Graves Brothers Home Improvement

I was disappointed with my experience with Graves Brothers Home Improvement. They canceled on me twice, which meant I never even had the chance to see their work. While their team may do quality jobs for others, the repeated cancellations made it impossible for me to move forward with them.

TL;DR: Graves Brothers is great at making a sale, telling you they will do all the right things, but they perform work very quickly WITH errors, and do not return to fix them for month(s) after installation. Post-sale response is very poor. We do not recommend them.

We used Graves Brothers to replace our roof and install gutter leaf protection based on reviews we’ve read and positive recommendations from friends. Pricing was decent for our sized home. I have waited for them to attempt to take care of everything before leaving this review, but things are taking MUCH longer than expected and we certainly are dissatisfied after repeated calls expressing our dissatisfaction and attempts to get things reconciled with little or no effort from Graves to get things resolved.

Premise: we had mold/mildew in our attic from 2 bathroom fans venting into the attic instead of through the roof vent for an unknown number of years. Both were connected to a tee, so venting was additionally poor. The roof deck was rotting, especially where the roof meets the chimney. We have trees in our property and constantly clogged gutters.

Quotation: new tear-off roof, 100% of decking replaced on main house, close gable vents to use soffit/ridge vents, ridge vent for garage, upstairs bathrooms get separate vents, install gutter leaf protection.

Day-of Roof Installation: It took one day to complete the entire roof. Started at 7:30am, finished at 6:30pm. Received call from the site foreman about some gable vents, he took care of it.

Day-of Gutter Leaf Protection Installation: Completed 3 days after the roof. They arrived sometime mid-morning and completed mid-afternoon.

Issues:
1. Roof: finished the garage roof with no ridge vent.
2. Gutter Leaf Protection: uneven, pitched toward house, wavy, rubberized backing in and out of place. Leaves collecting at downspout connecting house to garage and entering due to a poor cut not covered by leaf protection.
3. Flashing at base of siding: flashing along base of siding is tacked down and very wavy.
4. Flashing at base of chimney: large cut across width of chimney where old flashing was removed with remnants of the old flashing.
5. Bathroom vent fans: still installed using the existing tee. New flex pipe between “tee” and roof vent is tee. Both roof vents not centered over vent fans (holes in roof are 1 truss width away from directly above vents), seams are opposing direction of air flow , 2nd roof vent is connected to inside of cap but dangling in the attic, not connected.
6. Heat tape wires: Cut heat tape wires and instead of simply unplugging them from existing exterior plugs, they were left hanging on the side of the house

Resolutions:
1. Roof: called the foreman during installation, said he did not have a record of it doing garage ridge vent. Called our sales person, who called the foreman and instructed installers to get the garage ridge vent completed. Completed on the same day
2. Gutter Leaf Protection: called sales person who stated he would look at the install. Waited 1 week for him to respond, heard nothing, I called him again. Stated he came out to look, did not like quality, and would send out a service crew to fix. Different crew came to adjust, but I am still not happy with the quality of workmanship. Still same situation, with little change.
3. Flashing at base of siding: mentioned the waviness of flashing at base of siding, it was brushed off by sales rep, stated it will eventually relax over time (?).
4. Flashing at base of chimney: representative mentioned he will have someone raise the flashing or install taller flashing. Nothing done yet, +28 days since install
5. Bathroom vent fans: I entered attic to verify, told rep, he stated a call back by next day, no call back after 2 days, will have to call to remind. Nothing done yet, +28 days since install
6. Heat tape wires: rep mentioned they can unplug and discard these wires. Nothing done yet, +28 days since install

I had a stone facade and pot lights installed. The workmanship was well above par. Matt did the installation and I was extremely pleased with his talents. I know who to call for any future work.