Robbins Restoration, LLC

I started roofing my home. I know what I'm doing and have a strict code that I follow. Those that I have worked with can tell you, when it comes to how to do a roof I'm stringent. All nails must be flush with the shingle, the head of the nail cannot be all the way through the shingle nor can the nail stick up or will puncture the shingle above it. Everything must be covered before the end of the day unless there is 0% chance of rain during the night. The line next to the valley must be two inches from the center of the valley. I have fibromyalgia, so I decided it might be great to share the load with someone. Now I have to redo four valleys, the side of my attached garage, and at this point who knows what happened. I've calculated it will probably cost me another $4,000 to fix everything that was done by Robbins Restoration, because I'm not going through this again with another contractor.

I actually fired Robbins Restoration LLC or aka James Robbins Jr. or aka J. Robbins Roofing & Construction from my roofing job, I don't want him to come back and fix the work because I don't want more things to fix. The first thing he did upon arrival to "straighten" my lines next to the valley was rip the three valleys I had completed the traditional way out "because they couldn't be cut down the center of the valley". And then redid them with the New England style because it "looks prettier". During the entire job he kept going on about how straight his lines were. When I say I have a concern and it is constantly brought back to how straight the lines are and seeming to be on a one track mind. I want my shingles to stay on top of my roof and not have property damage first, beyond that it's preference. Time could have been better spent taking care of other portions of the house that were not shingled first.

So I now have paid $7,500 out of a $14,445 "proposal/contract" for labor to replace gutters along the front of our home, shingle 15 square on a house and 6 square on a detached garage. I expected to show me how to install felt that people can fall through and nail 50 pieces together with so many nails you could think it was golden lights on a black Christmas tree. The piece of felt was nailed on top of our weather watch. Nails not flush with the shingles below it so I have pictures of at least two this way. As well as nails shot completely through my shingles.

He said we had differing opinions. I say not leaving openings at my peaks of my house, making sure all nails are seated properly, and making sure I'm okay with your new style of doing things is okay before tearing out the valleys I did. I agreed to straighten my lines not replace my shingles before even discussing with me which options we had? And anyway, why would the first thing you do when you get to my home be going straight into tearing out shingles when there are all of those squares waiting to be shingled?

Rain was heading for my home and there was one man in the valley trying to finish the valley and he even thanked me for grabbing the felt and covering up a strip of felt which was at least 18" high and 10' long. There were two men still on the ground looking at each other like "what do we do". One man from the ground followed me up and asked multiple times "how can I help?" Then after I rolled the felt out he stared at it until I handed him nails and then he stared at the nails until I told him to start nailing it in.

Please save yourself the headaches and go somewhere else. I have pages of documentation (4 pages I handed him on the beginning of day 3) and pictures of how each of the three days went. I made sure I took pictures before I handed the torch off to someone else. After I went to work all day for the first time their roofing process started and came home to check to find the nails pushing themselves up like daisies through the shingles, you bet we dismissed him later on that night.

I showed him pictures of the work I found when I gave him the $2,500 check when he picked up his tools, since he deemed the total of $7,500 amount was fair so he wouldn't legally come after us for labor for three people for three days. He told us he has never had any insurance claims because of leaky roofs he has done. At least after day 3 he could no longer blame it solely on his employees or what portion of the roof I had done.

The best thing I would have done during this whole disaster was fire him as soon as the valleys I had roofed were being ripped out. It would have saved me a lot of time and trouble. I wouldn't recommend this company to a friend unless I really hated them. If I hadn't climbed on top of the roof and looked at the work then we wouldn't have known until it was raining indoors. Then that guarantee for 20 years that he puts on his contract wouldn't make me feel secure, but devastated. He said I didn't give him a chance, it would have been safe from water when it was done. It rained today. I feel better already with my decision.