Rogue Roofer: A Property Manager Story

[Cameron Bock]

The story you are about to read has transpired over the past 6-8 months. There are areas in which I made mistakes and contractors made mistakes. This is completely factual, and, looking back on it, was a great learning experience. I hope this information helps at least one of you with your current or upcoming projects. Enjoy!

Building Details

My building is 100 years old and has just as many issues as years of life. Sitting in the middle of an urban environment, it is one of the Crown Jewel buildings in the city in which we call home. It is designated as a Historic Landmark by both the city and the county and is a focal point of many events and local news. These “historic” and “exposure” aspects make solving these 100+ issues challenging (and fun!) To the north is my neighbor's building, in which we share a wall; to the east is a small parking lot of about 4 spaces; to the south is a 4-lane one-way road; and to the west is a 6-lane wide avenue, both considered to be major thoroughfares of the city.

The roof we will be talking about has been dubbed “The Small Roof”. It’s pretty friggin’ small. It is about 100 sq/ft, flat, with a 3 ft parapet (mini wall preventing people like me from falling off the edge). It is also 10 stories off the ground in a very hard to access area. I mean hard to access area. Abandoned mechanical relics block the otherwise easy-to-access Small Roof. So once you climb over the HVAC equipment, and crawl through an old building-wide vacuum unit, you have reached your destination. When you get there, you will be sadly disheartened. The Small Roof is roughly 2.5’ wide and maybe 50’ long.

Finally, the story!

The issue with The Small Roof is the room beneath has had severe leaking for several months, if not years. Before I started working at my organization, the CEO and her assistant received a proposal from the GC to repair the roof. This proposal, already signed by my CEO, is my first project and is awaiting my attention on my desk on my first day. So, I jumped to work and scheduled a walkthrough with the GC, the architect, and the roofing subcontractor (selected by the GC) for the following day.

It’s 7 AM the following day. We make our way to the small roof, and the GC, sub, and architect begin talking and brainstorming, going back and forth on finding a solution for our leaking issues beneath this roof.

My initial thought is, “This is great. I have a key group of people analyzing the situation.”

Then my thought process about-faced. No, I don’t have a key group of people analyzing the situation. This conversation should have happened before a proposal was on my desk, not after.

What does this tell me? The proposal was not thought out and the finance numbers are not factual; they are brainstorms based off some conversation which happened before I started. But the proposal was already signed (Red Flag #1!)

I could go into more detail about their proposed solution, but it was pretty nuts. However, they all agreed that it was a solid solution and the meeting was adjourned. This all happened very fast, and I was too nervous and flustered to ask questions - it was only my second day on the job!

This was a learning experience and my takeaway is I learned to speak up, and even interrupt, contractors early on in the brainstorming process. It sounds rude, but sometimes you need to assert who’s boss.

After the meeting adjourned, we all made our way to the main lobby to exit the building. The GC pulled me aside and told me not to worry about the project and it would commence in 7 days due to weather. I (blindly) said “okay” and shook his hand.

At this point, something felt “off” about the project. Why was there a proposal with no plan in mind? Why did they propose such an odd solution? Why didn’t the proposal have supplies and labor broken out? My gut said no, and it was time to use a lifeline.

I called a mentor of mine who works in the construction industry. He and I worked together and I received a plethora of experience and knowledge from him. I explained to him everything that transpired, and we were in agreement - my gut was right. Something was off.

The next day, he came by with a colleague of his who does roofing. We all went up to the roof and discussed what solutions are available. His colleague proposed a solution which sounded much more reasonable for our application. I asked him to write up a proposal and I would see about giving him the work. He requested that I not share the proposal with the previous GC, and I honored that request (to this day I haven’t shared it lol).

Before presenting the new proposal, I explained what had transpired to my CEO. She liked my go-getter attitude, and was amenable to looking at the new solution, but only after I crunched the numbers on both proposals.

Let’s stop for a second and talk turkey:

The original proposal was to “repair the roof” for $12,000. It did not break out labor or parts, so there was no way for me to analyze where my money would be going. On the other hand, the new proposal was to “remove the existing roof and apply XYZ material and waterproof, backed by ABC warranties” for $8000. I could dig into the new proposal very easily; parts and labor were separated, and I could see where my money was going to be going. I could not do this on the existing proposal.

What did I learn from this exercise? Proposals have 2 obvious parts and 2 hidden parts. The two obvious parts are “parts” and “labor”. These are obvious enough. The two hidden parts are “administrative fees” and “profit”. When I say “hidden”, I don’t mean they are trying to sneak these by me; rather they are either rolled into a line item called “Fees” or they are rolled into “Labor”. It’s not important to critique these hidden parts, but it is important to be aware of them.

This is a good opportunity for me to say this: I don’t care if I am paying a contractor profit. I want them to profit. But, I do care about is transparency. I want the contractor to be upfront about each of their line items; it’s as simple as that.

Back to the story:

I couldn’t crunch the numbers on the existing proposal. I called the GC and he essentially told me what I had originally thought: they didn’t have a solution in mind when they drafted the proposal. Nevertheless, he stuck with the proposal and wanted to move forward. I told him to hold off on scheduling work while I analyzed everything.

