SERVPRO Put a Roof on My House. The Roofers Were High on Meth and Heroin.

Five years later, my roof is falling off because they forgot one crucial step: nails. They used tar. Just tar.

I need to tell you about my roof.

Not because I’m particularly passionate about roofing. But because five years ago, SERVPRO sent a crew to put a new roof on my house, and that roof is now literally falling off. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Why? Because the roofing crew was high on meth and heroin. And in their altered state, they made an interesting engineering decision: instead of using nails—you know, the things that actually hold shingles to a roof—they just used tar.

Tar.

As in, they laid down some sticky stuff and hoped for the best.

The Backstory

After some damage to my home, SERVPRO was contracted to handle repairs, including the roof. They’re a franchise operation, which means quality control is… let’s call it “variable.”

The crew they sent seemed a little off, but I’m not one to judge. People have bad days. Maybe they were just tired.

Turns out, they were not tired. They were high.

The Revelation

How do I know the crew was on drugs? Because one of them overdosed and died. Not at my house, thankfully, but at a motel on Fulton Industrial Boulevard—an area of Atlanta known for, let’s say, extracurricular pharmaceutical activities.

When you hear that the guy who worked on your roof died of a drug overdose shortly after, you start to look at your roof differently.

The Discovery

Five years later, shingles started sliding off my roof like they were trying to escape. Not blowing off in storms—sliding. Like a slow-motion avalanche.

I got up there to investigate (against my better judgment) and discovered the horrifying truth: most of the shingles weren’t nailed down at all.

They had used tar as the primary—and in many cases, only—fastening method.

For those who don’t know roofing: tar is meant to be a supplement to nails, not a replacement. It’s like using tape instead of screws to hang a TV on your wall. It might work for a while. Until it doesn’t.

The Math

Let’s do some quick math:

Shingles installed: Hundreds
Shingles properly nailed: Maybe 20%
Shingles held on by tar and prayers: The rest
Years until gravity won: Five
My faith in contractors: Zero

SERVPRO’s Response

You might be wondering: what did SERVPRO do when I brought this to their attention?

I’ll let you know when they respond.

The Lesson

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Always inspect work yourself. Even if you don’t know what you’re looking at, take photos. Document everything.
Franchise operations are only as good as the local franchise. The SERVPRO name means nothing if the local operation is hiring crews that can’t pass a drug test.
Check reviews obsessively. If I had dug deeper before agreeing to the work, maybe I would have found warning signs.
Resentments are heavy. I’m writing this partly because I’m in recovery, and holding onto anger isn’t healthy. But neither is staying silent while a company gets away with this.

The Takeaway

If you’re considering using SERVPRO—or any contractor—for major work on your home:

Get multiple quotes
Check references
Watch the work being done
Document everything
Trust your gut

And maybe, just maybe, make sure the people working on your house aren’t actively nodding off.

My roof is held together by tar and whatever grace the universe has left for me. If you see shingles flying through Atlanta, they’re probably mine.

To the roofer who overdosed: I genuinely hope you found peace. Addiction is a disease, and you deserved help, not judgment. But also, maybe don’t work on roofs while high. For everyone’s sake.

$ roof-status --check
ERROR: Structural integrity compromised
WARN: Fasteners missing on 80% of surface
FATAL: Trust in SERVPRO not found
Recommendation: Get a lawyer