Best Choice Total Home Improvement

Response to Review:
Best Choice installed a roof for this customer in August of 2018. Before starting any job I personally verify the particulars on the contract. Upon confirming the type of exhaust that was sold to the customer, in this case can vents is what was listed on the contract, the customer demanded the installation of a ridge vent. I then explained that was not on his contract and disclosed certain things that are required with a ridge vent. One being that you have to have the appropriate overhangs to provide intake and if not products like edge vent would have to be installed to bring in air at an additional cost. Two, confirming the type of material that you have on your overhangs i.e. wood, vinyl or aluminum and three that any existing gable vents would have to be closed off with the installation of a ridge vent. The customer stated that he hired another company within the past two years to install new vinyl continuous vented soffit along with new aluminum fascia and gutters. He expressed that intake would be no problem and that he had plenty of intake and wanted the ridge vent. I relayed that if in fact you have overhangs on the front and back side of your home and you hired a company to install continuously vented soffit that should work, we would just have to close off your gable vents but no additional work to install a ridge vent would be free or included (i.e. removing and re-setting the vinyl to cut in additional venting). During the installation of his roof my crews air compressor did leak a small amount of oil on an area of his brick pavers and his gutter above the garage door was damaged during the tear off process. Once we completed the roof my installer walked the job with the customer and he went over the gutter and the oil stain. My installer made the phone call to me to inform me of the situation and I instructed him to hold back $500 dollars on his final bill until these items were taken care of for the homeowner, no questions asked. He confirmed my installer gave him $100 and he kept $250 of the $500 to take care of the rest of the bill.
On Sunday January 6th 2019 we received a text message from the customer stating that he had condensation in his garage attic had wanted us to look at it. I visited his home the following morning to inspect the problem. That was when I discovered that he is using the garage as a growing facility and it was heated to roughly 74 degrees and had high levels of moisture. Upon my inspection I showed him areas where there were multiple holes in the ceiling and untapped drywall seams to where heat and moisture from the garage was easily escaping into his attic. I told him that the current condition of the garage and insulation was in no way fit for this use regardless of the ventilation. I explained to him that when you lose any amount of heated air into your attic it can cause problems with the warm moist air condensing on a cold surface, causing condensation and that this garage needs to be properly insulated and air sealed if it is going to be used in this manner. There were also many old stains on the drywall ceiling that I pointed out to the homeowner showing that this has been a ongoing issue. I offered that day to baffle the garage attic space and treat it. I also informed him I would use a BPI Certified Firm to do the work so we could have an evaluation of the insulation and ventilation in the garage at no cost to him and that we are here to help our customers and stand behind our work. BPI stands for Building Performance Institute. My thought in using this type of company would be to re assure the homeowner of the importance of properly insulating the garage and provide him with that report from a third party. Then the conversation came up of whether or not the original company he hired to do his continuous vented soffit had actually cut in additional venting and who is responsible for that if they in fact did not. I did let the homeowner know that was the reason I disclosed that with him before starting the job and to add additional venting in the overhangs you would have to remove the gutters, aluminum fascia trim and take down the vinyl to cut in more venting. It is not something you can do from the attic without damaging the soffit material. I also told him that we were in no way responsible to do that work for free. I would have no problem cutting in more venting for free but would not remove the gutters, soffit and fascia and reinstall them for free. I recommended that we get my insulation company in there to treat the attic and baffle it and get the evaluation completed. The homeowner rightfully so contacted the building department and had the inspector out to his home to show him the issue and get his advice. The inspector passed our roof with no code violations and gave the recommendation of baffles and more insulation and also referenced that R13 insulation in walls is required if you’re going to be heating your garage. The allegation in his review that we spoke to the building inspector beforehand and bribed a city official is false and very insulting to both myself and the inspector. I have not spoken to the building inspector, I simply called the township office after the customer told us he was coming to his home to get a copy of his inspection report which the secretary provided us. The customer seemed to be unhappy with the township's inspection and hired an independent home inspector. At that point the customer provided me with a copy of the home inspectors report. He referenced that the garage attic space is not performing as intended due to some soffit vents being chocked off by insulation and that this along with the lack of the correct amount of rafter baffles is preventing the garage attic space from staying dry. He also recommended that the insulation in the garage be removed and let the area dry out before installing new insulation. Once I received the report I offered in writing to the home owner that I would pay the company I use to remove the wet insulation and re install new insulation to the current standards and grade he had existing for free. At that time they would also baffle and treat the attic which I offered for free the day I was at his home. The reason I want to have the evaluation done is because I know that if the insulation and air sealing is not upgraded and he continues to use the garage in this manner the condensation issue will not stop. He fails to mention in his review that his inspector also said the roof shows good workmanship in its installation. The problem here is that I will not do the soffit work for free nor would it have been free at the time of the original installation. I let him know I would share my cost on the soffit work because of the situation, but could not do it for free. In an email he told me that he was going to go back to the original company he hired to do the soffit work to see if they would come out and take care of this and told me to call the owner of the company he hired to see if they would split the cost with me. I again relayed that I would remove the insulation, treat the attic, baffle it and re install insulation to the existing grade and level for free but will not be doing the soffit work for free and again offered sharing my cost with him on the soffit work. I also explained that it would be best to have the soffit work done at the same time of having the insulation removed so that the garage is not without insulation for any longer than needed and that I would recommend it not be heated during this time. I, in the form of a email, said if this is acceptable to you I would like to put in in writing and outline what we were doing and have both myself and him sign it so I could get the job into scheduling and avoid any confusion on what was to be performed. He then stated that he might as well pay someone else to do all this work and he will be sending me a bill when it’s completed. I apologize about the long explanation but I would just like to show the public that we have never ran from any problems and offered to help him numerous times in writing. We are a family owned and operated company and take allegations like this very seriously.