Tough Construction

Several years ago I had Tough Construction (TC) build a 10 foot by 24 foot open pole barn for me with a metal roof. This barn had an open face and was used to store compost. During April 2013 I had TC add on to the pole barn and also put a new roof on my home. Unfortunately, when TC built the first stage of the pole barn I wasn't available to oversee the project. Now I am rebuilding the older portion of the roof on the pole barn. TC used press board and put the metal roofing directly over the press board. They did not use any sort of under layment, or tar paper under the metal roof. As metal would collect condensation the press board began to rot. Now I have to remove the metal roof and rotten press board, replace it with plywood, but down paper, and reattach the metal roof. During the 10 foot by 24 foot addition of the pole barn last spring, I mentioned to Brad Tough, owner of TC, there was no tar paper under the first half of the pole barn. He said that should have been done but didn't offer to fix the problem. During the addition of the second half of the pole barn, for which I was present, TC and crew used plywood and tar paper for the roof. When they began to attach the metal roofing it didn't line up and left an irregular edge along the front face of the roof. I commented on this and was told I wouldn't see it if I was going to put up gutters. I also asked them to put in a straight screw line when attaching the metal roof. They had to rearrange the metal roof so it lined up correctly, but still put in a jagged screw line. It was just sloppy work. By now I should have known better, but I had already made arrangements for TC to strip and replace the composition roof on my home. The front part of the home looked fine. When TC put down the tar paper on the back portion of the roof, they didn't lay it down flat. I mentioned this to Brad Tough. After the roof was done I noticed the shingles were not flat. I called Brad Tough and told him my observations. He told me once the weather warmed up the shingles would flatten out. Well, the weather warmed up and there were dozens of shingles still sticking up. I got on the roof and saw one of the ridge lines looked like a snake and the loose shingle were because TC's crew didn't pound the nails flush with the roof. They were all sticking up about 3/8ths of an inch. I spent a least 8 hours driving nails and putting tar under the loose shingles. The bottom line is, TC just does sloppy work and Brad Tough does a poor job of supervising his crew. It really irritates me that I have to repair, replace, and mop up after his shoddy workmanship. I wouldn't hire the guy to build me a bird house. I learned the hard way and should have pressed him to repair his mistakes, but I didn't want him or his crew back. I would not recommend TC for any type of construction work. He is an embarrassment as a contractor.

Originally we got a bid months before it was actually needed. He was quick and responsive. When we started getting serious, he was also very quick to assess and give a quote, easily outbidding other contractors on metal roofs (close to the same price for a composite). It took a few weeks and a couple phone calls to finally get started, but once they did, they were finished in a few days and were very quick, professional and cleaned up after themselves. After the project I needed a different kind of receipt, required for a tax rebate. Unfortunately, it took numerous calls to get what I needed. But the quality and professionalism of the work easily outweighed and bookkeeping glitches.