When searching for a contractor to re-shingle my roof in in the spring of 2016, I was amazed that there were no glowing reports available on-line from satisfied customers. All I could find were degrees of dissatisfaction. In the end, I elected to choose one that had the fewest bad reviews and ensured that my expectations were understood – and ended up going with AWE out of Guelph, ON. My goal was to be able to post a positive experience for other home-owners seeking a new roof. It didn’t work out that way in the end. As the roofing crew was completing the job I could see from the ground that the shingles extended beside the eavestroughs – so rain water flowing down the shingles would miss the eavestrough and fall directly onto the ground. This would result in ice buildup on walkways and at entrances in winter, and unnecessary erosion in warmer weather. I mentioned to the supervisor that deflectors (like the ones they had removed with the old shingles) would be needed. (This was agreed to in writing before the job started). With my constant supervision they finally managed to rectify the situation. After the crew left, I went around and gathered over 100 nails from the gardens, deck, driveway and road. And after the first major rain storm I cleaned up another 65 roofing-shingles from the driveway that had been flushed out of the eavestrough. Two weeks after the job was completed I climbed onto the roof for a final inspection. A large number of shingles already showed signs of excessive wear. Some had large areas of granules missing, and many had gouge marks 50% to 60% percent through the shingles. The worst areas were the southern exposure, which would be most affected by the sun. It was explained to me that this is quite common and is caused by the worker’s boots digging into the shingles during installation. They did replace these, but only since I had seen the damaged shingles first hand. I had also reported an exposed nail in the ridge that was never sealed. It was explained to me that water would not leak past this nail, but they would send someone over to seal it for me. Eleven months after the installation I was still waiting - so I ended up purchasing supplies and finished the caulking myself. My recommendation to others getting their shingles replaced, regardless of who they use, would be to hire a qualified individual to inspect the work after it is completed. Some of the reviews had comments such as ‘the roof looks lovely’, but that is from a couple hundred away and looking up. If you had your vehicle repainted and inspected the workmanship from 200’ away, I’m sure it would also look good. But when the vehicle is repainted, you tend to inspect the work from a few feet away. On a positive note, the roof does in fact look good from the ground.

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