Royal Contractors of LA, LLC

Drew Ratley was very knowledgeable and helpful. He made recommendations that other estimators did not. We agreed on a price that I was pleased with. The roofer showed up on time and were very nice and professional. They did an excellent job and cleaned everything. I could not be happier with my roof and would definately hire Royal Contractors of LA. LLC again for roofing and other jobs.

Drew came out and presented his estimate, he was nice and seemed motivated to do a good job. During the meeting he kept saying he would eat the deductible and that I needed to keep that to myself. He started and I could tell he had zero time management. The contractors doing the other homes near me were done within three days. It took Royal over a week, and during this time he had his equipment in my driveway. I would come home and his men would be laying in the yard, my garage, etc. Drew was never at the job site, until his men damaged my neighbors house. At this time my insurance company was involved in the flood in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, not sure which office. The insurance company was having issues getting the checks out, as the office that cut them was flooded. This is where things got crazy with Drew Ratley! He had been talking and dealing with the insurance company, when the check did not arrive he sent me a text telling me that he was placing a lien on my house. I called my agent and she informed me of the issues with the flooding. I called Drew and told him I would gladly pay him what he was owed. He started cussing, telling me it was screwed up, this went on for a while. I told him to come get his money, and we were done. He sent me a text telling me he was NOT coming to get the money. Note: I will gladly provide copies of the text messages. He cursed, threatened to sue me, called me all kinds of names, etc. What I could not understand was I told him I would pay him. Then I found out why he wanted the insurance company to pay. He sent in an additional bill of materials, and he thought he would not get paid. I told him to provide me a bill and I would pay that as well. His office provided me something that looked like a child did, however, I agreed to pay the extra charge as well. I told him to meet me at my bank and I would get him a cashiers check for the amount due. Again, he became upset, saying he wanted cash! I told him either we do it this way or we go to court. This person is very hard to deal with once he gets your business. Do not use him for any service. I would also recommend you check the jail bookings for 6/27/17.

Things started out OK. Drew Ratley, the company's owner, showed up to start things out and did an inspection of my roof for hail and wind damage. After a while, my insurance company sent out their own inspector who agreed that the roof of the house, detached garage, back patio roof, and carport needed to be replaced. Ratley refused to begin any work until I'd paid everything out (including the deductible). Unaware that this was not the best of ideas, I paid him in advance so that I could get the work done. During all these negotiations, I was told that if I were ever to have leaks or if his work ever fails, I should simply need to contact the company to get things fixed. Moving on, the work on the house and garage roof were done in a day! It looks great! The company added vents to the roofs of both the house and detached garage and all that seems great! The corrugated roof of the car port and back patio are a different story, though. Before starting work on any corrugated roofs, Drew had suggested that instead of replacing the metal roof that existed, he should just cover over it with a different corrugated material. I agreed to this, as it seemed reasonable; he said that leaving the original material in place would add strength and the new material would make rain fall quieter in storms. The very first time it rained here, though, the back patio leaked badly in several places! I called Ratley about 4 times and 4 times, he sent someone out to try to fix the leaks. I took pictures and even made marks with a grease pen where there were leaks and showed them to the guys who showed up. They added some foam (which is VERY visible from the ground!) and flashing to the roof where the patio meets the house and did some various other things and there were still leaks. After that, months went by of me leaving messages and texting Ratley, trying to get someone to at least return a call. During that time, I called out two other contractors to get estimates on fixing Ratley's work. Both of them had said that not removing the original corrugated material on the back patio was a terrible idea and simply covering it up with new stuff would almost promise leaks. It was only after contacting my local Better Business Bureau that I finally got a call, over a year after the work had started, from Ratley. This was when things really got interesting. The call I got from Ratley literally started out with him asking if I'd "Like to step into the front yard and settle this, like a man" and asking if I had "boxing gloves or something." After asking for sure if he was threatening me, he told me he was just kidding and asked if I'd be there in a few minutes for him to follow up. Two hours later, he showed up and spent time telling me how upset he and his wife were that a complaint had been filed. He went up on the roof and looked at the patio cover and told me that the reason it was leaking was because there were pine needles on there. I'd explained that it had leaked since the very first rain storm after their work had started, but he didn't seem to understand; he insisted that pine needles were the cause of the leaks. During his visit, he had asked me twice to contact the BBB and try to remove my complaint against him. Towards the end of his visit, he had said that if things still leaked after this time, he would refuse to return. At this point, I pointed out that the carport corrugated roof had never even been touched during his work. Visibly upset, he asked me to provide a copy of the insurance paperwork. Since I didn't have it immediately on me, he became more upset and started to tell me that he had "Ate the deductible," and very clearly suggested that I should have been happy with the work that had been done, even though I still had leaks and the carport was never touched. Shortly after, he left, threatening to place a lien on my house, and leaving a back patio that STILL leaks and a carport that still has never been repaired.