The second quote was received in the way many home renovation quotes are received, that being through word of mouth.
A friend of Cath had just received a quote for their gutters on their home and liked the gentleman. So we obtained his phone number, called him up and he came over the next day.
Ronald is a small business man. He does not employ salespeople. He does his own quotations. He has a crew who helps him but he is there front and center on every job.
He came over on time and I went over with him, just as I did Desmond the week before, the gutter problem areas.
Ronald came up with a similar quote (within $100) to that received from Desmond containing the same materials and approach with two main differences.
First, he did not recommend a gutter cover for the replacement gutter that would be on top of the dining room’s bay window. Rather, he suggested that the problem be dealt with head on. The problem was that the bay window was protruding past the fascia.
Well, why not extend the fascia out so that the fascia extended beyond the bay window and not the other way around. That way if there was an ice dam that caused water to be pushed up underneath the shingles on the roof, when it melted it would come back down into the gutter and not the fascia board followed by into our dining room. Now, that idea makes sense to me. Fix the problem, don’t try to use a band aid.
Next, he had a solution for the downspout that was going now where except (see the picture below).
In addition to recommending the same extra large downspout, he suggested that it only come down to just below the height of the retaining wall for the garden (on the left side of the picture above), followed by having the downspout continue to the left along that retaining wall in a slow downward slope. This tactic would allow more run off area for the water coming down the downspout. And, (my idea here FWIW) one could consider punching holes on the part of the almost horizontal downspout facing the ground to allow water to start to run out of the downspout before the end in case the end did in fact become surrounded by snow causing the water at the end to freeze.
So, our decision? It was close. The first quote from Desmond was only $100 more than the second quote from Ronald. And the company behind the first quote was much larger than Ronalds. However, we decided to go with Ronald for two reasons:
- he provided two solutions to our issues that were not part of Desmon’s quote
- he is a hands-on owner from start to finish
I have seen many times that a salesperson quotes on one thing and then the installer arrives and says such and such is not possible, you need this extra and that extra part and time for things to be done right.
I like the experience of Ron and the hands on approach….and of course his recommended solutions to our issues.
Next time we will start with the removal of the current and the installation of the new gutters.
To continue with the next article in this series, simply select this link to Part 5.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment