The Easter Bunny Wouldn't Short Change Us, Would He?

We were all up early on this sunny Easter Saturday, anticipating a delivery from a very special visitor.

Nope, not the Easter Bunny.

We were waiting with great anticipation for...

...the Roof Delivery Dude!

Thing One and Two were rousted earlier than they wanted to be on a Saturday, and put to work.

The driveway was cleared, and a pathway in the yard was made to move the panels in. We knew would have to move them in by hand as some of them would be 25 feet long.

My Darling Bride called out to us that the truck was on the way, and we scrambled out to the sidewalk, giggling with glee. Well, one of us anyway, the other two had to be dragged kicking and screaming.

The truck showed up right on time. It was loaded with many items, with our new steel roof right on top. It was equipped with one of those piggy-backed forklifts, very useful for unloading, but would prove to be difficult to navigate with a 25' wide skid. Doug, the Delivery Dude was very adept, landed the roof on the sidewalk in the first attempt. The plywood was deposited as far up the driveway as he could get, and the smaller bits were left on the front porch.

Then the work began.

The bands were cut and first the plywood was hauled back and stacked. Then the fun part, the long panels. With Thing 2 leading, Thing 1 and I followed (like we had a choice).

We managed to get it all in the yard with no bent panels, no cuts and only one lost shoe.

When we moved the shorter 12' panels, I noticed something odd, we had 8 25' panels, and only 4 12' pieces. Another check with a tape measure revealed that the panels were only 36" wide, not 41" as ordered and paid for.

So, not only do I not have roofing for the front part of the house, the roofing I have for the rear is too narrow by a foot and a half !

Now, a word or two about steel roofing.

You don't just go to the lumber yard and pick it out, it has to be ordered. And there really is only one supplier, Vic West, and they won't reveal their prices to anyone but the retailers. So you make your drawing, the local guy sends it to Vic West, and then and only then do you get an idea of cost. Vic West tells you what you will need, right down to how many screws and filler pieces to do the job.

Its like trying to buy groceries on a budget without knowing the prices.

So, after jumping through all the hoops to get a grip on prices, and then placing the order and paying for the material 3 weeks ago, and having Vic West telling me that my ridge vent option wouldn't work, and having to re-order the ridge pieces, and getting a false alarm from the supplier about the delivery a week earlier than planned (was someone else's), and then Vic West shipping the wrong colour the first time, and, and, and...

You can imagine our disappointment that what we ordered wasn't what showed up. The guy that handles this at my local Lowes is off today, so I can't get answers till Monday. Thus far, Mike at Lowes in Brantford has been great to deal with, lets see if he can keep us happy.

I am placing this problem squarely on the folks at Vic West, they had the drawings and the specs. They tell you what you need and you are at their mercy.

Good thing I hadn't stripped off the old roof yet.

DJW

Does anyone have a metal stretcher I can borrow?