All Can Services

I live in a two-story duplex. The other half of the building is home to a retired couple and I'm not far off being a senior citizen myself. While a roof replacement wasn't something we wanted to do, the repair of an issue last month on my side of the roof prompted a discussion that led to the decision to be a day early rather than a day late. Despite Elvis' feeling we had one or two years left on the current roof, we opted to have the complete roof replaced.

We did a thorough vetting of the finalists for our roof replacement job, getting recommendations from friends and colleagues and reviewing their options here at HomeStars. The three finalists were all highly-recommended, had good HomeStars ratings and I was sure would do good work. Obviously, my prior experience with All-Can made the company a favourite of mine, but I put an effort in coming up with an unemotional evaluation of which company to give close to five grand to. The fact that our neighbours to the north had spent that, and more, only to end up with a shoddy, leaky roof, made proper vetting important.

So, I created a weighted list of factors to consider. Only 50 perccent went into the price. We also considered the work days, the work warranty, the vent replacement(s), replacement specifics, the clean-up guarantee, squirrel protection and trust. And we actually had different scores for each side as I had had squirrel issues in the past (at $400 a repair-and-evacuate), while my neighbour had no desire to spend the extra money. We also declined to give weight to the difference between 30-year shingles and 25, since both of us were of the opinion we would be living somewhere else by the end of the shingles' life.

When the various numbers and counter-proposals were done, All-Can came in with the best weighted score, but the highest price. A 15-year work warranty, six-spot nailing and a trust factor score were what made deciding to entrust, literally, the roof over our head to All-Can, the final decision. And my neighbour and I are glad we did. I should point out that Elvis re-affirmed his opinion the lid still had life in it, while the other companies quoting suggested strongly that problems were dire indeed. And yes, the trust score proved to be the winning margin for All-Can.

The work was a bit more than three days in total. In an off-and-on rain storm. Neighbours in the know, watched proceedings from nearby and were impressed with how Elvis and his crew made sure everything was water-tight as they replaced the roof, section by section. They didn't do that without some noise, but I soon got used to the rhythm of four knocks and a couple of quick final bangs as the shingles were done. Actually became a bit soothing before the silence mercifully returned on the weekend.

My former dual purpose vent was replaced by three small vents that would not rattle and ping through the night. My neighbour went for a two-for-one replacement of his old 'whirlibird' vent, commenting that getting rid of that annoying sound might be worth the cost alone." I got the aluminum flashing above my eavestrough that I hope ends any future squirrel intrusions. I have dents in my ceiling to prove how intolerant of their presence I am.

Quality costs, so my father taught me. I could have saved as much as $250 by going with the cheapest quote, one that promised a one-day job. After seing (and hearing) the All-Can crew take three days and a bit to do the job, I'm even more convinced that I was right. Shame about the 15-year work warranty though. Don't think I'll ever need to take advantage of it.