Bippus Roofing

Very nice owners & workers but very poor communication between supervisors and workers as well as to us, the CUSTOMER. My parents had done business with their father in the years past, so that is why I chose them over all the other businesses. Both owners told me they vividly recalled working with their father on this home 25 years ago, so I expected much better service and professionalism. Sadly, we found a real issue with clear communication within this company. It all began in July 2016 when the owner called the day before to announce they'd be starting work the next day. When I expressed genuine surprise over the short notice, the owner blamed the "girls" in the office for not contacting me beforehand. The first day of the job, which involved a relatively large crew, the owner told my husband and me that workers "might occasionally" need to use our bathroom. "Occasionally" ended up meaning the bathroom was in constant use over two weeks, with workers obviously scheduling their "morning business" in our bathroom at the start of work each day. Thankfully, the aging septic system held out under all the constant and continuous use. I understand roofing, especially removal, is messy, dirty work, especially the removal of the old shakes, but we did not expect debris INSIDE of the house. Yes, they laid down a sheet of plastic on the floor, but it did not catch the debris that scattered all over the toilet and floor behind the toilet when they pulled down their pants to use the toilet. Consequently, I was tasked with cleaning the bathroom, toilet and sink each day after they left. I paid nearly $27,000 for this project and it would have been appropriate for this company to provide a portable toilet and not impose on their customers. I politely asked the owner that workers do not use their powerful leaf blowers on the delicate groundcover during clean up, yet they did blow, and further used the blower to blow debris into the porches! There was so much debris blown onto the porches, I had to wash the windows and walls and use a shop vacuum on the floor just to get into the house. Tar that was removed from the roof was dropped onto the sidewalk and at the end of the day, my husband and I had to get on our hands and knees to scrape it off as the heat was making it stick to the cement. That first evening, we expressed our concerns and disappointment via email, and the next morning the owner was extremely apologetic and said he would discuss this issue during their staff meeting the next week. One of the foremen stated the clean up issue was due to a language barrier. However, we believe the other foreman was bilingual?! The owner had a worker scrub the curbing and sidewalk, but unfortunately, wire brush was causing more damage to the sidewalk and I asked him to discontinue. We presumed clean up would be more thorough after we made our concerns heard, yet during the two weeks of the project, I continued to spend 2-3 hours each day cleaning up after the workers had "cleaned up", picking up shingles, nails, plastic, and other debris. Another issue of communication was when my husband and I had concern that some of the shingles on the back of the house were not in a straight pattern as they were on the front roof and emailed the owner that evening. We received no email response or phone call, but the next morning, one of the foremen informed us that the owner (apparently in anger and frustration) was going to remove all the new shingles and start over. Thankfully we were able to speak with the owner, explain our concerns and have him try to explain the installation process to us. We still are confused about the irregular pattern (on the back roof, not the front), but looks like we'll just have to live with it. At the conclusion of the job, as I was ready to write the check, I was informed of some additional charges (in addition to nearly $3000 extra for unforeseen removal of hot asphalt underlayment) that were, in his words, "pocket change," but resulted in an additional $600.00. This is hardly "pocket change" in our household. We are far from wealthy and we would have appreciated being forewarned that there would be another additional cost. Only a few days after I paid this company, I received a California Preliminary Notice stating that if Bippus did not pay a $10,000 bill for supplies from a Chico company, a lien would be placed on my property. Just when I thought the stress of the roof job was put to rest, I had to deal with that additional stress. In September I called their bookkeeper, explaining my concern for my property being threatened due to nonpayment on their part. The bookkeeper assured me she would pay the bill that day and she is a woman of her word. I confirmed payment, finally closing this matter. We cannot attest to the quality of work performed, but time will tell. We know the quality of materials is top of the line. We have faith that the work is acceptable as their knowledge and experience in roofing is not in question and for that reason rate them a "C" rather than a "D."

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It was a reasonable price. It was very positive up until I noticed one thing, my house was built around 1960 so it is an older home and when they stripped off the old roof, between the boards there is a gap of quarter to half an inch. That is how they built the house I guess back then. What I noticed is, in the garage, where I can look up and see, the nails holding the shingles on, some of them are through that gap and I am really concerned as to what's going to happen as the roof ages. I don't know if it is a common thing and I don't know whom to ask. I have done business with them before, in fact, this is the third roof that I have had them put on so I have had confidence in them but I am a bit concerned about this and I have not gone up to see if there are areas where the nails do not come in contact with the wood. They were pretty close to other estimates I got, so they were right in line with other estimates. There are no leaks so far and other than that one problem, everything has been fine. They were scheduled a day to come and another job came up; they said it was a Government job so I got bumped in the middle of the job. Unfortunately, it happened to be on a Friday, it rained all Saturday, and they assured me that there would be no water getting in because my roof was off and they were right, there were no leaks but it really worried me.

The service was excellent. He was very accessible, responsive, and he had a wonderful attitude towards us and with the service he provided. He was very pleasant and his workers were very professional. They cleaned up after themselves and were respectful of my yard.

They did the job and stuck to the estimate