Upstate Contractors

I contracted Austin Drake of Upstate Contractors to put a new roof on my home in Fall 2014 and, among other problems, the company left my home with carbon monoxide venting INSIDE the house, which took an additional $1700 to fix (out of my pocket). Drake had taken down a small, crumbling chimney on the back of the house at my direction (he said he took old chimneys down this way “all the time”), but never checked to see what/if it was venting—which it was—for my gas hot water heater. He just roofed over the hole from the removed chimney and left the water heater spewing carbon monoxide fumes into my home with no exterior vent. Thank God a home energy audit brought this dangerous situation to my attention months later.nnAlso, Austin Drake had convinced me to invest in a GAF® roofing system with a 50 year warranty and then (despite promising to do so on 3 separate occasions) never filed the necessary paperwork to make that warranty valid. Spending even more of my own time and working directly with GAF, I finally got it—no thanks to Drake.nnOther problems with the roofing work:n• Plugged my air conditioner with roofing debris because they didn’t bother covering it.n• Left attic full of roofing debrisn• Left a ~3’ wide gap under dormer windows , leaving my home’s interior exposed to the elements, animals, etc.n• Gutters slapped back up at end of job and have leaked ever since.nnAfter 19 phone calls (literally; I have notes and dates/times from every call I ever made to these people), they finally sent someone to address the previous 2 issues—the hole under dormers was filled, but gutters never improved.nnDespite contracting Upstate Contractors to do the work, Austin Drake requested my payment be made out to Upstate New York Tree Service—his father’s (Lonnie Drake) company. Check out judgements against that company at the Oswego County Court; you’ll find more than a few, as well as a new company D.B.A. filed in June 2015 as “Drake Tree Service.” Always good to have a blemish-free back-up, just in case.nnI was advised to take Upstate Contractors to small claims court (for the cost of the new direct-vent water heater needed to solve the carbon monoxide problem), but after spending many hours researching how/where, reviewing judgements against this father/son duo, and seeing how much money was already owed to others who hadn’t received a dollar, I decided to cut my losses and reduce my stress.nnSo, buyer beware. Upstate Contractors cut every corner they can and once they’re off your property, good luck trying to get them on the phone or to fix the mess they’ve left behind. Drake may rebut the content of this report or say he’d have come back to take care of the carbon monoxide problem if I’d contacted them. But once the problem came to my attention months after they did the job, it was worth it to me to pay the extra $1700, not have to make 19 more unanswered phone calls and to just be done with them.

This company did tree removal for me. They never picked up the wood I paid to have removed and the owner who came to mulch to stumps did not grind them all. I had to find people to take the wood away and I'm still trying to kill the rest of the stumps more than a year later.

Spoke with Austin and made an appointment for him to appraise a roof replacement. I left work early on the appraisal date and he never showed up or called. Obviously not dealing with professionals here, don’t waste your time.

My grandmother had contacted the owner, Austin, for work on her roof. She had signed a contract for work and gave a large deposit.nnThey no-called/no-showed on the week the work was scheduled to be done, then wouldn't return her phone calls.nnShe had 3 addresses listed for the business. One of them is a residence, one is a florist, and one belongs to another business completely (the one google has listed).nnShe also had 3 phone numbers listed, none of them belonged to this business.nnI intervened on her behalf, the phone number I was able to get through on reached a relative. After some debate, the relative told me he would contact Austin to sort the problem out. Austin then later agreed to return the money and cancel the job weeks after it was supposed to have been done.nnI left this review on the FB page which had similar stories but was also full of 5 star reviews from employees, relatives, and friends. Austin promptly responded and insulted me, then deleted the business's FB page.nnDue to the experience, I don't recommend this business.