different project manager. He told me that was a fascia board issue and it was not covered in the contract. I was told that would cost more money. I told him it would have been courteous to tell me the facia board needed to be replaced when the workers found the problem rather than leaving a big hole. He agreed to meet me at the house and after inspecting the area, he agree to have someone come out and add a longer piece of flashing.
7) The flashing that was added does cover the hole. It is nailed directly into the gutter. If I ever have to replace the gutter, the flashing must come off as well.
My overall experience with the Bates Roofing company is poor communication, no final inspection by the project manager when the job is done, and neglectful workers. However, they do have a convincing salesman.

They arrived as promised, did a good job, answered all our questions, and not only cleaned up each day, but cleaned up when the job was done. It was quite warm when they did the job, and they just worked anyway.

The job went well. The roofing crew did an excellent job of cleaning up and installing a new roof. Showed pride in their work. The project maager was not very good at communicating.

I contacted 4 companies for bids on the roof and gutters for my rental in Tacoma. Drove up from Everett and met with their
representative, received estimate and after comparing estimates, selected Bates Roofing on Thursday 7/11/13 to do work. At that time I was told it would be scheduled in a few weeks. On Friday got a call and they wanted to know if work could start on Monday as they had a cancellation and told me the work would take 1 day. I contacted my renters and gave the go ahead. Drove to Tacoma Monday around 10 Am an there were just 2 people working and a small portion of tear off was completed. Waited around until about 3 PM and only a little over and frac12; tear off completed. No problems in underling roof. Went home and Tuesday about 7:30 AM got a call about a problem. Not sure why they did not call the previous night so I could have scheduled drive to not be stuck in traffic for 2 hours.
Drove down and talked with supervisor by phone as he was tied up on another job and moved ahead, also was told there was a scheduling issue with gutter people and they would do following week. Did a site visit on Wednesday and roof was complete, gutter fascia was installed but old gutters were put back and edge fascia was not trimmed. Also was concerned about some rotted 1 X2 on fascia edge next to roof under the new flashing. Was told that this was not in contract but could be taken care of when gutters were done. Waited for a call about completion and rotted wood but did not get so on 8/6 went to Tacoma to do scheduled painting and new gutters were installed but ends not trimmed and gutters not run to end of the roof. Nothing done on rotted wood under new flashing, and their nails have made it difficult to replace wood without damaging new roof. Bill had been sent to rental property. Actual roof and flashing around chimmney look good.
Extremely poor project management, no communication

I wanted to get DirecTV installed but ran into significant line-of-sight issues. While DirecTV was unable to come up with any solutions, I called Bates and a few other roofing companies to see if they could figure out a way to get the dish onto the roof (I have a slate tile roof which the dish cannot mount to directly).
None of the other roofing companies had any solution except to say that it would be a bad idea to replace even a small section of my tile roof. Bates, however, told me that they have a solution called a CammDeck, which they were able to mount in my roof, and DirecTV mounted the dish directly to that.
Bates had a solution, installation was smooth, and they even were able to give an active duty military discount. I highly recommend calling Nickolas or Bill from Bates.

I had talked with and signed a contract with the salesman including all of the above mentioned items. A few days before the work began the project supervisor came by measured, assessed, and confirmed that all would be done according to the contract. On the day work began the crew showed up with 30 pound felt and not the Tiger Paw under layment as requested. They changed it out. They tore off the shingles on the back porch although the contract said to leave them. At my insistence they put in the gable venting. When I asked about rerouting the gutters they said a gutter man would do that. He never showed up. When asked when the project supervisor would show up, I was told he was on a fishing trip. I don't feel the problems were the fault of the work crew (they did satisfactory work), but the fact that they were not supervised, or at the very least informed of the project details. It appears that communication is poor at Bates Roofing Company.

Accurate estimate, technically knowledgeable, fast, good quality and good communications.

They did a great job. I am very happy. The only negative thing is they were not very good at relaying when they would or would not be there.

The job took two days, as promised. There were no surprises. They were well managed and efficient. There was superb clean-up. I would highly recommend them. Two of my neighbors had work done after watching how well my job went.