Please Fix My Roof

MDFF2008 · Jan 9, 2019

After 8 months of searching, I finally found someone who could fix my roof for less than 8-10 thousand dollars

He called me today and said that his MHIC license renewal was lost in the mail and it could be 30-60 days before he has his MHIC back.

Would anyone match his estimate for $2400?

I'm in Towson MD.

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

Roofers are tough. I intentionally use an unlicensed guy. Just had a large (90 square) commercial roof done. He was LITERALLY $8K less than the next nearest bid. Same job, identical materials, finished in 3 days flat.

I had a bid of $21K for asphalt shingles, same guy said $24K for metal. My guy did it for $16,240. These guys are friggin crooks, no two ways about it. Same story last time I needed a roof on a decent sized building (50x100 building but just one side). Three other companies wanted $9 to $15K dollars, he did it for $5,800, identical shingles, full tear off, etc.

Let the guy do it, ef that license.

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

While I'm fully comfortable with an unlicensed and likely uninsured guy, I won't recommend him to anyone I don't know.

marko · Jan 9, 2019

He needs LIABILITY and Worker's Comp Insurance. The license is a joke.
I would not hire a roofer w/o L+WC. If someone dies on your job that's bad.
If he hires a sub, then you need to see proof of Liability. The sub could be on the hook for
Worker's comp, which can be about 12% of the total job.
How about a pic of your home to see the pitfalls / dangers ?
I have a legit roofer but doubt he'd drive to Towson.

1ceman · Jan 9, 2019

I am a MHIC contractor. I occasionally do roofing. (And Im not a crook

) Its hard to say without knowing details, but an average price is about $300 per square for an architectural asphalt shingle, materials and labor. Shingles cost approx $90 a square(plus nails, and paper, ridge vent, and Ice and water shield) install is between $80- $100 a square for a laboror , plus tear off, plus landfill fees, rest is profit.

marko · Jan 9, 2019

PJ - your guys look like they know what they are doing!!!

marko · Jan 9, 2019

(And Im not a crook)

I love it - made me think some MHIC contractors can be crooks, but they are LICENSED Crooks!!!
Like Politicians! Give me a qualified, dedicated, on-time person over anything else.

t84a · Jan 9, 2019

If he has insurance, tell him to fix it. Sounds like a lame excuse and maybe he underbid.

1ceman · Jan 9, 2019

marko said:
I love it - made me think some MHIC contractors can be crooks, but they are LICENSED Crooks!!!
Like Politicians! Give me a qualified, dedicated, on-time person over anything else.

Agreed.... there are crooks both licensed and unlicensed.

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

marko said:
PJ - your guys look like they know what they are doing!!!

marko said:
I love it - made me think some MHIC contractors can be crooks, but they are LICENSED Crooks!!!
Like Politicians! Give me a qualified, dedicated, on-time person over anything else.

Right on. I don't need to help foot the bill for someone's fancy radio ads and whatnot.

marko · Jan 9, 2019

Right on. I don't need to help foot the bill for someone's fancy radio ads and whatnot.

Yup. The MHIC Test for your license is mostly about how you send revenue to the .gov., and when.
It deals with payroll taxes, separate bank accounts.
Not one - ONE word of the test asked how many drywall screws per 4x8 sheet on the ceiling is needed.
Nor how many nails per sq ft of exterior sheathing, nor anything at all about how to support a 5 -7 - 9 -12 foot span with LVLs how thick,
NOTHING. NOTHING about best practices or code. It was a joke. Now all you gotta do is pay every 2 years to keep your license, with tax records.
A joke.

MDFF2008 · Jan 9, 2019

There's a section on the left equal in size but it's the patio roof. It needs to be completly redone, new underboard, new flashing.

t84a · Jan 9, 2019

marko said:
Yup. The MHIC Test for your license is mostly about how you send revenue to the .gov., and when.
It deals with payroll taxes, separate bank accounts.
Not one - ONE word of the test asked how many drywall screws per 4x8 sheet on the ceiling is needed.
Nor how many nails per sq ft of exterior sheathing, nor anything at all about how to support a 5 -7 - 9 -12 foot span with LVLs how thick,
NOTHING. NOTHING about best practices or code. It was a joke. Now all you gotta do is pay every 2 years to keep your license, with tax records.
A joke.

Exactly. In fact, way back when I took it, most contractors had their wives take the test.

Slackdaddy · Jan 9, 2019

Not sure where to start,, or stop on this one.
The law requires me to have a lic, the law requires me to have lib insurance, the law requires me to have worker comp insurance. That combined cost me OVER 60K a year.
The law requires a degree of paper work that warrants an employee to just handle the administrative end of running a legit business.

No shit an unlic, uninsured hack is 8K less,, He may be a great journeyman,, but he's not a contractor. "He" is the "Crook" ,, no 2 ways about it.

Rich1911 · Jan 9, 2019

He doesn't need the actual paper license that was "lost in the mail"...If he's actually licensed it's easy enough to find out on the MHIC website.

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

Deleted....

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

Slackdaddy said:
The law requires a degree of paper work that warrants an employee to just handle the administrative end of running a legit business.

No shit an unlic, uninsured hack is 8K less,, He may be a great journeyman,, but he's not a contractor. "He" is the "Crook" ,, no 2 ways about it.

Figured this was coming....

Suffice to say the job was done on time and I'm satisfied and happy as a clam to keep the money in MY pocket.

The "crook" is the system in place that rapes contractors at every turn so they can then "pass the expenses on" to the customer.

It's actually around $12k total savings on the two jobs I've had him do.

I'm more than happy to be able to invest that money into other projects as they come up.

Rich1911 · Jan 9, 2019

PJDiesel said:
Figured this was coming....

Suffice to say the job was done on time and I'm satisfied and happy as a clam to keep the money in MY pocket.

The "crook" is the system in place that rapes contractors at every turn so they can then "pass the expenses on" to the customer.

It's actually around $12k total savings on the two jobs I've had him do.

I'm more than happy to be able to invest that money into other projects as they come up.

Unlicensed, uninsured and most likely not paying taxes...

PJDiesel · Jan 9, 2019

Rich1911 said:
Unlicensed, uninsured and most likely not paying taxes...

How he operates his business is not my concern. I paid for the materials myself with a company Visa and him with a bank check. Not my responsibility to audit the guys books to see if he's straight with the IRS.

t84a · Jan 9, 2019

Rich1911 said:
Unlicensed, uninsured and most likely not paying taxes...

That could be reaching. Plus, you could say the same about licensed. I don't recall ever having to prove I have insurance to the MHIC but could be mistaken. I spend all of 5 minutes on the license renewal.

Please Fix My Roof

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