5 years ago we found Carlson Brothers on one of these "find/rate a contractor" web sites. One of the owners came promptly for an estimate; the repair was done quickly competently; they cleaned up after themselves very well, and the owner checked on the work with us at the end. So when a different part of the house needed roofing work this season, we went back to them without checking the reviews. Mistake.
The secretary told us they were booked up because of recent storms, and gave us a choice of a 2-day job soon, or a 1-day job further along. We were desperate because rain was coming, so we mistakenly chose the 2-day job. They arrived in the afternoon, splitting the time with another project, finished half the work and cleaned up thoroughly. Then left without telling us when to expect them the next day.
Heavy thunderstorms were coming on day 2, by the afternoon we were calling the office and owner who promised they were "around the corner" or "picking up materials". They finally arrived at 6:10 pm; 90 minutes before the rains were forecast. They did a competent job of finishing the roof and re-hanging the rain gutters, and then left at dusk without further cleanup. Five days later someone came to pick up the trash in their dumpster-in-a-bag, but they never swept the roofing nails, wood, or pieces of tar from the roof, rain gutters, or yard.
Over the next week I collected a dozen or more nails from the ground by hand, and Carlson still hadn't sent us an invoice. One family member got a flat tire from a leftover nail. Contacting the office by email, they finally scheduled the end-of-job visit for inspection and payment. When Carlson arrived, he got an earful about the cleanup, expressed surprise, and took the nails with him as evidence. We haven't heard from them since. After the last rain, we found a pile of wood scraps at the end of the rain gutter's downspout from stuff they had left in the rain gutters, and had to pay a gutter company to flush them clean. Next time.....
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