RDL Roofing

Ilene H.

Our house is nearly 10 years old and we were owner/builder. We chose a clay tile roof and our contractor hired the roofing contractor RDL Roofing. We never thought to check the roof over the years until things started to fall a part a few years ago.

Our most recent problem was with the tile changing color. The manufacturer's rep flew into town to see what would have caused the problem and he was able to easily see the changing colors were when the roof was installed the tiles were painted. The rep said the usual reason roofers choose to do this is because there wasn't enough tile in the original order so instead of waiting for replacements many roofers decide to paint the damaged tiles to hide the defects and save time. My husband was on the roof with the rep and it was obvious they were painted as you could see the brush strokes. The sun had changed the color of many tiles from green to yellow which looks horrible.

After many, many attempts to reach Robert E. Van Der Spoel the owner of RDL roofing he finally responded to our contractor, not us. He told our contractor he would take the paint off the tiles. My contractor said Robert would contact us to make arrangements to take care of the situation. After almost a couple of weeks of not hearing from him I contacted him and we made arrangements for him to come to the house.

Upon his arrival we discussed what the manufacture's rep said. He admitted to painting the tiles but said it was because the company he bought them from said the tiles could be different in another order so better to use what you have. We know that wasn't true because we had already gotten more tiles when the roof was already 7 years old because of another one of the problems caused by a faulty installation and they were the same color as the original tiles. After that he got nasty. Said he didn't paint the tiles and he wouldn't take the color off of them as he had promised. He blamed everything on the manufacture and the company that sold him the tiles. He stormed off of our property like a child.

People who don't take responsibility for their actions and become nasty and defensive have something to hide. Admittedly we should have gone on the roof after the house was built and asked him to fix the numerous other installation problems aside from the ridiculous ""painting of our expensive clay tiles to hide defects"". But since it was the first home we ever built we didn't even think of going on the roof to check the workmanship.

If you are looking for an honest excellent roofer I would look elsewhere. He lied to us and was extremely nasty. Not someone I would ever recommend.