Cole Roofing & Construction

Mr. Cole showed up on time for the initial estimate appointment and we discussed my project needs in detail. I specifically pointed out areas of concern including the chimney and our 6" bathroom fan roof vent which is difficult to find at local suppliers. We also discussed removing and residing over the existing gable end vents with James Hardie siding including painting and installing continuous run soffit vents in addition to repairing a loose fascia board...all of which Mr. Cole said he would do in addition to replacing the roof. His cost estimates were very good and I worked with Mr. Cole for over a month in advance so all the work could be scheduled for the two weeks at the end of October when I had time off and would be home. The week prior to construction, he stated the roofing and siding crews would both be at my home on 10/27, but only the roofing crew showed up that day. Very few of the crew members spoke good English if at all so it was difficult to communicate with them but they worked very hard although their attention to detail was lacking. I paid extra for using a synthetic underlayment material but the roofing crew ran out of the synthetic material and I caught them using regular tar paper without asking me first instead of the synthetic which is what I paid for. They installed the overlap in the wrong direction on a section of drip edge which would have allowed water to run down behind it that I also brought to their attention, luckily before the shingles were put on which would have made correcting the problem more difficult. Once the old roofing shingles were stripped off, I saw a large open gap between the chimney and the roof deck plywood which I brought to Mr. Cole's attention while he was briefly on site....but more on that later. After the crew had finished up and left, I was cleaning up roofing debris in the attic, I noticed they had installed the wrong bathroom fan roof vent with one that had no collar for attaching the 6" flex duct, so they literally just nailed the flex duct insulation to the roof deck on top so it looked like it was connected to the roof vent and left it that way without mentioning anything to me about the issue..again even after I had specifically discussed this potential concern with Mr. Cole at the time of the estimate. In addition, the gas water heater roof vent in the garage utility room was not sealed properly and I could see daylight around the pipe looking up from the inside where it penetrated the roof which meant it would leak during a rainstorm. They do not replace water heater roof vents with new ones per Mr. Cole because they don't have an HVAC license. I emailed Mr. Cole regarding my findings and they came out the next day 10/28 to reseal the water heater vent pipe. While the roofers were working on resealing the vent pipe, Mr. Cole went to Home Depot and found a 7" roof vent hood for the bathroom fan, but he had to order an adapter collar from an HVAC supplier to adapt the 7" vent to the 6" flex duct....so that took a few extra days. Because of the bathroom vent issue, which had nothing to do with completing the soffit vent and siding work, Mr. Cole decided to postpone the siding work until after the bathroom vent issue was resolved even though the weather was perfect and I was running out of time before heading back to work. He kept promising the siding crew was coming but they never showed up and he then started asking for payment for the roof even though the entire job was written under one contract. After the initial first rain since the new roof was installed, I was up in the attic checking for any water leaks when I noticed they had cracked the roof deck completely through the plywood at the roof peak by slamming down the heavy bundles of shingles on it....and they just left it that way. I informed Mr. Cole of the issue and he instructed me to complete all of the roof inspections before they would come out again to make any repairs, so at that point I decided to hire an independent certified roofing inspector. The inspector not only confirmed my own findings, but also found exposed roofing nail heads and roof flashing that were not properly sealed. In regards to the large open gap around the chimney I mentioned earlier, they had just shingled over it creating a soft spot where the roofing inspector could easily push the shingles down 2 inches by hand. Mr. Cole was ill and dealing with some personal issues which I completely understood but he also seemed to be somewhat offended that I felt the need to hire an independent roofing inspector. I felt I had no choice since Mr. Cole showed no initiative or concern regarding inspecting the roof and the work of his roofing crew himself since he was not there to supervise when the roof was being installed. Between Mr. Cole's dealing with own personal issues and me getting the roof inspection report to him about two weeks had passed but finally the roofers came back to make repairs which included peeling off the new shingles to cut out the damaged roof deck plywood and replace it with new wood and then replace the shingles. They removed shingles from around the chimney and installed a small strip of plywood to cover the gap opening and then added more flashing before replacing the shingles. They also fixed another flashing issue where the garage roof joins the house that was identified in the inspection report by adding a section of missing corner flashing.. I paid Mr. Cole for the roof after the repairs were made, During a following initial rain since the repair work was done, water was leaking in around the chimney. I called Mr.' Cole and to his credit, he immediately dispatched the roofing crew coming from Burlington out to my home working in the rain to fix the leak which turned out to be caused by exposed flashing that was not installed and sealed properly and the chimney hasn't leaked again so far. However, during subsequent heavier rains, the roof vent pipe boots for the waste water system also started leaking water around the pipe seals so the roofing crew had to come back yet again to reseal the boots around all of the vent pipes which in my opinion is roofing 101 for an experienced roofing crew that should know how to properly seal them right the first time. Overall, it took me over a month to get all of the issues resolved with just the roof. Mr' Cole never inspected the new roof himself and depends heavily on his hired crew to do the job right but there are no quality checks of any kind. Although Mr. Cole responded quickly when the roof leaks occurred, he never really apologized or expressed any regret for all the problems I had or the personal time I spent dealing with them (but I heard a lot about HIS personal stress issues), nor did he offer to help cover my expenses for having to hire an independent roofing inspector to find improper installation mistakes made by his roofing crew. I have repeatedly asked Mr' Cole to provide written warranty documentation for the roof shingles and labor warranty for which he still has never provided. I also asked him to provide a signed mechanics lien waiver form for which his response was "we've never had to do that before" and basically he asked me to provide it for him to sign, but I just spoke to the roofing materials supplier company instead to make sure they were paid for the roofing materials. I hired Cole Roofing based on all the positive reviews here on Angie's List, but I was not only left extremely frustrated and disappointed by the experience, Mr. Cole left me with a now improperly ventilated roof system and I have to hire another contractor to finish the work Mr. Cole was contracted to do but never completed due to his false promises and vague excuses. By the way, his listed General Contractors license was last renewed on 6/01/2012 and is currently shown as being "invalid" on the NC General Contractors Licensing Board website @ http://www.nclbgc.org/.

