Our Project — Our "new" old house is topped with high-quality roofing shingles with plenty of life left. However, the shingles were applied not only to the main roof, but also, to a wide front porch roof, where the pitch curves from about 9:12 to nearly flat. Shingles literally do not work on flat roofs and the roof leaked over the porch, drenching not only the porch underneath, but of course, the internal structure as well. We needed a metal standing-seam roof that conforms with the roof contour all along the 30-foot-wide porch. Ugly approaches, like fiberglass, could work, I suppose, but on our front elevation, an architecturally correct and aesthetically pleasing solution was the right thing to do — standing seam.
The Recommendation — Roofing with shingles calls for highly-skilled tradesmen if the job is to be done right. But building a standing seam roof is a specialty art, beyond the skill-set of most roofers, I dare say. So we turned to a trusted source to advise us, namely, Mark Van Reuth, president of Brightview Builders. It was Mark who recommended Black Anchor Roofing. We had never heard of Black Anchor, but Mark’s recommendation is golden, and with good reason, based on our long history of projects with Brightview.
The Job — The work, as well as the experience of working with Black Anchor, was superb. Our meeting and the estimate were straightforward and honest. Rick Cassidy, Black Anchor’s principal, was on the same page as we were and did not try to pile on additional stuff we knew we didn’t need. (That has happened to us before.) Here are a few project highlights with Black Anchor you’ll find interesting:
Communication: No sooner had we signed our contract with Black Anchor, but weather turned foul for a long time. Black Anchor remained in touch with us, calling us every week or so. We never felt as if our project had been forgotten. Throughout the wait, we always knew that when the weather broke, our job would get done.
Meteorologist: Well, I don’t know, but it seems like Rick was at least as knowledgeable about weather as the weather pros. He didn’t jump the gun when a very occasional bright day dawned. But darned if he didn’t identify a four-day window between storms with high-enough temperatures to permit work, and have the crew turn-to. It didn’t seem at all as if they were rushing, but it was clear the crew worked steadily, with purpose, for long days and over part of a weekend. The job was finished up on Saturday, and Sunday, rain started again.
Artful: The finished product is nothing short of beautiful. The fabrication and application, was very well done, as were repairs to the underlayment. I’d like to say also, the entire crew — Rick, and the site manager, and the fabricators and installers — were darned nice. No grumpies on a job where there was a lot to do in very little time, doing work that is inherently dangerous. We could not ask for more. It’s anticlimactic to report that the leaks are no more, and we’ve had plenty of rain to prove it.
Exceptionally Neat and Clean: Of all the contractors with whom we’ve engaged over the years, and there have been many, Black Anchor earns the gold for leaving our work site as neat and spiffy as if we had done the cleanup ourselves.