Do not use this company – they failed to do the job promised in the estimate (but charged us for it anyway). The job they did complete ended up draining most of the run-off from our roofs into a place where it cannot be piped away, and where it has caused damp problems for our foundations. This is a story of broken promises, poor workmanship, and overcharging. Here are the details:
We employed Gallamore Seamless Gutters last spring (2015) to replace the all of the gutters and downspouts on our house. The company’s owner provided the initial estimate; he argued strenuously that we absolutely needed a second downspout on our back gutter – a long drop of 3 storeys. He gave us an estimate of $1195, based on 221 feet of gutter and 152 feet of downspout, plus two miters. We thought the estimate high, but were assured we would get quality work for this price.
When the workmen came to do the job, the foreman told us he could not put the downspout on the back, as per the estimate. Instead, he argued that we needed two extra downspouts on the front – shorter, one-storey downspouts. I was confused that the “absolutely essential” back downspout his boss had argued for was no longer needed, and that these front downspouts his boss hadn’t mentioned were suddenly necessary. I was concerned about one of the front downspouts, which would drain water into an area where it would sit near the house’s foundations. Because of the lay of the land, it wasn’t possible to add extension pipes to shift the water further away, except by cutting through a brick wall and having water spew from several feet high onto our driveway – a solution that would be expensive, unsightly, and dangerous in freezing conditions. The foreman insisted, and promised me that the gutters would be angled so that very little water would find its way down this spout. I was late for work, and so trusted that he knew what he was doing.
Instead of the promised result, we found that the bulk of the water from the front roofs of the house was draining into this confined area near the foundations. To add insult to injury, Gallamore’s invoice was not revised to take account of the shorter downspouts and easier work involved by replacing the back downspout of the estimate with the shorter downspouts at the front. We complained, but got no satisfactory response. Meanwhile, the area in question near the house turned into a swamp in bad weather, and we began to get damp problems, for the first time, in our basement.
Gallamore ceased to return our calls, until I threatened legal action. At that point, the owner came and promised to block off the problematic downspout and adjust the gutter tilt so that the water would drain out the back, where it could run off, away from the house. His men did block off the gutter, but failed to adjust the gutter tilt, so that water now accumulates in the gutters instead of draining off. Further phone calls have yielded no result. We are left having paid a large amount of money for a job that someone else will now be paid to fix.
Do not use this company – they failed to do the job promised in the estimate (but charged us for it anyway). The job they did complete ended up draining most of the run-off from our roofs into a place where it cannot be piped away, and where it has caused damp problems for our foundations. This is a story of broken promises, poor workmanship, and overcharging. Here are the details:
We employed Gallamore Seamless Gutters last spring (2015) to replace the all of the gutters and downspouts on our house. The company’s owner provided the initial estimate; he argued strenuously that we absolutely needed a second downspout on our back gutter – a long drop of 3 storeys. He gave us an estimate of $1195, based on 221 feet of gutter and 152 feet of downspout, plus two miters. We thought the estimate high, but were assured we would get quality work for this price.
When the workmen came to do the job, the foreman told us he could not put the downspout on the back, as per the estimate. Instead, he argued that we needed two extra downspouts on the front – shorter, one-storey downspouts. I was confused that the “absolutely essential” back downspout his boss had argued for was no longer needed, and that these front downspouts his boss hadn’t mentioned were suddenly necessary. I was concerned about one of the front downspouts, which would drain water into an area where it would sit near the house’s foundations. Because of the lay of the land, it wasn’t possible to add extension pipes to shift the water further away, except by cutting through a brick wall and having water spew from several feet high onto our driveway – a solution that would be expensive, unsightly, and dangerous in freezing conditions. The foreman insisted, and promised me that the gutters would be angled so that very little water would find its way down this spout. I was late for work, and so trusted that he knew what he was doing.
Instead of the promised result, we found that the bulk of the water from the front roofs of the house was draining into this confined area near the foundations. To add insult to injury, Gallamore’s invoice was not revised to take account of the shorter downspouts and easier work involved by replacing the back downspout of the estimate with the shorter downspouts at the front. We complained, but got no satisfactory response. Meanwhile, the area in question near the house turned into a swamp in bad weather, and we began to get damp problems, for the first time, in our basement.
Gallamore ceased to return our calls, until I threatened legal action. At that point, the owner came and promised to block off the problematic downspout and adjust the gutter tilt so that the water would drain out the back, where it could run off, away from the house. His men did block off the gutter, but failed to adjust the gutter tilt, so that water now accumulates in the gutters instead of draining off. Further phone calls have yielded no result. We are left having paid a large amount of money for a job that someone else will now be paid to fix.