Job went extremely well from quote process to completed job. Greg took the time to answer my questions during initial visit and then provided quote the next day. After reviewing 3 quotes, Cole's was 20% lower than other two with same materials and scope of work. Roof looks great and clean-up was good.

They arrived on time, set up quickly and efficiently, removed the old roof and installed the new one with minimal noise. They then cleaned up all the trash and nails, etc from the old roof and removed it all from my property. The guys were quick, efficient, polite and friendly. I would definitely recommend Cole Roofing and Construction to anyone needing a new roof.

I attempted multiple times over the last weeks (since Dec 11) to schedule an estimate for some work. Greg Cole failed to respond to several of my emails, responded late to another, and, when an appt was finally scheduled, he never showed up. Appalling communication.

I wanted to give a lower overall grade due to the second part of this review, but I didn't think that would be fair so I will review the roof first, and the estimate for additional work second. I contacted Greg about the roof deal he has going on in the coupon section, he responded promptly and was out at my house within about 2 days. He emailed a copy of the quote to me very quickly, and I was surprised to see that it was substantially lower than the deal he has offered on Angies List. I agreed to the price, and he dropped off samples of roof shingles very quickly, we picked a shingle and setup a date. His crew showed up as scheduled and made quick work of my new roof, they had to replace a substantial amount of rotten roof boards and were done in about 3 or 4 hours. I have to say, the roof looks great, am very happy with the work, would definitely recommend for roofing jobs. Here's the confusing part, I asked Greg multiple times about other work, mainly replacing a rotten fascia on the front corner of my porch. I asked him twice in email, than on the phone before the roof job, than in person after I paid for the roof job. I had also asked about gutters and the need to fix and replace as I don't have a downspout on the rotten corner of the porch. He was going to work up an estimate on the fascia when they did the roof, never happened, than he said he would get me the estimate after he picked up payment for the roof, again never happened. Unfortunate really, as I need that work completed as well as a new deck and sliding doors. Not gonna happen with this company. Bottom line, A+ on the roof, great job. F for estimating other work..