Some time passed, and the project was on hold. This was due to weather (winter) so roofing work couldn’t be completed anyway. After some back and forth between myself, my CEO and the GC, they wound up matching the $8000 price tag. I had told the GC I received a solution from another roofer, and without missing a beat he matched the price (Red Flag #2!). My CEO wanted to go with the regular GC (as we have a long relationship), so we signed a new proposal with updated pricing. I told my mentor’s colleague that we did not need his services.

The winter concluded, and as the weather began turning, I restarted the roofing conversation. I reached out to the GC, and he scheduled the work.

Work Commences:

The date arrives and the roofers arrive to start work. I met the owner of the roofing company (he’s the sub for this job) and his crew, and I let them up to the roof.

On the roof, the owner turns to me and says, “You need to move your vehicles parked in your lot so I can park my truck there.”

He didn’t ask me to move the vehicles - he told me I needed to. I didn’t like this (The vehicles are owned by my company with our logos on them) (Red Flag #3!).

I asked him why he needed to park in the lot (his vehicle is currently parked in the street).

He says, and I quote, “So I can throw the garbage off the side of the building and into the bed of my truck” (Red Flag #4!!!).

Let’s stop the story again (I’m sorry guys! There’s a lot of necessary back story):

The small parking lot is ground level with asphalt, but it also acts as a ceiling to my building’s boiler room. I recently had this evaluated by a structural engineer, and he dubbed it not safe at all to park on. We continue to park company vehicles on there because….well...I don’t have a great reason. That aside, no vehicles should be parking there.

Back to the story:

I told the roofer I needed to ask my boss if I could move the vehicles. I know that I will not have authorization for that, but I figured I would give the roofer the benefit of the doubt and I would ask anyway.

I go back down to my office and ask my CEO. The CEO says “No way”, and then I received a call on my cell which diverted my attention for 2 minutes. As I get off the call, the roofer is standing in the office right in my face.

“Can you move the vehicles now so I can park?” he asked with a touch of attitude.

“No, unfortunately, I can’t let you park there. The alley is not structurally sound.” I replied.

Keep in mind, this is in the center of an office with 20+ employees.

At this point, the owner goes berserk on me. He began cursing at me, calling me an idiot, and telling me I don’t know what the **** I’m talking about. After ranting and complaining for 5 minutes, he ran out of the office, pushed a button on the elevator, pointed at me and said “I’m throwing garbage off the side of the roof, whether or not my truck’s there. You better watch your back.” (Red Flag #5, I guess). He got in the elevator, and either went up or down, I’m not too sure.

Nope. A whole lot of nope right here.

I notified the police immediately (ironically, they were working outside my building, so this was easy for me to do). They asked if I wanted to press charges, I told them, no, but I am kicking the roofer out of the building and I would appreciate their presence.

Their presence wasn’t necessary as the roofer was already on the street, walking directly towards me. He interupts my conversation to tell me, again, that I am an idiot and I “just don’t want him to do the work”. I look back at the cop, and he replies, “I’ll keep an eye on him, I’m here all day.” I haven’t seen the roofer to this day.

At this point, I call the GC. I explain the situation to him, and they come down to my office immediately to talk face-to-face. They were very nice about the whole situation, agreed to stay on premises while the work is being completed, and promised to not let the roofer back in my building. I was okay with this solution. As long as the roofing owner is not in the building, I am happy.

But wait, there’s more! I was out of the office one of the days work was being completed. On this day, I get an email from the GC that some plywood needs to be replaced for the roofers to finish the work. I had looked at this area of the work before they started closing everything, and I made the judgment that it did not need to be replaced. (In fact, it was wet and slightly rotted. I understand rot tends to spread throughout wood over time.)

I responded to the GC via email telling him not to move forward with the plywood. This was a Wednesday midday; Friday evening, I received an interesting phone call.

It was from the GC. He told me the roofers did the plywood work, despite my direction to not do so. He told me the roofer was expecting to get paid for this. He told me the total bill was $2500.

Let’s take another break from the story:

I’m no fool (well, maybe I am in some regards, but not this one!) It seems suspicious that the original proposal was for $12,000, they immediately knocked $4000 off it after I pushed back, and now all of a sudden there’s an additional charge of $2500? It sounds like they (the roofer or the GC) is trying to make up for lost profit.

When I did my analysis of the proposals, I came to the conclusion that my mentor’s roofer would probably pay $6500 in parts and labor, and he would profit $1500 (a grand total of $8000).

The GC did change his original proposal to meet the $8000, but he told me the scope of work would be changed as well. They were not going to do what they had discussed in their original walkthrough with me, but a newer, better solution his roofer thought of. Could it be that the GC’s roofer thought of the same solution my mentor’s roofer thought of? Probably...most likely.

Back to the story:

Welcome to present day! Currently, I paid the $8000 on the roof (because the work is complete) but not the $2500 for plywood. I told the GC I am not paying the $2500, but if he can come back to me with an itemized quote I would consider it.

Regarding the itemized quote, I have some concerns which are how was the plywood? Where is a receipt for the plywood? The original proposal stated 3 days worth of work, and even with the additional plywood work, they stayed within that range, so am I being charged for more labor?

I’ll have to update this post as the story develops, but I had been thinking about this for a while and I figured it would be helpful to somebody in this community.

Please feel free to ask questions and I’m happy to elaborate!