Warning: Beware of St Lawrence Exteriors in case you live in Kingston, Gananoque, Napanee and surrounding areas

Here's a warning to my good neighbours in Gananoque, Kingston, Napanee and surrounding towns about St Lawrence Exteriors. About 2 years or so ago I hired St Lawrence Exteriors to replace the shingles on my roof. In the process the company destroyed one of the skylights on my roof. There was glass all over in one of my bedrooms, the lot. To be fair, that sort of thing can happen, and the company agreed to replace the skylight. It goes without saying that initially it tried to crank up the price of the roofing way beyond the initial quote, presumably to recover the cost of what was so obviously the company's mistake.

Worse, this winter I discovered that the window they had put in was actually cracked. They hid this by gluing (!) flashing on top of the crack. Well, eventually the crack extended and now covers the whole window. Worse, the flashing has come off during a recent storm (it was glued onto the glass - boggles the mind in its own right). The window has to be replaced yet again. All a result of terribly shoddy workmanship.

I have since called both of the company's owners as well as their office, but nobody bothered returning my calls. I asked that they fix the problem they or their contractor have caused. I also emailed them with the same request. No reply. I also asked the Better Business Bureau to try on my behalf, but to no avail. It turns out that the company is already ranked as 'D' (second lowest), because it does seem to have a habit of ignoring customer complaints.

I learned my lesson. From now on I will first check at the Better Business Bureau website how companies are ranked to avoid being treated like I am currently treated by St Lawrence Exteriors. Think twice about hiring St Lawrence Exteriors for any work that you might have. They might just let you down, too.