{"id":3383,"date":"2014-08-15T09:45:03","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=3383"},"modified":"2014-08-16T22:28:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-17T04:28:13","slug":"roofer-madness-crews-come-from-far-and-wide-after-hail-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/08\/roofer-madness-crews-come-from-far-and-wide-after-hail-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Roofer madness: Hail storm brings in flood of workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lukas\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Ezekiel Lukas uses a tape measure while preparing to replace a roof on a house on North 31st Street this week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Glancing down any given residential street in Billings this summer, you might have thought a political campaign was in full swing.<\/p>\n

But those signs in what seems like every other yard are advertising roofing companies, not politicians. And that explains the sound you are likely to hear on any given street, too \u2014 the rat-a-tat-tat of nail guns attaching tarpaper and shingles to hail-damaged roofs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest influx we\u2019ve seen in years,\u201d said Peter Van Nice, chief of the Workers\u2019 Compensation Regulations Bureau of the state Department of Labor. \u201cI was in awe when I came down to Billings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The influx of roofers from around the country \u2014 and the sudden abundance of work for established local roofers \u2014 is all owing to the hail storm that pummeled a large swath of Billings and surrounding communities on May 18.<\/p>\n

Since that day, the city\u2019s Building Division has issued 4,806 roofing\/siding permits in the city, according to division manager Kim Palmieri. He said about 375 of those permits were used for siding, meaning at least 4,400 roofing jobs were permitted.<\/p>\n

At an estimated average cost of $10,000 per roof, Palmieri said, that translates to more than $40 million worth of roofing jobs. And that doesn\u2019t include new roofs outside the city limits, in places like Lockwood, which suffered some of the heaviest damage in the valley.<\/p>\n

Nor does it include all the many roofs that haven\u2019t been replaced yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the roofers are going to be here until the snow flies, and they may still be here next summer,\u201d said Art Hazen, of Billings, acting area director for OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.<\/p>\n

Officials with OSHA and the state Department of Labor have been busy this summer, too. With so much money to be made, and so many thousands of people wanting their roof replaced as soon as possible, corners are cut, rules are bent or broken and sometimes homeowners are left holding the bag.<\/p>\n

Dallas Cox, program manager for the Labor Department\u2019s Independent Contractor Central Unit, said the problems are almost inevitable byproducts of big storms.<\/p>\n

\"Plywood\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Santiago Ramirez, with a MadSky roofing crew on North 31st Street, does some calculations before cutting a sheet of plywood.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe have this happen every time we have a hail storm,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough roofers in the state of Montana to do all these roofs in the time frame homeowners want it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of all the ways of cutting corners, said Tom Bradford, vice president of Bradford Roof Management, the most common is abusing the state\u2019s independent contractor system.<\/p>\n

The system was designed to allow people to work for themselves, meaning they can use their own liability insurance and don\u2019t have to buy workers\u2019 compensation coverage from the state. But what is increasingly happening, Bradford said, is that roofing companies employ multiple crews of four, five or six roofers, and all of them have independent contractor certification.<\/p>\n

So, while companies like Bradford Roof Management are paying huge workers\u2019 comp premiums \u2014 it can cost as much as $1.30 for every dollar paid out in wages, Bradford said \u2014 companies with crews of \u201cindependent contractors\u201d pay no workers\u2019 comp. And if roofers are injured on the job, they have to fend for themselves, whether they have insurance or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a shaky deal,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cThe problem is, the Department of Labor has no enforcement authority whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Van Nice didn\u2019t dispute that assessment. The Labor Department sent four two-person teams to Billings for a four-day \u201csweep\u201d July 8-11. He said they visited more than 100 job sites, checking to see whether roofing crews had workers\u2019 comp coverage, or, if not, independent contractor certification.<\/p>\n

One excuse investigators heard more than once was that a crew had work comp coverage, but the policy was issued by Texas, Florida or some other state. They were told they needed to obtain a Montana policy, immediately.<\/p>\n

