Elite Roofing Company of Nashville

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! WE WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY! They caused extensive damage to our home, they consistently used sub-par and untrained laborers on our job, and they have been dishonest and unfair in dealing with us! RUN!!! We began negotiating with Elite Roofing for a new roof for our house on April 11, 2011. After spelling out in detail to Elite the extent of the work to be done and the specifications of all of the materials to be used, we signed a contract with Elite to completely re-roof our house on May 11th. They were unable to get all of the products needed to start the job on site until Monday June 20th, and they began working on the roof that afternoon. From the start, Elite did not provide supervision for the workers on site ? workers showed up at times not agreed to, and performed work in a very sloppy and unprofessional manner, leaving debris and trash all over our property. On Tuesday June 21st, the roofing crew had approximately 800 sq.ft. of roof uncovered with no decking or shingles, attic open to the sky, when it began raining around noon that day. No one from Elite contacted us to notify us that there was a problem during the day. We came home and discovered that evening that the interior ceilings, walls, and floors of several rooms were soaking wet with standing water. After several phone calls trying to reach an Elite representative, the manager, James Ball (aka ?Jimmy?) finally came to our house to look at the interior damage around 8:30 pm on June 21. Jimmy promised us that Elite was fully insured and that they would pay for all the repairs to our home. On June 22, I noticed that the shingles, which had been hastily installed during the rain the previous day, looked "strange", and I discovered that they had actually been INSTALLED INCORRECTLY. I showed Jimmy the poor workmanship, which he conceded to, and pointed out that by not lapping the shingles per the manufacturers instructions, they had actually VOIDED the warranty on our brand new roofing materials! Jimmy admitted this error and agreed to tear off all the new shingles and underlayment, which they had just installed, replace the materials with new product at their expense, and start over from scratch to re-roof our house CORRECTLY. During discussions about how to proceed with the repairs, we learned that Elite had actually sub'd our entire job out, without our knowledge or consent, to an unknown (to us) subcontractor by the name of Pablo Bonifacio. NONE of the workers on our job site were actually Elite employees! We were outraged to learn that we had hired, what we thought was a big name-brand company, for a high-dollar roofing contract, only to have it handed-off to some unknown laborers, with inadequate supervision, who didn't know the contract specifications or the scope of our job, and then proceeded to do excessive damage to our home! Boy were we DECEIVED! From June 22 to July 8, Jimmy and various workers began TRYING to repair the interior damage to our home, but they only worked for a couple of hours each day, and the workmanship was TERRIBLE. We pleaded with Jimmy and the owner of Elite, D?Arcy Porter, to provide competent and professional workers to repair our house. Though they gave us some fabulous lip service, they never wrote the check that would bring quality tradesmen into our home. Although Jimmy had told us that Elite had filed a claim with the sub's liability insurance as soon as the damage occurred, we began to suspect that the low-quality labor must have something to do with money, so we contacted both Elite's insurance and the sub's insurance to file claims. Upon doing so, we discovered that contrary to what we were told, NO ONE had informed EITHER insurance carrier of the incident. Apparently Elite and their subs had agreed to make these repairs themselves, as absolutely cheaply as possible, rather than face the consequences of filing an insurance claim. Once again, we were outraged that we had been deceived by this company, that we had wasted valuable time trying to coordinate repairs with people who could not perform the work satisfactorily, and all so that Elite could save money and not have their insurance rates go up. Once we filed a claim with their insurance providers, all efforts by Elite to repair the damage STOPPED. Then began a two month wrestling match with the insurance providers, as the sub's insurance blamed Elite for their lack of supervision, and Elite's insurance blamed the subs for their poor workmanship. Elite's insurance refused to cover any portion of our damage, and we have yet to receive any funds toward the repairs of our house. After two months of not being able to live in our home due to the damage, we had to pay about $15,000 out of our own pockets to repair the damage done by Elite Roofing Company of Nashville! To further agitate the situation, Elite failed to provide materials to finish our roof. Our roof sat for months in a dangerous state of mixed old shingles, new shingles, and temporarily-nailed-down waterproofing membranes, while we attempted to negotiate repairs with them. Below is a list of specific problems that we have had with Elite: They did not have the materials available to start work in the time frame they said they would. They were very disorganized about ordering materials ? a few times the wrong materials were delivered to our house, and we had to check everything they purchased to make sure the right materials were actually being installed per our contract. They did not disclose to us that they use subcontractors on ALL of their residential roofing projects ? Elite employs NO residential roofers, so the consumer doesn?t know WHO will actually be installing their roof. They failed to communicate the scope of the work with the roofers on site (who were a subcontractor crew), and did not provide adequate supervision of the work being performed. ALL of the roofing products were installed INCORRECTLY! The plywood sheathing was not nailed down properly, the waterproofing membrane was installed on top of the underlayment (supposed to be the other way around), the vents were cut into the roof sheathing in such a way as to damage the structural integrity of the roof, and the shingles were not lapped per the manufacturers instructions, causing ugly seams in the roof and potential leaking hazards. The entire roof was done wrong and had to be torn off and re-installed! After the rain damage to our house, Elite showed NO SENSE OF URGENCY in making repairs. It has been very difficult to schedule workers, the workers that have shown up have not been properly qualified, and TWO MONTHS later, the interior of our home was still in a state of disrepair and the roof was severely compromised. Despite our demand that Bonifacio?s crew not be allowed to work on our property after the rain damage event, Elite attempted to save money on the repairs by bringing various workers to our house for weeks after without telling us that they were also Bonifacio?s employees. Elite did not respect our requests for different, more competent workers. Although Elite gave us a copy of their liability insurance declaration from "Builders Mutual", when we signed the contract and handed them our money, this was really a farce, as their insurance has in no way covered the damage done to our home. As for the sloppy workmanship and unacceptable roofing practices, those are not even covered by liability insurance. Elite is listed as a ?GAF Factory Certified Installer? ? however, through talking to GAF?s corporate offices after this incident and talking to the GAF territory manager for this area, we have since learned that the ?qualifications? for a roofer to get this designation are distressingly lax, and this factory certification program in no way guarantees that a roofer is competent or properly trained. We actually feel that this designation misleads the public by implying that a roofer has special experience when this may not be true (as it certainly wasn?t in Elite?s case). Elite has not treated us as though they care about us at all through this whole ordeal. Jimmy Ball and D?Arcy Porter have expressed verbally that they are sorry for what happened and would ?like to make it right;? but ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS, and Elite was VERY SLOW to respond to our requests for help, and made the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of effort towards resolving our problems. We now find ourselves forced to hire a lawyer, at $300 per hour for an unspecified period of time, because ELITE HAS REPEATEDLY FAILED TO DO THE RIGHT THING. We feel like we were completely deceived into believing that Elite was capable of re-roofing our home. The work they have done has been of shockingly poor quality, and they have been downright negligent in handling the damage that they caused to our property. After consulting with experts in the field, and pursuing our legal remedies, we've discovered that we certainly are NOT ALONE, in the grievances which we hold against Elite Roofing Company of Nashville! Update July 2012: We filed a suit against Elite in small claims court, and on our court date before the judge, Elite didn't even show up. Therefore we were awarded the default judgement of $25,000 from the court; however, Elite is ignoring all correspondence from the court, and we will have to continue pushing additional legal actions against them for the foreseeable future in attempt to collect what is owed to us. To date, we have not received a penny in compensation from Elite for the damage and trouble they caused us!