CassieSo this week our doorknob neighbour finally had his roof redone. For reference, this was the before state of the roof, shingles peeling and missing, cladding coming off the sides, more shingles flying off any time there is strong wind (often hitting our house in the process), just in bad shape. We can see it through our sunroof in our bathroom and it was stressful to look at.
We're on the barest level of friendliness with this guy because he's a doorknob neighbour and pretty inconsiderate but to his credit he did let us know a couple of months ago that he would be having roofers come and asked if it would be okay if they had some stuff in our laneway and we said yup, obviously fine, thanks for checking.
So Wednesday morning we get up and I go to brush my teeth and notice MEN on the ROOF next door, who can clearly see into our bathroom. This is a problem because our only shower is in that bathroom and I am very much a morning shower person or else I cannot function. However, I figured out that as long as we undressed IN the shower itself, which isn't visible from the roof, it was doable, so it was fine, though inconvenient.
So the day continues and once we're downstairs we hear periodic thunking noises - figuring out that the roofing guys are CHUCKING the old shingles down and they are hitting our house and windows, pretty hard. Jeff goes outside to ask if they could not do that because it could break our windows and they say yup and keep doing it. The laneway is absolutely covered with old shingles.
Anyway, so they keep hurling shingles down at our house and Jeff goes out to look - turns out that they have hit our house with so much force in some spots that they have dented our siding and in some cases broken through it.
Jeff points this out to one of the workers, who says "Oh yeah your siding is aluminum, right. I'll talk to the boss about it." We go about our day, figuring they'll come talk to us at some point - they don't. We figure they'll be back tomorrow, but they aren't.
Ironically and luckily, earlier in the day we had looked them up because we are having a heck of a time trying to get someone to install eavestroughs on our house and thought we could ask if they'd be interested in throwing that job into their day if they had extra time, so luckily we had their name. Jeff called their administration to let the know what happened and seek compensation for the damage they caused to our house.
The person he talked to said they'd look into it, though on our side I'm not even sure what compensation we should seek, since we don't have any of that siding left over from when it was redone by previous owners to replace any portions and we have no current intention of repainting or residing our house. It's kind of bullshit that we have to figure this out.
And of course - of course! - they left a mess in our laneway that needs to be cleaned up and were apparently so thorough that they stapled wrapping plastic into the shingles on the roof. Gorgeous.
Update on this saga is that they called us back and left a message and then came by yesterday to assess the damage. They were both super horrified by what the workers had done and apologetic about it - they said that the workers were supposed to have scaffolding set up to avoid this. They asked how they can make it right and will start by cleaning it to see if it's as damaged as it looks and we'll go from there.
Since they were so good about addressing our concerns - apparently our doorknob neighbour also flagged the damage, which surprised us - and really, really need someone to install some damned eavestroughs on our house, we're going to see if they could prioritize us for eavestroughs installation with a discount as amends for the matter.
MarkScrivens
Justin Derrick@casseagull Once they've cleaned it and you've assessed the damage, call three siding companies, and ask for two quotes - one for repair, and another for a complete re-cladding of the house. Present both to your neighbour's vendor, and settle for a number somewhere inbetween. Negotiate strictly based on the numbers, and see if there's a number that will make you happy. If you can't come to a satisfactory number on your own, offer the threat of legal action to pry open their wallet some more.
😀🚲@casseagull that plastic might just be the packing separator for the adhesive on each shingle, but still that's sloppy. If you haven't walked a magnet around yet, look out for old nails on the ground!
@enobacon Oh yeah it's definitely just that but it's SO sloppy. Bad enough that it's in our laneway but NAILED ON? Come on.
Oh god you're right about the nails. Good call, thank you!
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️@casseagull
Some stuff in the laneway from roofers usually means a dumpster to carefully toss the old shingles in not willy nilly throwing them on your driveway.
Some stuff in the laneway from roofers usually means a dumpster to carefully toss the old shingles in not willy nilly throwing them on your driveway.
@the5thColumnist Yup! They put down a tarp and used that to hold the shingles and picked up all the *old* ones they threw down, but they didn't check with us first so we could move our bike racks out of their way and then left the debris from the *new* shingles in the laneway and in their dragging of the tarp made a mess of our (2/3) gravel laneway. Super annoying. We're going to have them clean it up.
Our laneway is narrow so I don't think a dumpster would have fit, at least.