Patience and Persistence Pay Off for Roofer and Homeowner
Sometimes it takes both patience and persistence to get a new roof on a home. Just ask Benjamin Jacobs and his roofer, Joe McDevitt. From start to finish, it took 2-1/2 years to put all the moving parts in place to get a completed new roof.
Here’s how this story unfolds.
While working on another roof in Jacobs’ Springfield, Missouri, neighborhood, McDevitt saw the Jacobs home. He was attracted to the unique English farmhouse style and the wood shake roof overhead. Plus, he could immediately tell the roof was in bad shape.
“We told Ben about how we had upgraded his neighbor’s roof to DaVinci Shake,” says McDevitt with Black and White Roofing out of Springfield, Missouri. “We explained how a new composite shake roof could potentially save him money on future insurance premiums.”
A year went by. Jacobs called McDevitt saying his 25-year-old plus roof was starting to leak. The roofer examined the roof. Then came the bad news. Hail and wind damage had rendered the roof unfixable.
“The shakes melted in your hands to the touch,” says McDevitt, a DaVinci Masterpiece Contractor. “Ben contacted his insurance company, but his first inspection resulted in a denial. So did his second request. A third request didn’t bring him much more success. It was a full year later that his insurance carrier finally agreed to pay to replace the roof properly.”
Investigating Roofing Options
Working with an insurance company is rarely easy. DaVinci has offered tips on this process in the past. As Jacobs discovered, one of them is patience.
While going through the reapplication process with the insurance company, the Jacobs family had plenty of time to investigate their replacement roofing options.
“Joe knocked on my door one day and showed me a DaVinci catalog and samples,” says Jacobs. “My wife and I had previously been looking at synthetic shake. However Joe sold us on DaVinci in the Mountain color blend.
“There’s simply no comparison in the quality and authentic appearance of the DaVinci tiles to other products. It was a no-brainer when you factor in the lifetime limited material warranty, no-maintenance and the aesthetic look of DaVinci shake.”
Roof Complements Home Style
Making a decision about their replacement roofing options was especially important to the Jacobs family. That’s because their home, built in the late 1970s, has many ties with local history. The home was constructed of reclaimed and restored materials. The land surrounding their home was used as campgrounds during the Civil War.
“I like all the local tie-ins for our home,” says Jacobs. “We have brick from Coffeeville, Kansas. Wood from a train station in St. Louis. Now there’s roofing from Lenexa, Kansas. It just feels right for this home.”
Composite Roofing Excellence
When the Black and White Roofing team was finally able to get up on the roof, they had a variety of challenges to overcome.
“This home has a very ‘cut up’ roof,” says McDevitt. “There is a custom skylight and several flat roof sections integrated. We started by adding new decking to bring the system up to code. Then we worked with DaVinci and custom metal fabricators to create a beautiful new roof.”
In a bit more than a month, the new composite shake roof was finished.
“The Black and White Roofing team did a great job every day of this project,” according to Jacobs. “They kept a really clean job site. They didn’t rush the project. When you see our roof from the air, it’s just wild how many angles and cuts there are. They united each one perfectly.
“We absolutely love the finished product. There’s no doubt that the new DaVinci roof has added both increased property value and a big ‘wow factor’ to our home. Our house was a beautiful home before, but the DaVinci just took it to the next level.”