The department is still going through the stacks of documents and findings and in the next 30 days will be looking to revoke certification for non-compliant contractors or workers. And that\u2019s about all they can do. They can\u2019t issue a citation on the spot, as OSHA does, or bring a job to a standstill until everything is brought into compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have enough teeth to do that,\u201d Van Nice said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have quite the bite OSHA does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox said it takes a lot of time and effort to prove someone is abusing independent contractor certification. Independents are supposed to have their own tools and work under their own direction, but \u201cwhen you have five or six guys on a roof, somebody needs to be in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compliance specialists can take photographs and make observations, trying to determine whether contractors are truly independent, but it\u2019s tough to make a solid case.<\/p>\n

\"Valentine<\/a>

Valentine Molina<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a bit easier for OSHA, since safety violations are usually more blatant and noticeable. Like the Department of Labor, OSHA also did something of a sweep, with two teams of two people working in Billings from July 1 to July 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made Billings our priority and we were out there six days a week for a little over four weeks,\u201d Hazen said, \u201cand we made contact with many, many roofers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main thing they were looking for was proper fall protection. Because falls are the No. 1 cause of death in the construction industry, he said, there is a nationwide emphasis on fall protection.<\/p>\n

OSHA inspectors do respond to complaints, he said, but if they\u2019re out driving around, \u201cif they see a hazard, they have to investigate it. They can\u2019t drive by.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is a violation, investigators generally issue one citation per job site. The contractor in charge would then have 15 days to either contest the citation or settle the matter by paying a fine. No one contested a citation, Hazen said.<\/p>\n

Violators paid fines ranging from $600 to $2,000 depending on the number of workers, the height and slope of the roof, the number of tripping hazards and other variables. He said he was still working to compile all the information, but that his teams (he joined them on the sweep) issued more than 100 citations. Of those, there were \u201cprobably 97 different contractors,\u201d with only two or three multiple offenders, he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to assessing fines, Hazen said, the OSHA inspectors handed out a lot of training materials, and \u201cwell over half\u201d those materials were in Spanish, reflecting the preponderance of Latino crews working in Billings this summer.<\/p>\n

Three of those Latino crews were working under Valentine Molina of Oklahoma. Molina said he and his brother have been partners for nine years. They\u2019ve worked for the past five years for MadSky Roofing and Restoration, based in Kansas City, Mo.<\/p>\n

They have three five-man crews, workers who also live in Oklahoma but are from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. One of his crews was working Wednesday on a house on the 900 block of North 31st Street. Molina said a crew generally completes a roof in eight hours, working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., but they were expecting to spend a few extra hours on North 31st because the roof was steep and they were tearing off a layer of wood shakes and a layer of asphalt shingles.<\/p>\n

He said he had obtained workers\u2019 comp for his crews. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard, but in Montana it\u2019s easy to get it,\u201d he said. As for OSHA, he said, \u201cI have everything for that,\u201d meaning safety gear and fall protection.<\/p>\n

His crews all stay in the same motel, working Monday through Saturday afternoon. They work hard because there is little work in the winter, though sometimes they\u2019ll go to Florida for work.<\/p>\n

In his five years with MadSky, he said, he\u2019s been to at least seven states. The hardest part for him is being away from his wife and two children in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the winter we see the family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Molina also said MadSky guarantees all its work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have warranties,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a problem we come and fix it,\u201d even if they\u2019re back in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t always the case. Jacob Martin, vice president of Empire Roofing, like Bradford Roof a longtime Billings business, said Empire has gotten calls from people asking if they\u2019re hiring crews, not individual workers.<\/p>\n

