Roof Repair and Mold Removal

Hoping to avoid deeper debt while repairing unethical contractor's work.

Who are we?

Julius and I have been community organizers in our neighborhood of East Kensington since we bought our house in 2001. We purchased our home to offer our two kids a higher quality of life than we were able to experience as children growing up in North Philadelphia.

Our community work

With the support of the New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) and Circle of Hope Church, we began to care for the vacant lot (now the Collins Smith Barrick Play Garden) and the neglected Hagert playground just down the block from the lot. Several years later, we started the Friends of Hagert playground group, and our advocacy led to the complete renovation of the playground in 2018.

We hosted block cleanups, block parties, cookouts, and community drumming. These activities helped us build rapport with the kids and teens that caused trouble in the community. This rapport helped to improve the responsiveness of the kids and teens - it also provided opportunities for them to participate in and contribute to community-building projects and events.

We do not have a recreation center in this section of the neighborhood that serves as a shelter in harsh weather or offers public restrooms. Therefore, when neighborhood kids use the playground in warm weather, they often knock on our door to use our bathroom or for a drink of water. We also provide basketballs, chalk, and other toys for them to play with.

Why make changes to our home?

In 2017, as the number of playground users increased, we decided to make improvements to our home that could help us better serve our community.

We sought a reliable contractor to do the work and received a recommendation from a long-time friend and neighbor for Revise Studios.

However, after signing the contract and paying most of the estimated project costs, we soon learned that we had chosen a contractor who had a very poor work ethic and abysmal communication.

Revise Studio's unethical practices and negligence.

The contract with Revise studios was signed on September 17th, 2018. The estimated time to complete the job was six months to a year. They began the foundation in our yard 4 months later, leaving large holes in the concrete of our yard and tons of debris for months. The holes made our yard susceptible to flooding from the rain. The actual work began seven months after the contract was signed.

Revise studios often neglected to communicate important information. They disregarded our contract, concerns, needs, and safety. Throughout the project, Ben Blei never provided a reasonable timeline nor attempted to stick to any timeline. Revise studios often sent their workers to our home without timely notification, disregarding our work and school schedules.

We regularly wouldn't hear from them for weeks or months throughout the project, leaving it stagnant without any progress.

Their negligence eventually led to exhaust fumes blowing carbon monoxide into our home during winter of 2018. Ben Blei used an improper aluminum duct and duct tape to address the exhaust problem. This caused our heater to stop functioning, leaving us without heat for two weeks in the winter.

To complete the project, we needed to switch to a different contractor. Since switching to a different contractor, countless errors were identified. Some of these errors were presented to Revise Studio and were corrected.

However, we are now experiencing a leak in the new roof. All the roofing contractors that have inspected it agree that it results from poor workmanship. Revise Studio has decided not to take responsibility for this and has left us to deal with the repair and mold/fungal growth.

We hope our community supporters and friends will be willing to help us offset the cost of this repair by contributing what they can.