ML CONTRACTING

I hired this contractor because I went through my state licensing website to find licensed contractors and then I checked out online reviews. This person got good reviews and when I met him he told me he was between jobs and could fit me in. I had actually hired someone else who had come very highly recommended but at the last minute he got hurt and could not do the job. But this meant I knew the materials I wanted and approx how much I was willing to pay for the job. ML Contracting is owned by Mike LaForest - he came to give me his quote and signed a contract specifying everything I wanted on my roof. He started a week after he said he would and the first thing that happened was that he had his team come and rip off about half of the shingles off the roof knowing torrential rains in the forecast - when they left for the day the did not cover the roof properly and water poured into my attic, eventually making its way to the ceiling of the second floor. This water damage was still causing problems even after LaForest left the job. Things went along - I knew they were using the shingles I requested because I saw the boxes but that was about the only thing that was done properly. At the same time as the roof was being done, I was insulating my attic and before the job I confirmed with him that I wanted a ridge vent. Mike came to me and told me that there were problems with the chimney - he wanted more money to fix it and then he said when he took off the shingles from the barn he was also going to add monies to buy plywood as a bottom layer because he didn't know that he as going to need it. It was $400 so I authorized that expense but took a picture of the inside ceiling damage and we made a deal that if he fixed the chimney I would take care of the inside work. Lots of small things happened along the way - his workers were continually blowing my fuses because they kept plugging their equipment into my outside outlets - and that was causing my alarm system to activate - although I repeatedly asked Mike not to do this, by the end of the job, I owed $300 in false alarms to my alarm company (after the comped 6 alarms!). The contractors dented the fascia that was staying on the house and as they were throwing the shingles off the roof, they damaged link fencing and roofing nails were left all over my back yard and on my driveway. I brought all of these issues to Mike's attention and he assured me everything would be perfect. From the ground, I had other concerns about what was happening - the borders around the house looked awful and I could tell the flashing didn't look right. Because the house was almost finished (except for the few things I could see) and half the barn was done, I gave them the second payment but immediately after that, they had stop work because I was notified they had never applied for a permit so they could not work until it was approved - again I asked about the permit twice and was told he had applied online but that the system was slow and he usually didn't get the permit until he was done with the job - I have since found out that LaForest had never applied for a permit in Pittfield (despite bragging about all of the jobs he had done). I was worried about the project, so I asked my nephew, a former roofer, to go up and see what it looked like. He was extremely upset - he told me nails had been haphazardly punched into the roof, the drip edge was not the 8 inches specified in the contract, none of the flashing had been replaced and the roof vent was never cut - they just placed the venting material over the peak of the roof. I contacted Mike and sent him pictures and he denied everything - we argued for almost a week before he blamed his workers for cutting corners and he promised everything would be fixed. He eventually cut the roof vent and replaced flashing. He did repair one chimney but neglected to tell me the other chimney was in bad shape. He flat out refused to replace the drip edge. I told him that if he fixed the other aspects of the roof and completed the barn, the job could be done. I waited 2 weeks (filled with excuses) before he came back to my home. He did eventually shingle the barn and he attempted to lay a flat roof over my porch. The only thing that was done well was the chimney. I eventually told him to get off my property because it was clear that the work being done was so bad that I knew I was going to have to hire someone else to fix it. I withheld $1000 from him but it turned out that the entire roof has so many problems I will probably have to replace it. The shingles, which should have been secured by at least 4 nails but ideally 6, have only 1 nail - and some don't even have that... I had to hire someone to fix the other chimney, completely re-do the flat roof because it leaked immediately and redo the back porch roof because after the first breeze, half the shingles blew off... There were so many other problems with this contractor but the bottom line is that he should not have a license! He signed a contract to do a job and, needless to say, the work is so shoddy that I have wasted over $11,000 on his "work". Don't hire this person!

Never came by to evaluate the problem as promised, despite several phone attempts to follow up on my part.

The price quoted was very competitive and the shingles used we in line with what we wanted. The job was done well and I was impressed by their cleanup. I would recommend them for others looking to have roofs replaced.