I had an interaction with a homeowner early on in my business career that shaped our mission as a roofing and exterior company. I met with a very sweet older lady early one Friday morning to talk about installing gutters. She was dealing with water damage all across her home, fascia board, concrete, siding, etc.

We talked for 20 minutes before I started walking around the property. Turns out, she worked at a local company where several members of my family and a few of my other customers worked. She earned an honest living working in the office, and saved for years to pay the down payment on this home.

After walking around the house with her, it was obvious what was wrong. I told her, “You need a new roof. Gutters aren’t your immediate problem.”

No one wants to hear that, but whoever had put the roof on this place cut about every corner you can. No flashing, no drip edge, and the shingles weren’t installed properly. She proceeded to tell me that this was a new roof. She said, “When I made an offer on this place, I asked them to put a new roof on because of the initial inspection. The real estate agent said she knew someone, and that they’d take care of it.”

To be honest, in that moment, I was fuming. Any contractor should know better than this. Her real estate agent should have known better than this. And now, this homeowner was on the hook for way more than her initial down payment because she put her trust in the wrong business.

That day it became crystal clear what our mission is here at Mountain Tough Exteriors: To earn the trust of our customers through honest communication, quality work at fair prices, and to put exploitative contractors like that out of business.