Our house has a Mansard roof – so as Maurice pointed out the shutters are almost like a wall – it’s visible and critical to the design and look of the house.
An architect down the street had recommended him to us. I thought roofers were rough and tough and had to be to keep from falling off in the hot sun. But Maurice was very different: educated, understated, enthusiasm for our house, but no sales pitch. He offered to do it for 20 k when two companies before were closer to 30 k.
But I forgot to say why we were replacing the roof. The roof we had was just a bad job. Shingles kept falling off on the lawn. Whoever did it took major shortcuts – like putting in one nail instead of the minimum of four.
Maurice and his men worked while we were on vacation. He found a lot of rotten boards and replaced them at no charge – just to stick with his estimate and not bother us while we were away. He had promised to clean up. Just to give you an idea of how cleaned up it was, I couldn’t find one nail anywhere on the property. Of the hundreds he used, maybe thousands, I couldn’t find one. In fact, I am sort of playing a game with myself to come up with at least one roofing nail. Kind of a souvenir of an excellent job.