Al Smith llc

Do not give Al Smith your money. You will be left begging for him to finish the job. He cannot do the work and will not return calls and texts.

It was the worst contractor experience I have ever had. Al tool over $5,000 and did not perform the work of the contract. He was awful to deal with and was hospitalized several times through the 2-3 week period. He brought illegal drugs onto my property and he did not perform the work, as contacted.

I should have known when he showed up that this was going to be a disaster as his truck leaked oil all over my driveway when he came for the estimate and my dog who loves everyone barked at him.  We eventually signed a contract and gave a deposit of $2500.  They started work on a Friday, and did not cover the roof in any way.  They did not return the following day.  Rain was predicted a week prior.  They apparently do not have access to the news, the internet or a pair of eyes as the clouds rolled in.



The predicted torrential downpours happened, and it rained through our drywall, ruining a good portion of our bathroom and electrical devices in the bathroom.  He did not answer his phone.  So we went to his house at 6:30AM.  We were greeted by a man looking like he had been drinking heavily all night.  He hopped right in his truck and came up, sticking wads of felt in the holes in the roof.  Predictably this did not help at all, so we went back to his house to demand he do something else.  Finally he sent two of his workers with 3 ancient tarps filled with holes, and they nailed these to the roof.  



I called my insurance company and they sent out a remediation crew to start working on it.  The next morning I called Mr. Smith and he stated that, despite his website, contract and card he did not actually carry liability insurance.  "I've had a lapse in insurance" he said.  My eminently reasonable response was "what the f*** were you thinking?"  He then dodged my further calls, so I drafted a letter terminating the contract for cause and demanded my deposit back.  He did not respond.  



Finally I called him with caller ID blocked, he answered within two rings, and asked if he had received it.  He stated he had.  He then stated that he had no money, and that he was working on another job and might be able to pay me next week.  I informed him that in Vermont deposits are supposed to be held in trust and that they need to be available for return, and that he was in violation of this law.  He said "I don't know about that" and hung up.  I called him back and informed him that I am impounding his tools until he returns our deposit.  And this is where it stands, with my homeowners insurance looming over him ominously to recoup their expenses and me getting extremely agitated.  I bet you will too if you use this company.

Update: The attorney general is now suing him for home improvement fraud.

unknown

The job went very well. He took the old roof off and and saved the old edging which saved me money. He miscalculated the amount of material he needed and offered to cut the difference in half. The pieces were just slightly shorter than the roof, so he came up with a creative way to fix it. The roof came out great and went through this tough winter. I would use his services again in a heart beat. And the best, he cleaned up every spec of construction material that was laying on the ground.

He came back just a few days later and did a permanent repair by replacing all of the missing roof, and he re secured the remaining roof so that would not blow off either. He was prompt, Professional and very polite with a good deal of chrisma that made it a very pleasant visit. And he was the only one out of four roofers that I called who responded. I would definitely recommend him to any one of my neighbors.