T.M.M. Construction

Over the past few months, I noticed a drip in the corner of the attached garage when it rains outside. The flooding rains of mid-​September caused me to take this seriously, as it kept dripping all day long with the steady downpour outside. Now back when I lived in Chicago, I had a really good roofer who re-​shingled my house. I called him and got no response. Looking in the phone book, I got a bunch of local roofers from the area. Guess what, none of them returned my calls, some more were disconnected numbers, and those who said they would look at the job ended up not coming at all. I’m sure if I needed a full tear-​off and new roof, they’d all be racing to my door, but this job was too small for them I bet.
Now these were all American guys that I called in the Yellow Pages with Irish or Italian names. Living in a house where about ¾ of all improvements and repairs have been done by Polish contractors, the answer was pretty obvious. My mom has this Polish phone directory of services for the Chicago area and this roofer named Tadeusz Mastiya was in it.
He called to say he would visit but then 2 days passed. Then on a Friday afternoon, he suddenly announced he was in the area and he actually came out to see the job. Since I was on my way to a school Halloween party with the kids, I quickly showed him the problem and he said he would come on a weekend to fix it for a reasonable charge.
The very next day, a Saturday, he came in the morning with his unmarked white van and a partner. The leak’s exact origin was uncertain, but Tadeusz, a professional roofer, pointed out a drainage problem. Since my garage roof slants towards a vertical wall on the second floor, it creates a steep trough where water can collect and flow off the roof with no gutter to direct the flow in the area. It could be getting under the shingles or even entering through a nearby rooftop vent. This also explained why I would get a giant icicle forming there every winter.
Tadeusz ripped off some shingles in the trough area and placed a folded sheet of aluminum in the trough to direct the flow downward and prevent water from creeping under the shingles and damaging the wood. He re-​shingled the problematic area, improved the chimney flashing and installed a new gutter to collect the water effectively.
It took about 5 hours to fix but after I climbed on the roof a few times to see them working, I’m convinced they did a good job.
I can’t give a higher rating since it was only a small job, but I like him for keeping his word and taking on a small job most other roofers scoffed at. On the downside, I’m not sure if he’s bonded, insured or anything more credential-​wise, as his card gave no indication. The repair, being a small job, was done with a verbal quote and an honorable handshake. In an age of legal concerns, I can say I have rarely done business that way, but Tadeusz kept his promise to do the job for the agreed sum and there were no surprises.
A solid 3 stars in my book.