We had several people come out and give us estimates for roofing and painting our primary house and our rental house. Cole Roofing's estimate was very similar to the other estimates. We chose them because they were based in Durham and because of the reviews on Angie's List. There were some initial challenges with communication but, after the work was scheduled and the time neared, Greg was very responsive. We initially had the roof on our primary residence done along with replacing five skylights. The workers arrived at 7:00 in the morning and completed all of it by 7:00 that evening. They cleaned up so thoroughly that I only found a couple of small pieces of shingle that fell in some ivy and one nail. At the end of the day, it was as if they were never here, except that we had a nice new roof. The quality of the work was also excellent; they used longer nails and were very thorough and professional. We had the same experience with the work done on the rental property. We also had them paint our primary residence. The painting estimate was less detailed and there was some confusion over what was included. I had wanted all of the porches done, included the painted floor on our front porch. The painters were unclear which parts of the porch they were supposed to do. To Greg's credit, they completed everything we asked them to do for the quoted price. The work was excellent--very careful, all done by hand, and they used high quality paints that will last. The painting did take much longer than a day, but the workers worked with my schedule in terms of the times I needed to be home. Overall, we are very happy with the work we had done and would highly recommend them.

The job went very well. The contractor provided a competitive cost estimate on the date and at the time agreed. There was no up front money required. The workers appeared on the date agreed. The old roofing material was removed. Damaged sheeting was replaced, New roofing plus new flashing was installed. The contractor also cleaned the job site and removed all debris. When all was said and done the final bill was actually less than the estimate. Cole would be my first choice should I need a roofing contractor in the future.

Greg Cole responded to my call in a matter of just a few hours. I really appreciated the quick response to remedy the leaks that had caused water to run through to my office ceiling creating minor damage and staining. The cost of the service was quite reasonable. I have just had my roof inspected, and I will be contacting Greg to take care of items found during that inspection.

Greg's professionalism and patience with me were greatly appreciated. He provided clear answers to my many questions and made sure to provide me with information about the materials he was using and what work would be involved. The shingles he used are top quality with the best warranty available. The crew arrived when expected, got the whole job done in a day and cleaned up so thoroughly I wasn't sure they had been there! Greg's responsiveness and the quality of the work were top notch. I feel very good about the work he did and the roof looks beautiful.

We have had a periodic leak through the ceiling in our bathroom for the last couple of years. We feared that we needed a new roof...it is an older roof. Mr. Cole came and inspected the roof thoroughly and told us that we only needed boots and flashing replaced at this time. That would buy us a few more years before the roof would need replaced. We were impressed that he did not prey on our ignorance and sell us a new roof, though that would have been more profitable for him. His crew did the work promptly and well. I highly recommend this company.

Greg and his crew were fantastic to work with. The work was done very professionally and quickly. The final price was exactly the quoted price. I have recommended Cole roofing to several friends and neighbors.

I chose Cole Roofing from the list of three suppliers I'd gotten from Angie's list because his quote was comparable to one other but exceptionally thorough. A more expensive quote listed items that he did not have on his quote so I asked him about each item and he gave me his explanation for every item that was different, telling me why it wasn't necessary or what was better about his methodology. The crew arrived at 7:15 am on the morning on installation and I have never seen a more hardworking crew in my life. They completely replaced the roof of my house and two side porches in one day, finishing about 6:30 pm. They swept afterwards, removed all debris, and left with a beautiful roof. When I needed to take a business call, they worked on the other side of the house to accommodate me with the noise. I heartily recommend this company.

couldn't ask for a better job from start to finshi

Very satisfied with the service. We got several estimates. Greg came in at the lowest. Aside from that, my husband liked his personality, found him to be a very down to earth, straightforward guy. The team came out and replaced the roof in one day. The roof looks great. They left the area around the house cleaner than when they found it. Greg was very accommodating to our specific needs and worked with us the entire way through. We highly recommend his services and would use him again.

We were pleased with all the work performed. He had recently worked with one of our neighbors as well as being highly rated by Angie's list. Mr. Greg Cole is highly knowledgeable about all areas of home improvement and construction. We look forward to working with him again in the future if the need arises. Our roof and house look great. I learned alot about roofing and minor details one should know before contracting with a roofer. He is a Certainteed designated installer which also is a big plus. I am confident thsy if we have any problems with our roof (which I do not anticipate) Mr. Cole will ensure that Certainteed's guarantee and warranty will be fulfilled. My wife and I would recommend him for any type of construction.

Mr.Cole was quick to respond to my initial call. He also gave a prompt and reasonable estimate for his services. I didn't like the color of the first shingles that were used to repair my roof , so he offered to replace them with no additional cost. This service was performed as promised.

