Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I am putting up a fence to keep my little rascals corralled, and am comparing quotes between D&N, Cook, and Lifetime fencing. Does anyone have any direct experience with any of these 3 companies, good or bad, that they'd be willing to share?

Also, I submitted a claim for a new roof due to hail damage in late Sept on the NE side last year. I had one company look at it yesterday, P. Lang Construction who was referred to me by Pa's, but would like to get 3 quotes total. Does anyone have any suggestions for a roofing company that isn't going to use a bunch of illegals to just throw up a shoddy roof? I plan on living here for a while and want to make the most out of this investment. Thanks!

I know a guy that works for Cook and he is very nice and honest. His name is Chuck. I haven't had a fence installed myself. I had estimates at my last house and ended up building a privacy fence myself for cheaper than having chain link installed. I haven't heard anything bad about any of the fence companies you mention.

I haven't had any experience with roofers other than my dad and uncles. My dad says around Iowa we're the illegals. Don't think they do any side jobs anymore.

I was leaning toward Cook honestly. They're the only ones who took the time to talk about their product and how they'll install the fence. I do wish I had the time to just do the fence myself but I can barely find time to take the 5 hours to brew, let alone install a fence. 2 or 3 years ago though? I'd definitely be doing it myself. But then again, I wouldn't even care about having a fence.

I am not sure how a side job would work when dealing with an insurance claim. But the guy that came last night said he saw some dings in my gutters which are not on the claim, so he's gonna try to get them to include new gutters. He reminded me of my uncle though, who is a used car salesman.

STAY AWAY FROM LANG!!!!!!!!!!!!! When my mom got quotes, he lied his ass off about her roof. Claimed that she needed all of her sheathing replaced. Said that "because of the way her roof was put on" he'd have to replace her gutters, too. Claimed that her rafters weren't on center, "but we're experts at dealing with that." He was $8K higher than the next highest bid. Oh, and my mom only need 10 sheets replaced, not 52.

Oh, and my old next door neighbors had a lien placed on their house when he was doing an addition, because he stiffed the suppliers. He also listed their construction job for supplies that were used on other jobs. And as a last straw, the roof on their addition leaked.

By the way, he pulls that "Skogman houses often don't have their rafters on center, but we can deal with it" line a lot. Heard it from a number of people he's given quotes to. And it's not true. Skogman might be cheap, but the rafters thing is an outright lie. (And my mom's house wasn't even a Skogman house!)

My mom went with Lynch. They were very prompt, did a decent job, and the owner has actually stopped by a couple times (during warranty) to make sure it was holding up.

Cook does a good job, and is definitely less expensive. They were so much less on the fence at my first house, that I didn't bother getting quotes from anyone else when I got the fence at my current place. And they worked their asses off to get my fence posts in before an ice storm.

-Jim

Thanks for the info, Jim!

Don't go with Pa's roofing either. He used to be Roof King and at least one other company. He keeps filing for bankruptcy.
D&N has been doing fencing forever. I haven't ever used them, but I've seen their work. They do a good job.