The Durable Slate Co

The good news is that they finally found the cause of the leak, and their current fix has survived the 2009-10 winter without leaking. I am very grateful to Durable Slate for their attentiveness and integrity throughout this long ordeal. Yes, they charge a bit more than other contractors, but as they say you get what you pay for. I have continued to use Durable Slate for other services and would recommend them to anyone with a slate roof.

Our home is a Tudor Revival/English Cottage style house built in 1938. The roof is Ludowicki flat tile, which means you need to hire a specialty roofing company to make repairs in a proper fashion. This was a maintenance issue, since there was no leak of any sort -- but I knew it needed to be addressed, since some of the original steel flashing appeared to have rusted out. One day, when cleaning out the front gutter, a small field mouse poked his head out a hole in the back of the front gutter (and fascia). I knew then it was time to call for help! There are only (2) companies I would ever hire to work on our tile roof -- and one of them is the main Durable branch in Columbus, OH. Mark Sherby, Director of Quality Control, is my contact in the Columbus office, and he's incredible. Patient, informed, and understanding, he assured me that Jeremy Decker, an award-winning craftsman, was the man for our job. Jeremy was great! It was my first time meeting him -- and although he had a fairly long drive to-and-from our job, he arrived early and worked late every day. Mark was right -- Jeremy really is an artist/craftsman in the true sense of the word -- he was also very patient w/me (and my constant questions while trying to learn) -- and bent over backwards to give me the results I wanted. Jeremy first took the time to examine the site thoroughly and set up scaffolding. Next, he removed the roof tiles -- and numbered them for relaying when the job was complete -- stacking them neatly to the side. Next, it was time to remove the underlayment, which revealed little damage to the decking except for a board near the front fascia. Luckily, we've got plenty of the original tongue-and-groove roof decking from the original job (the builders were kind enough to line the attic 'floor' with it back in 1938!) -- so that repair was seamless. One very tricky part of the job was the decorative trim boards along the back and side of the roof where it meets the house. These true 1 x 6 redwood boards sit under a metal drip edge that is tucked up underneath the stucco -- which means you have to be very careful if you need to remove/repair them. Jeremy was able to make these repairs professionally and without damaging the stucco. Jeremy took the time to explain why one of the boards had failed (improper b***-joint cut allowing water to get behind it), and also how the roof tile was too close to the trim in the original install, which allowed debris to build up in the channel and speed up the degradation of the steel flashing. All of these were expertly addressed by Jeremy -- and when the final tile was laid in place, well -- the original laborers who built the house would be proud of the work he did. I've never seen tile laid in such a level, even, perfectly-placed fashion -- it really is the hallmark of a true craftsman. If you have a tile roof, give Mark Sherby at Durable Slate in Columbus, OH a call -- and tell him you want Jeremy Decker to work on your home!

They were professional, responsive, and did what I asked them to do. Their pricing was high but they are the only company who does slate roof. I was satisfied with their service.

For a company that goes to great lengths to mail advertisements and stuff flyers in the door, my experience has been poor. They stopped by the day after I called them (according to a neighbor).. spent about 2 minutes on the roof and left. When I called originally they said they'd mail an estimate. Nearly two weeks later, no estimate. I've since called and left a message of which the receptionist said he would call me back later that day. Days after that, no return phone call. I'm obviously going with an independently owned slate company that has been much more responsive.

Durable Slate was communicative from start to finish. They followed up weekly with the status of scheduling the work, clearly explained the work to be done, and negotiated with my insurance company to assist in getting the claim approved. They left my home in a clean and finished state when the work was complete.

The gentlemen came out and repositioned the slate at no cost. He was very professional and I thought it was a generous thing he did.

The Durable Group (Durable Slate) is a terrific company. Top notch work (though you pay for it!). They are reliable, excellent quality, and they stand behind their work. We have used them before, and we were very disappointed that we had to repair the roof after a tree fell on our house, but they were out to our house within a couple of days and had repaired it within two days. Wow. What a relief it was.

Copper gutters can be tricky, because they are shiny to start, and age with the weather. So replacing gutters from damage could stick out like a sore thumb. But the folks at The Durable Group (Durable Slate) have it all figured out. They know exactly how to do work and how to make your house look its best. This is a phenomenally good company. As I mentioned in my other report on roofing, they are reliable, excellent quality, and they stand behind their work. We have used them before, and we were very disappointed that we had to repair the gutters and roof after a tree fell on our house, but they were out to our house within a couple of days and had repaired it within two days. Wow. What a relief it was to get it done, have our house protected from the weather, and getting back to normal so fast.

They were clean and prices were what they said they would be. No problems with the slates after the job.

After they came out, they never called us back with the estimate. I finally had to call them and when I did, the estimate was not very well explained and well over everyone else's that I received. Therefore, we decided not to go with this company.