Work never done since Mr. Cole never contacted me after he took measurements. I have always recommended Cole Roofing to anyone that asked about roofers but I will never do this again.

Roof Our roof was 20 years old and in need of replacement. We solicited several bids for roofing and vinyl siding replacement and were looking for a contractor who could do it all. After receiving several quotes we opted to go with Greg Cole and Cole Roofing and Construction. We were impressed with Greg's knowledge, experience, and pricing. He responded quickly and reasonably to all our questions. We had a hard time deciding on shingle colors so we narrowed it down to 2 colors and Greg gave us a list of houses in the area with those shingles. After viewing a few we made our selection and scheduled the roofing job. The crew showed up on time as did the materials and knocked the job out in less than six hours, clean up and all. The roof looks great. Vinyl Siding After about 2-3 weeks the siding crew came out and began removal of our 22 year old existing vinyl siding. During removal they discovered a great deal of rotted wood in the band of my house along with lots of rotten sheathing filled with carpenter ants. This was likely caused by the construction methods and materials used when the house was originally built in 1980. The houses in my neighborhood were apparently built without flashing where decks and the foundation band contacted the structure. Greg called me immediately and we surveyed the damage together and discussed options. He estimated the repair cost and I gave him approval to proceed. He had a crew of 2-3 working on wood repair for most of the next two weeks. The repairs were extensive and well executed. The bill was in the upper range of the estimate but after reviewing the labor and materials involved I decided it was fair. The new siding was then installed without incident by the same crew and the workmanship was great! Windows Greg's measurements for the windows were perfect and they were installed in under a day. We purchased a door from Home Depot and that was also installed at fair market rate. We added shutters after the fact and these were also installed without incident. Gutters The gutters were done after the siding was up, pricing was reasonable with quick, efficient installation. Summary Greg Cole was a pleasure to work with, very professional, and personable. There was no hard sell or overly glib sales pitch. Each part of the job was quoted separately. His crews are very skilled and professional. I'd recommend Cole Roofing and Construction to anyone.

We contacted Greg Cole after getting another bid from Baker Roofing. Whereas with Baker we had to nearly beg them for a quote, Greg got us one within a week of visiting the property, and it came in significantly less for the same type of shingle and underlayment. (Baker claims to hand-nail their shingles, so this may be the difference ? Cole Roofing does use pneumatic nail guns). It took us a while to bite the bullet and decide to go ahead with either vendor (this was a big job) but Greg honored the original quote even after a couple of months had elapsed. I was a little upset that I didn't see the 5% Angies List discount reflected in the quote, but decided that the price was a good one anyway and I would rather move forward than start all over again. After we went back and forth a bit about underlayment and shingle selection, we were able to schedule the work about 2 weeks out. The crew got to work between 7 and 8 AM each morning and stayed until the section of roof they were tackling that day was either done or cleanly tarped before leaving (one night they ended up staying until just before 9 PM). Each day before leaving they cleaned up their entire work area with a blower and large magnet, making it where we could comfortably live in the house while the project was ongoing. The only issue we had with the team was a lack of communication about the use of gutter stand-offs. I had asked Greg about this during our initial conversation, and he assured me the crews used them to protect the gutters. Most of the time, though, the crew had ladders leaning right on our brand new gutters. (One day we asked them to do something to keep the ladders off the gutters and they rigged up a board to keep them separated, but over the course of 5 days that was the only time I saw them do this.) I haven't noticed any damage as a result, though most of the gutters are too high for me to really see with clarity. It was getting up into the high 90s temperature-wise during the day, but despite this the crew worked incredibly hard and efficiently each day. I could tell that they took great pride in their work (by the last day they were all smiling and snapping pictures of the finished job with their camera phones). Most importantly, we're very happy with the new roof and the quality of work. Time will be the greatest test, of course, but as of today I feel confident that Cole Roofing was the right choice for the project. The job took nearly a week to complete, partly because they ran out of shingles on the last day, which was over a holiday weekend when the supplier was closed. On a project of this size, this was to be expected, and it didn't take them any time at all to finish the job on the final morning. So while there were some hiccups along the way, all in all we are very happy with the investment and would choose to use Cole Roofing again in a heartbeat.

