Erie Construction Mid-west GR The Heavy Metal Roof Job from Erie Grand Rapids Michigan

Two "slick Willies" from Erie sold me on a stone coated metal shingle roof that they said was Energy Star rated just like the ones I had seen at a local home show demo. I liked the idea that their product was stone coated and did look much more like conventional shingles then the products I had seen at the home expo. They gave me a one-time, super duper discount if I would sign up without hesitation and not disclose the sale price to anyone. Wow, how can you pass that up? I should have. The installation was done by a group of Mexicans, only one of which could (or would) speak English. I watched them closely, questioned some of what I saw, halted the installation once until I could speak with the manager of installation ( Terry ) on the phone, and started to feel very uneasy about the whole job. Fortunately, I had demanded that Erie obtain a bluilding permit from the city of Kalamazoo. I called the building inspector out after the installation was complete. The inspector carefully reviewed the installation and called Erie for some glaring violations, improper installation of vent ridges and lack of flashings. The Mexicans returned and corrected the problems. The city re-inspected the job and found the problems were taken care of properly. I never received an invoice broken down for labor and materials so that I could file for an energy tax credit even though I had called Erie several times requesting it. Each time, I was promised an invoice, but never received one. In the meantime, I contacted the manufacturer of the shingle; Decra Products of California. The "slick Wilies" from Erie told me that they were the manufacturers themselves and that was a big advantage for me if I ever had a product warranty issue. Apparently that ain't so either. Turns out, according to Decra, that the shingle I purchased is NOT energy star certified either, so I get no tax credit. Now I'm just waiting for a leak or a shingle problem to see how far I'm going to have to take that kind of issue to resolution. My advice: Don't deal with this company. They mis-represent their product. They have poorly trained, non-english speaking installation crews, and they don't follow up on any customer requests for information or paper work.

Richard
Kalamazoo, Michigan
U.S.A.