Durable Slate began work last summer, 2007. I had to call them back twice because they did not match the color of the new mortar with the rest of the home, which they assured me would not be a problem originally. (The new mortar they put in was a bright white color, whereas the existing historical mortar was a darker sandy color - it looked terrible). On the third trip out, they got it to match pretty well, albeit it took several weeks and many phone calls to get things right. Unfortunately, it's been less than a year and the mortar they put in, has crumbled out in several places. I called Durable Slate two weeks ago and while they agreed something was wrong with the work, I have not received the promised follow-up phone call/visit. It appears I am going to have to "bird-dog" them (again) to make sure things get done right. I am completely dissatisfied with the quality of work and pretty disappointed in the responsiveness of the company.

The company apparently uses sub-contractors to cover the Cleveland area. They set up 2 appointments, and the sub-contractors failed to show up both times. Once they called 2 hours late, and once they called my home (but not my office or cell phone) to say they weren't coming because of weather, although the weather was fine. I left work early to meet them, only to find out they weren't coming. I consider this unprofessional performance, and will find another contractor.

They were excellent. We use them for any roof work because they always seem to know what they are doing. They have another guy come out to check the work after it has been completed.

There was an estimate for much more work but it was very expensive and, after getting two other bids, concluded that we would not go forward with it. We selected Durable for replacing slates because it was in the middle of the three estimates (which varied on both the number of slates needing replacement and the cost per slate). The work suffered from a miscommunication that seemed to stem from their business structure. Somebody came from Columbus to do the estimate. When I authorized the work I spoke to an office in Cleveland. The work itself was done by a subcontractor. Somewhere along the line, the instruction to remove only the non-functioning heating cables got lost, and the workman removed ALL of the heating cables, even the ones that worked however, everybody was very nice about it and a few weeks later he returned and put up new cables. (In removing the old ones, he cut them.) I think the matter has been resolved though I recently got another bill from them.

THE WORK WAS VERY WELL DONE. THEY BUILT SCAFFOLDING ALL THE WAY TO THE ROOF. I CHOSE THEM BECAUSE THEY USED TOP QUALITY MATERIALS. ALL THE HOMES IN MY AREA ARE 100 YEAR OLD HOMES AND THEIR WORK WAS ALL OVER THE NEIGHBORHOOD. THEY WORKED FAST. THE PRICE WAS MORE THAN I EXPECTED. I AM GLAD I WENT WITH THEM BECAUSE THE QUALITY IS THERE!

He politely asks if he can take it to make a copy and he will bring it back as he is coming back that week to do the work. I hesitated but agreed. Also, I told him that since the original estimate in October, we are missing an additional 5-10 slates. He said they will replace them as well, keeping the original price of $250. The next day it started to snow, no one came to do the work. This week 03/12, my husband called the company and asked if someone will be coming since it was supposed to be very nice. The person he spoke with said they didnt know who we were, there is no contract on file. Here we are again, but this time I dont even have a copy of the contract. I am so furious! This is the worst company ever and we will never use them or recommend them to anybody!

It took a long time to get the work done. Knowing how busy they are we started the process in September and had made an appointment for them to come and give us a quote. Then they canceled, and never called back. I called back in early October. They apologized and said that they had left us a message, which we never got. We re-scheduled and the actual work wasn't completed until the middle of November. We use them again and again because we have a slate roof and we trust in the workmanship that they do. I feel like they may be too busy and need some good competition to get their customer service skills up to par.

Many homes in my area sustained substantial damage from the hail storm, and I anticipated a long wait to have my roof inspected. The company was aware of the extensive damage to roofs in my neighborhood and had an estimator working in my area full time. Adam, the estimator, came the day after I called. I have dealt with this company before and have absolute trust in them. Adam thoroughly explained the damage and cost of the estimate. He is obviously very knowledgeable about slate roofs and has anticipated many types of situations. I had many questions about how the insurance company would handle my claim, and Adam patiently answered each and every one. The estimate was for a considerable amount, and Adam was confident in justifying every repair that was needed. He has dealt with insurance companies in the past, is familiar with the computer programs they use to pay claims, and offered to speak with them if they denied a claim. I definitely plan to hire this company.

They did a good job on the flashing. However, after the work was completed, our water leak upstairs was significantly worse. They then said we needed to spend another $7,000 to re-tuckpoint our chimney, so as to fix the water leak. I had seven other companies come out to talk with us about our leak. Everybody agreed that re-tucking a chimney from only the roof line up should cost less than half of what Durable Slate quoted. They also said that we spent at least $1,000 too much in having a flashing done. To give Durable Slate some credit, they did a good job with the flashing. However, several other roof companies and masons that I had look at the finished work said that they could see a couple of minor errors in the flashing work that could have caused the significant increase of water leaking in our room upstairs.

They seem like they know their stuff for older homes and have high quality materials and people, but they were just too expensive, so I decided to not get the work done.

They do not work in asphalt roofing. Only do shingle and slate, as I understand it. They called to let us know that they appreciate our recommendations, but don't work in asphalt.

They did finally come out and do the job 3-1/2 weeks later. Tomas Higges was wonderful.

I called Durable Slate in May. They gave me an estimate for a missing slate and said they would be out soon to fix it. I didn't hear from them for months, so I called again. They said again that they would come and never did. I found another company to repair my roof.

They were extremely professional and responsive. Very prompt in coming back to repair something.

It was very good. They are very contentious. There was one glitch and they took care of that very professionally. The work is good.