Empire wasn\u2019t interested, he said, but when other companies do hire crews, \u201cthen what they do is go out and act as salesmen under your name.\u201d If they find enough work they\u2019ll start hiring their more crews, and then some more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd before you know it they have more people than you do,\u201d Martin said. The general contractor might end up being liable for crews he wasn\u2019t even aware of, and homeowners who later have problems with their roofs might not have any idea how to get ahold of the people who did the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can bounce around and all of a sudden you\u2019re never able to find them,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Oscar Ramos, also working on North 31st, hauls a load of old shakes and shingles to a trailer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Martin said he even heard that some out-of-state roofers have purchased local roofing companies, in order to use their name and to take advantage of their Montana certification.<\/p>\n

Some companies that advertise themselves as local stretch the definition. Lots of roofers opened offices in Billings after the Father\u2019s Day storm of 2010, Martin said. When that work was finished, some of them left but others stuck around and did regular roofing work. Others moved on but maintained a post office box in Billings and a listing in the Yellow Pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, they\u2019re saying they\u2019re local contractors,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess they can say that because they were here for the last hail storm. But they weren\u2019t here before that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin said one benefit of using \u201cstorm chasers,\u201d as the itinerant crews are sometimes called, is that most of them know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these guys, that\u2019s all they do,\u201d he said. \u201cThey go from town to town and that\u2019s all they do. It\u2019s hard to be bad at something you do that often.\u201d<\/p>\n

The danger is that they might work too fast, use substandard materials and perhaps be impossible to reach once the job is done.<\/p>\n

Some people worry that if roofers have no work comp coverage, homeowners might be liable if a worker is injured on their roof. Cox, with the Department of Labor, said that\u2019s not true. Although a homeowner might be liable if he let a roofer use a ladder and the roofer fell off the ladder, the hiring agent \u2014 the person who paid someone to go on your roof \u2014 is ultimately responsible for his workers, Cox said.<\/p>\n

Bradford, president of the Montana Roofing Contractors Association, said the group is hoping to seek some relief when the Legislature meets next year. Bradford and a dozen other association members recently met with Department of Labor people, including Cox and Van Nice, to talk about legislative solutions.<\/p>\n

Cox said one of his compliance specialists suggested capping the number of independent contractors on any job to, say, two or three. Another possibility is giving investigators the authority to shut down a job if they find abuses of the law.<\/p>\n

Bradford thinks something has to be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of being a professional roofer is almost a lost concept,\u201d he said. \u201cThe shingle and hail work is the most frustrating thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

State offers tips<\/strong>: The Department of Labor issued a tip sheet earlier this month, advising homeowners of the \u201cdramatic increase\u201d in uninsured and unregistered contractors. Here\u2019s what the department advised homeowners to do before hiring a contractor:<\/p>\n

1.Check with the State Construction Contractor Registration Unit \u2014www.mtcontractor.com<\/a> \u2014 at the Department of Labor to make sure the contractor is in compliance.
\n2. Ask for references and follow them up. They can include banks, lumberyards and previous customers.
\n3. Find out if the contractor belongs to an industry association.
\n4. Ask for proof of liability insurance.
\n5. Ensure that the contract details every aspect of the project including how and when paid.
\n6. Update the contract when changes are made to the plans.
\n7. Maintain communications with the contractor throughout the project.
\n8. Visually inspect each part of the project.
\n9. If the contractor hires a sub-contractor to do the work, ask for proof of insurance for the subcontractor.<\/p>\n

For more information, click on the link above or call 444-7734.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glancing down any given residential street in Billings this summer, you might have thought a political campaign was in full swing. But those signs in what seems like every other yard are advertising roofing companies, not politicians. And that explains the sound you are likely to hear on any given street, too \u2014 the rat-a-tat-tat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[1177,1176,1179,1173,1175,539,1178,1172,1174],"class_list":["post-3383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-art-hazen","tag-building-division","tag-dallas-cox","tag-department-of-labor","tag-jacob-martin","tag-kim-palmieri","tag-osha","tag-peter-van-nice","tag-tom-bradford","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}