Two years after we bought our town home,  the roof started leaking.  Prior to that my husband’s coworker spent $3,000 for a mold clean-up in his attic and his home insurance didn’t cover the damage because it was “poor workmanship.”  So the poor guy had to pay for the clean-up and for roof replacement.

Our roof was contractor grade and  it was beyond warranty.  Traumatized by what hubby’s coworker had gone through we decided to just skip the patching process and just replace the entire roof.  Luckily, it wasn’t a big roof.  We called a local roofing company for an estimate and didn’t even get a return call. I called again and the second time I got an appointment but they didn’t show up not even a call!  I got tired of calling so we decided to just ask a quote from Home Depot.  We figured that if the local company didn’t even have time for a sales opportunity, how much more for if we needed to have something looked at if we had roof issues down the road?  We know the big box store is going to cost us more but at least they will be around or have a better probability that they will be able to honor the 10 years warranty as long as they are still in business.  I can say that we are happy about that decision when we had issues,  I called a 1800-number and the next day someone was on the roof.  They replaced the flashing of a tube coming out and it was all good.

A friend recently bought a house and he too replaced his roof.  We did recommend Home Depot and not fool around for peace of mind.  He wanted to save some money and called a local guy instead.  Communication was good between him and the contractor during the pre-install and installation phase.  Our friend started to notice leaks and he called his roofer. Roofer didn’t call back for a while and then after several weeks he calls back and says he’ll check out the problem.  Roofer appears and “fixes” the problem.  It rained and roof still leaks.  Our friend calls again and again, no answer from the roofer.  In the end, he called Home Depot and after an inspection, he was told  that his roof leaked because the wood under the new shingles were rotten. So the entire new roof has to be replaced.  They can only guarantee their work.  So off came down the new shingles and all rotten wood replaced.  It ended up $6,000 down the drain.  But at least when he called post-installation, he spoke with someone and he got it fixed.

So in this case, spending a little more saves money and frustration in the long run.  Anything that involves post-sales/installation support should be done by companies who have been around.  A new roof is a huge investment and so why risk it?

In America,  replacing floor carpeting is bound to happen during our lifetime.  When we were planning to sell our town house, we decided to replace the carpet because the contractor grade carpet and padding was really meant to be replaced after 10 years or less.  For us it was pushing 17 years old and it has seen better days.

I liked the quality of work of the carpet guy who worked with the general contractor who did our basement. He was hard working and took pride in his craft.  I did ask for his card and his source for materials(carpet and padding).  While I was at it,  I asked him to give me a quote for the 3 bedrooms and a stair case.  He gave me the estimate of how much material needed and his labor.  Of course, the SOP(standard operating procedure) is to ask for quotes from at least 3 contractors.  The other two contractors, 1 was from a big box store and the other is from a national floor covering store.  We went to the warehouse where our carpet guy gets his materials and picked out a decent quality carpet(keeping in mind that we may end up staying in the house longer). We compared quotes, our carpet guy beat big box store and floor covering store by half.  He told me that we didn’t need so much material that the other guys were estimating and the labor included middle men over head.  He didn’t charge an outrageous fee for the stairs which the 2 other guys quoted at a much higher rate per square foot.

Carpet Secret: We learned that there are only a very few carpet manufacturers in this country, these are the big brand names you see in the big box stores.  When we went to the carpet supplier, the big brand name carpet manufacturers have different product labels.  They do this so that customers cannot compare apples to apples with the “official”  flooring stores that carry their brands.  In a big box store, our budget could have only given us a low grade product but in the carpet supplier we were able to buy higher quality for the same price.

So in the end, we had an upgraded carpet which was rated a “green” product with a very reasonable price.  Lesson learned:  find a great carpet guy who tells you to buy the material straight from the supplier and pay for his labor.  There are carpet guys who are sub-contracted by flooring stores.  It’s easier to find a carpet supplier and ask for contractors who buy from them then ask for quotes.  For about 2 hours of inconvenience,  we saved $1,500 in the process.

When selling a home, the question arises about wether to replace the carpet or offer a carpet allowance.  For our situation, the carpet added the “new” feel to the place.  The carpet would have cost us more if we offered fair market value allowance for it.