Associated Exteriors Inc

John Lapota (per his business card he is a property restoration specialist and certified master shingle applicator) from Associated Exteriors, Inc. showed up on my door step late one afternoon and asked if he could check our roof for any hail damage from the 6-11-17 hail storm. After his inspection he showed me “one” photo of damage to the shingles on the roof and indicated that we had damage to “every elevation and every slope”, the cladding around the windows had damage along with the metal gutters (one picture of each also shown). He stated Associated Exteriors Inc. was not a storm chaser company and that they were looking for work to just fill the rest of the season and could take on only a few more jobs. They would be able to repair all the external damage done to our home; roof, windows and gutter. He stated that they would work directly with the insurance company, he would like to come in and assist me with making the phone call to open a claim. They only thing they asked of us was if they started/initiated the claim with the insurance company that we in turn give them the work. He indicated out of all the claims that they have helped file with insurance companies they only had one that was rejected. He indicated that the June storm was a category 5 and our area had gotten hit pretty bad so there was no way the insurance company would reject our claim. I told him I would like time to think about it and if he could schedule an appointment to come back. He asked me why and I told him it was getting late as it was after 5pm and that I wanted to have time to research his company. He then started telling me how the owner of Assoc Exteriors was originally from the PA area and had a shady business partner who embezzled from the company. That is why he relocated to Wisconsin and began a new company (per their website they are located in Blaine MN). I could feel free to call the owner, Scott, and ask him any questions. Their website indicates that they “do it all”. I was only able to find one case with the BBB and at the time I could not find a company listing on Angie’s List. The following week we opened a claim. John came back when the insurance adjuster was at the house making the initial inspection. The insurance adjustor said he was only able to find one area on our back elevation that had a damaged shingle, the windows and gutter on the back elevation did have damage. After the adjuster left John indicated that we needed to call a second adjustor to come out. He said the first adjuster did tell him that he was a little more strict with his inspections than what other adjuster were. I was then told of yet another client that had the same issue with an adjustor and had to have a second adjuster come out, that this is very common (previously he said they had only had one claim denied, different client - different town; and now he is saying this client too was also denied after the second inspection). He said during the second inspection he would bring his boss with as he used to be an insurance adjuster and he would be able to point out the areas to the adjuster that would qualify us for a new roof. He also said that our shingles were no longer being manufactured and he would send in one of our shingles to a company that would test it to see if there were any available color matches. He was confident there would not be any matches so in this case the insurance company would then replace the whole roof due to not being able to match the shingle colors. I found this a little far fetched as I still see new home construction with this color of roofing - our home was build a little over 10 years ago. John and his boss came to the house and did the walk thru as the second insurance adjuster completed his inspection. All 3 were on the roof. After the inspection the adjuster and John came to the door (no boss). The adjuster explained his review process, how he showed Associated Exteriors how to properly look at shingles etc. He agreed with the first adjustor that there was only damage to the one shingle. The adjuster did however say that due to the heavy storms (hurricanes in TX and FL) that the company is redoing how they look at claims and adjusters are getting spread thin. After the adjuster left John stayed and told me how he “really learned a lot”. For a company that claimed that they could do it all he has never called me to try to attempt to get our business for fixing the area of damage on the roof, re-cladding the windows or replacing the gutters. Not that we would have replaced the gutters as is just cosmetic. By the way, his explanation of fixing the windows was to just remove the metal and replace it with new metal (re-cladding). There was no way I would have allowed Associated Exteriors to complete any work. I called our window manufacture directly. They explained why we would not want to just replace the metal cladding and the process for having our windows fixed properly. They have studies showing why this is the correct process and these have been filed with the insurance companies. He was able to refer me to a few companies. I am now working with another company who has a website, a wonderful brochure (specialize in windows, siding and windows) and are a certified contractor for our window manufacture. He explained why we would need window replacements (just like the manufacture did) and explained the process. Prior to our initial appointment he contacted the manufacture and had the list of all the windows (sizes and styles) installed in the house when we built. He did a through walk thru of all the windows. He reviewed the insurance companies payment explanation (check not cashed yet) and indicated that they did not make proper payments for even re-cladding the windows (its not paying enough for materials let alone labor. Since window replacements are going to cost more he is going to work directly with the insurance company. I feel confident that we now have a wonderful contractor and the work will get done properly. Again, there is no way I would have hired Associated Exteriors Inc. to do any work on our residence.

They do topnotch work. They are prompt and cleanup really well.