It appears that Hurricane Earl may not cause as much damage as first feared, but as I told the Fox & Friends audience this morning, the danger isn’t passed yet. In fact, homeowners facing cleanup, flooding or wind damage should be on the lookout for the next threat: shady contractors.
 
A recent Angie’s List poll, found that 34 percent of respondents who had storm damage were approached by a stranger at their door offering help. Most of those who accepted the help suffered for it.  One member got some hard-sell tactics from an unscrupulous contractor who came uninvited to his door and insisted that a new, $13,000 roof was needed. Our member was smart, though. He called in another company to get a quote. Turns out, there wasn’t anything wrong with his roof at all. What a great example of why homeowners should just say no to high-pressure sales tactics and do their homework before they hire anyone for home repairs.

That’s not to say there aren’t good people out there who truly do want to help, but pay attention to these two warning signs and review our tips on how to avoid storm-chasing contractors. Remember:

• If it’s a good deal today, it will be a good deal tomorrow.
• Never sign anything pushed on you by a stranger who comes knocking at your door.  Sometimes they’ll have you sign what they say is a waiver for them to get up on the roof, when really it is a contract for work.

Yesterday’s heartbreaking news of a U.S. Army’s investigation into whether toxic Chinese drywall is to blame for the deaths of babies at Fort Bragg struck a huge blow to everyone at Angie’s List. We’ve been trying to sound an alarm on this issue since April 2009, when it first came to our attention.

We have lots of information to help you determine if you are at risk. If you’re living in a home built or repaired from
2004 to 2006 in southern Florida or along the Gulf, please take a look at it and hire a qualified, reputable, local contractor to address the situation. Replacing only the drywall might not be enough to fix this problem. Homeowners may need to get new carpet and insulation, and rewire their homes. Once the work is complete, dust should be removed with a HEPA air scrubber.

Quick Tips to determine if your home has toxic Chinese drywall:

• Your home was built or renovated between 2004 and 2006.
• You notice a persistent foul, rotten egg smell.
• You notice metal and copper corrosion, or a black coating on air-conditioning coils and electrical wiring.
• You see a Made in China stamp on your drywall, or it could also be identified as manufactured by Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, Knauf Gips, and Taishan Gypsum Co. (all are targeted in various lawsuits.)
• Your home was built by one of these companies: Lennar Corp., Aubuchon Homes, Meritage Homes, Ryland Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, Taylor Morrison and WCI Communities (are have been confirmed to have used Chinese drywall.)

If you think you might be affected, know that tomorrow, September 3, 2010, is a deadline for some homeowners to sign on for free to one of many lawsuits regarding the Chinese drywall issue. After this deadline, becoming part of that suit could cost $15,000. Learn more here: http://www.chinesedrywall.com/

 

We’re so excited for all the new changes happening at Angie’s List this summer.

The Angie’s List Big Deal is gaining ground with huge discounts already available in Indy, Chicago and Washington D.C., and our goal is to be in 50 cities by the end of July. We know there are quite a few of these programs available, but Angie’s List is the only one that screens the businesses offering a discount. Only A and B rated companies on Angie’s List are eligible to participate in The Big Deal so you get big savings and great service.

Sign up for The Big Deal today if you’re not already on our e-mail list!

We’re also excited by our community on Facebook and Twitter. Angie’s List has so much great information to help you get the most for your home repair and health dollars, and we’re launching a bunch of new promotions next week to share this content.

If you haven’t already, be sure to fan us at facebook.com/AngiesListFansand follow us on twitter.com/AngiesList. We’ll be giving away some great prizes all summer long so don’t miss out!
 

 

Angie's List is once again sponsoring a car in the 2010 Indianapolis 500! We're super excited to team up with Conquest Racing and Bertrand Baguette.

Bertrand, incidentally, is our newest member, and he's excited about that because he's new to Indianapolis (and to the U.S.) and needs some help finding local service companies.

While we're all race fans, we're also classic car fans. I'm happy to report that our classic car categories are doing really well and growing every day. Be sure to check those out if you're a car buff like Bertrand and me...

The community came to the Angie's    ListCommunityGarden this weekend.

A dozen or so of the members of the inaugural Angie’s List Garden Club showed up Saturday to deal with a small mountain of soil and a pick-up truck of compost. Their plan was to spread the soil and compost and then plant more than 200 different vegetable and herb seedlings.

 

 

Armed only with shovels, rakes and spades, they clearly underestimated the job before them. But they were game for it. The blisters and sweat had only just started to emerge when they heard the rumble of a motor.

They looked up to see Phil Chambers driving a John Deer tractor with a shovel attached to the front, and he was heading straight for them.

Phil was a member of the Angie's List campus neighborhood before Angie's List had leased its first office space, but few of the Angie’s List staff had met him. So to the garden crew, he was just a neighborhood guy who could be planning to do a little landscaping work on his own property. Or, as they all silently hoped, he wasn’t heading anywhere but their little plot of land.  

He didn’t disappoint. In less than an hour, he'd spread the dirt and asked when more was coming so he could be prepared for round two. (And yes, there will be a round two. As big as the mountain of dirt seemed, it covered only part of the garden area...)

The Garden Clubbers who were there this weekend are sure they'd still be out there pushing dirt had it not been for Phil and his John Deere. Phil is their new best friend and most popular neighbor!

Back when we were organizing the Garden Club, we talked about how it could one day become a true community garden where our company folks would weed side-by-side with people who live in the neighborhood and maybe even kids or staff from IPSSchool #14 and the other businesses and organizations near us.

We’ve invested a lot in our little corner of the Holy Cross Neighborhood. We thought it might take a while to get these more personal roots going, though.

 

Clearly we were wrong. The roots are already there. And you can bet we'll be nurturing them.

We can’t wait to see who stops by next.