How to Choose Your Roofing Contractor [Step-by-Step]
The roof is one of the most important elements of a house, above all, it’s a lifetime investment. Thus, you should pay deep attention while choosing a roofing contractor.
A little negligence can ruin your investment, and above all, put you, your family, and your home appliances at severe risk.
If you are planning to restore your older roof, install a new one, or get it revamped, you should choose the right roofing contractor, that has the technical knowledge, team, and experience to handle the roofing requirements.
However, differentiating between an ideal roofing contractor, and a bad one can be a tricky task, as its once a lifetime job.
Thus, we have compiled this blog post, that you can follow to easily choose the right roofing contractor for you.
9 Steps for Choosing Your Next Roofing Contractor
1. Contact Different Roofing Contractors
Well, first of all, you have to get a list of the top-rated roof contractors in your area. You can search online for this purpose, ask in the social media forums, visit your local roofing contractors, or ask your friends, neighbours, etc.
You have to compile a list of the best 4-5 contractors, that have a good reputation, and customer feedback.
You can skip the ones that have a poor track record, or negative feedback.
2. Get Estimates
After you have gathered a complete list of the top-rated roofing contractors in your area, the next thing you have to do is to get the estimates from all the different roofing contractors.
Keep in mind that choosing a roofing contractor based upon the pricing factor may not be a wise idea, as the highest price roofer is not always the best.
You might be asking, then what’s the need for getting the estimates from all the roofers. Well, you will have a proper idea of the pricing of your project, and above all, then you can easily negotiate the price with the chosen roofer, as you already have a price idea.
3. Look for a Physical Office & Online Reviews
The third thing that you should be checking while choosing your next roofing contractor is the physical office of your roofer.
There are cowboy roofers that operate under different names. Usually, these bad boys don’t have a physical location (or they are not willing to provide you with their address).
A good roofing company will provide you with their physical location, and they will have a decent office.
Also, check for the online reviews about the roofing contractor. You can search on Google for customer reviews. Moreover, you can also visit local Facebook groups, and ask for reviews from the local community who have previously used the services.
4. Check out the Licensing
We highly recommended working with a roofing firm that has that license to operate in your area. Choosing a roofing contractor that has a license to operate, a NOC from the police, working experience, and financial backup.
In this way, you can rule out a lot of newbies. Thus, we recommend properly checking the licensing details of your roofer.
5. Contact the Prior Clients
Asking the previous clients about the work of the roofer will give you an in-depth analysis of the work done. If a roofer is willing to provide you contact details of the customer, then there are good chances that the roofing contractor is confident about the work.
Apart from this, you can ask a variety of questions to the previous homeowner like, “If the contractor has done the work on time?”, “How smooth was the installation process?”, “Are you satisfied with the work done by the firm?”.
Asking these questions from the homeowner will allow you to get an idea of the process, and the timespan given to you by the firm.
6. Check out the Past Work
Just like contacting the previous owners, you can ask the roofer that you want to check the past work done.
If the company is willing to arrange a visit for you, that means the roofing company has a satisfied client. You can thoroughly check the work done by the company.
On top of that, you can also ask the previous customer about the working experience physically.
7. Ask for the Material Quality
Material quality is another important aspect that you just cannot skip. Ask about the usage of different materials and the warranties offered on the material itself apart from the general roof warranty.
For example, the asphalt comes under a warranty of 25-years. Thus, you should ask about the quality of materials individually.
8. Check On-Site Work
If the roofing contractor allows, you can visit the worksite to check the working process, equipment used, and workforce skills level. Visiting the worksite allows you to analyse the safety, security, and working procedure as well.
Thus, before making the big decision, you should always visit the company’s working site for the good.
9. Ask for Warranties
Last not least, you should ask for a guarantee from the roofing contractor. A majority of the roofing contractors provide a 25-years warranty.
But, the tricky part is the nature of the warranty offered by the contractor, as there are individual warranties and insurance-backed warranties.
Choosing a roofing contractor that offers an insurance backed warranty puts you on the safe side, as if your roofing company goes out of business, you can still claim the warranty from the insurance company.
Conclusion
Roofing is a crucial job, and you cannot splash your money on a random contractor without following proper SOPs, as it’s a big investment, and above all, it involves your life.
Thus, we have compiled a complete step-by-step checklist that you can follow to get the right roofing contractor.
Whether you are getting your roof paint, gutter installation, or a roof restoration, you can follow this checklist.
If you have any questions in mind, feel free to contact us, we will be more than glad to help you out.