My initial inquiry was responded to within a few hours. I asked to meet with Mr Cole a couple weeks later and I would call whebpn the time got closer. | |My follow up calls and emails via the web site were not returned until I left a message mentioning my disappointment in the service. | |A short time later Mr Cole called me back with apologies, saying he had been ill. We finalized on a initial date a few days later when he would be recovered enough to come out and give a quote. He mentioned he would bring someone along to help climb up on the roof if he wasn't ready to do so. | |The day if the appointment came and no one showed, I have since moved on to other contractors.

They were good. They were very good with providing a quote and the work was done fairly quickly. We spent a little over $4000. They showed up, did the work in one day and cleaned up well when they were done. They were good.

Initial response was very fast. Quotes received quickly. Ran into some scheduling and communication delays from owner due in part to unforeseen and uncontrolled reasons. The finished product looks great. Both Greg Cole and his carpenter and roofing teams were very professional. The carpenters and roofers did clean, good, efficient work. Gladly hire again/ recommend for any work needed.

Mr. Cole inspected the roof and provided an estimate when he said he would. The estimate was significantly higher than I expected (1/2 roof = 80% of whole roof). I shot him a message asking why, probability of cost overruns, and with warranty questions. He replied he was too busy to do the work in a timely manner and referred me to another company. Since he did not answer all my questions and referred me elsewhere, I accepted his reply as politely declining to do business with me (too many questions?). I am grateful that he referred me elsewhere and didn't ignore my communications like most of the other contractors I've dealt with.

We have a sizable roof that needed full replacement. The previous owners also cheaped out and had a second layer of shingles laid instead of paying for a roof done right. There were also issues with the flashing around two chimneys. When meeting Greg he was a normal person, no flare, no leather jacket and $50,000 SUV. He climbed onto the roof, he looked at everything I'd expect him to do and we discussed options and he provided a couple quotes that night. My conversation with him left me somewhat shocked to meet a business owner who was down to earth like that. We had 7 quotes for our roof done, and Greg came in around the lower but his reviews were the same or better than others. In our area Baker roofing is standard (supposedly). After their guy came in almost $3,000 more than Greg, I asked them for a line item which they wouldn't provide. Greg had no problem providing his expectations on costs. That sealed the deal for me. Materials were delivered the day before and placed exactly where I asked. The driver even double checked before he left. The next day, the roofers showed up and had a supervisor on site the whole day. The covered all bushes and protected plants etc with a huge tarp. They ran into some trouble with part of my lower roof where the shingles had melted to the boards. They also found several sheets of rotted plywood and 2x4's on an overhang. They didn't seem to mind me being outside for long periods of time watching them and even called me over to see certain things about my roof. In all honesty, with the number of plywood boards replaced (9) and additional work they had to do I was expecting a $6000+ bill. Greg charged me what I was quoted for. The process took two days and on the second day they spent about an hour cleaning up with a giant magnet. I admit to going back and looking and after 2 months have only found 1 nail that was still stuck in a bush. I'm impressed. He did such a good job that a home owner two doors down hired him to do their roof the following month.

Greg and his team are professionals and this was job was handled that way in every respect. The estimate was prompt, fair, clearly written, and thorough. I especially appreciated that it provided pricing in advance for any additional carpentry and materials that typically may be required. All of the work was of a high standard, performed efficiently, in a no-nonsense way. Communications were brief and sufficient. Everything that needed to be done was done within a short time and the team worked hard, especially considering all of the additional work that our aging roof structure required. My wife, an avid gardener, was VERY pleased with the cleanup and caution exercised during every part of the process. The roofing shingles were 20 years old and clearly ready for replacement. But also, other workers who had been up on the roof previously alerted me to several different "soft spots" on the roof covering the original main section of our house. Our 50-year old plywood decking was de-laminating but we did not know the extent of the damage from years of wear-and-tear. When Greg and I met to discuss the project, we agreed in advance that if work needed to be done to get it right, that's what we wanted. While the old roof material was being removed I received Greg's call with the news that - as I had suspected - the original decking was badly in need of replacement. I gave the ok, and that was that, they just got it done. The roof looks really nice. And it's been tested since then on several weather occasions, and working just fine. Thanks to Greg and the guys on his team.