Randall A Strawbridge Inc

There had been differing opinions among adjusters and contractors as to the nature and extent of repairs required. Mr. Strawbridge inspected the damage, along with detail photos I had taken. He promptly provided a clearly-worded professional opinion as to the appropriate way to repair the damage and restore the roof support system to its original integrity. He included detailed instructions in his report for the benefit of the person or persons who would undertake the repair. By following his advice, our contractor was able to repair the roof at significantly less cost, incovenience and collateral damage than some other methods would have involved. Retaining Strawbridge for a professional opinion probably saved us much more than we spent on his services. It has certainly enhanced our peace of mind that we made the right decision on how to repair the roof.

I contacted Mr Strawbridge to obtain a quote on what he would charge to come out and look at an interior wall and advise whether it was load bearing or not. If it was loadbearing we would need him to draw up some plan for us to provide our contractor (yet to be hired at the time). It was difficult to get a price quote from him. He just kept asking me if I was hiring him for the job. I said I just wanted a quote for what he charges to provide an engineer opinion. He did not want to come after hours and said he was "like a lawyer" and that he billed by the hour and we would also have to pay for his mileage to our home. I thought he was making a joke because he only lived a few miles from our address. At one point I asked if he was a residential engineer and if he wanted the job or not. He again asked me if I was hiring him or not. I did not want to hire him so to speak without knowing what his rate was. He kept refering to himself a being billed like a lawyerand that if he had to bring the engineering report back out to me I would have to pay for his travel time. I told him I wanted to speak to my husband first but that I did need an engineer to come out and give us a quote on the wall. My husband called to get a better idea of what he was talking about with all these costs and reports. When asked about all the fees and exactly what is he providing he told my husband that if we wanted to shop around for a cheaper price then to go ahead. He didnt negotiate and then hung up on my husband. We felt like 'what the heck just happened"? We did find a nice engineer who quoted us $250 to come out, look over the wall AND provided an report that our contracter used to build a new loadbearing wall. Not sure why Mr. Strawbridge was so difficult to work with.