Beware! The experience with this roofing company, Zim Group, has become an unbelievable nightmare.
I should have suspected something was wrong when, after starting a month later than stated on the contract and with no communication as to how far along the job was, Mykola suddenly demanded the mid-payment, $5,500 cash, immediately. He was rude and belligerent when told that I could not get the full amount to him that day since it exceeded my maximum daily cash withdrawal (the banks had also been closed throughout the job since they began, without prior notice, on boxing day and this was 3 days later on Monday). When he threatened to stop the job I borrowed the money. I was under so much pressure to come up with the cash that I did not even think to check the roof before handing it over. Big mistake.
There are three sections to the roof. On the first and biggest he removed the 5 layers of shingles, and dumped the garbage in the gap between the houses, damaging my neighbour's exhaust vent and window. I had to hire a company to remove the debris and pay for the repairs. On the other 2 sections no shingles had been removed, contrary to the contract he signed and Zim Group's own installation manual which reads: “Remove all foreign objects, tighten all screws and pound in all nails as needed. Sweep the roof clean.” The strapping was put over the layers of shingles using 3½ inch nails with the metal roof over top. Since the nails are not long enough none of this is attached to the roof itself. In essence my roof is wearing a hat.
Mykola insisted that he hadn't removed the remaining shingles because he wasn't required to remove the bottom layer of cedar shake. He claimed it had asbestos underneath, yet had already done this removal on the largest part of the roof. When I had it independently assessed and was informed that there is no asbestos he still stayed firm about not removing the shingles and shake because he “wasn't told that there was a layer of cedar" in the first place. This is completely false. He was informed of the cedar at the contract meeting. I had quotes from multiple companies and specified the removal of all shingles, including the cedar shake, with every one of them. Many of the roofers went onto the roof to confirm what was involved in the job and ensure everything was included in the quote. To do the job completely contrary to what we had agreed on without informing or consulting with me, then demand $7,000 more (according to his roofer Segiy’s quote) to do it properly after the fact, and only once he had been caught breaking the contract, is completely unreasonable. It seems he had assumed that he could do the job however he wanted expecting no one would actually look at the roof up close.
There are other problems too numerous to mention in this review. But the worst is that there are no new roof vents and the old ones have been covered by the vapour barrier. The Ontario Building Code has a formula for roof ventilation. It certainly does not call for no ventilation. Insufficient ventilation can lead to moisture problems during the winter and decreased energy efficiency during the summer. The independent inspection I had done confirmed that the roof installation did not meet building code or even Zim Group's own manual. Take a look at the
pictures and see if this is the kind of work that you want on your roof.
You will see a zero rated revue below from August 2014. The company response to this scathing revue states three times that “your contract is not with ZIM Group”. Do not be fooled by this. Be assured that whatever name is on the contract, it is Zim Group. I tried multiple ways of contacting Zim Group but everything led back to Mykola. His card is a Zim Group card, the contact form on Zim Group's website connects to him, his email address is mykola@zimgroup.ca and in his sales pitch he presents himself as Zim Group. Only when you get to signing the contract do you find that what you are signing is not with Zim Group but with Arsenal Metal.
