Roof Goof: A Blessing In Disguise For Edmond Couple

A contracting company’s mistake became an unexpected blessing for an Edmond couple. What began with a wrong address, ended with an endorsement and a lesson in business.

Deborah and Scott Senner received a new roof, completely by mistake.

“We were like ‘Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh,’” Deborah said. “We didn’t order a roof.”

In fact, they were 5 hours away when their 5-year-old roof was removed.

“I think it was about 80 percent off when they realized the mistake,” Deborah said.

“That’s when we get the phone call,” Scott said.

The phone call they received was from Doug Gray, the owner of Graco Roofing and Construction

“Had to be humble,” Gray said. “We made a mistake and here’s what we can do to fix it.”

Replacing the roof of the wrong house was a first for the nearly 30-year-old company.

After he alerted the Senners, he sent them pictures of the progress.

“There’s a huge dumpster at the back. There are trucks all in the front. There’s a chute for them to throw shingles,” Deborah said.

Those pictures of the roof might have caused other homeowners to hit the ceiling, Gray said the Senners didn't react that way.

“They were very gracious, very sweet,” he said. “They understood – a little shocked obviously.”

As Scott sees it, “It was pretty funny. You don’t expect something like that.”

It turns out, one of the numbers in the address sent to the installation team was incorrect.

“There’s protocols we put in place for years to avoid that,” Gray said. “Several of those were missed.”

What followed, however, as far as the Senners are concerned, made Doug a saint.

“We’re a total advocate for him. We think they did a phenomenal job,” the couple said. “Now we say we recommend Graco.”

In this case, doing the right thing became a business investment.

“They did the right thing big time,” says Scott.

He adds that if not for the phone call they likely wouldn’t have even known they had a new roof when they arrived home two days later.

The roof itself is an upgrade. It is more hail resistant and even lowered the couple’s homeowners insurance.