Hiring

Choosing a roofer: what to verify, and what to ignore

Roofing has a low barrier to entry, a high ticket, and a sales culture that arrives with the weather. Most companies are fine. The checks that separate them are quick, and none of them depend on knowing anything about roofing.

What to verify

Insurance, from the insurer

General liability and workers’ compensation. Ask for the certificate to be sent to you directly by their agent, naming your address as the job. A contractor without workers’ compensation coverage can leave an injured worker looking at your homeowner policy.

Local registration and permits

Neither Ohio nor Kentucky operates a single statewide residential roofing license, so requirements are set by the city or county. Ask which jurisdiction your house is in, whether a permit is required for the work, and who is pulling it. A contractor who does not know is telling you something.

A physical address in the metro

Not a mailbox and not a truck. After a storm this market fills with out-of-area operations, and a warranty from a company with no local presence is a warranty from a phone number.

Who is actually doing the work

Employed crews or subcontractors, either is legitimate, and you should know which. Ask who supervises, who is on site each day, and who you call when something is wrong.

A written scope

The document described in how to read a roofing estimate. It is the best single predictor of how the job will run, because a company that writes carefully generally works carefully.

References you choose

Ask for addresses of work in your area from the last year, and drive past a couple. Roofs are visible from the street, which makes this trade unusually easy to check.

What to ignore

• A discount that expires today. Roofing prices do not work that way. An offer that dies when the salesperson reaches the car is a pressure technique, nothing more.
• Badges and logos on a truck. Some are meaningful and some are memberships that cost a fee. Either way they say nothing about the crew that will be on your roof.
• A number of reviews. Review counts are the easiest thing in this industry to manufacture. Reading a handful of detailed ones is worth more than any total.
• "We work with all insurance companies." Everybody does. It is not a credential.
• A brochure with a lifetime promise. Read what is actually warranted, by whom, for how long, and what voids it.

Storm-chasing, and how it works

After a significant hail or wind event, crews arrive from out of state and canvass door to door. The model is volume: sign as many insurance-funded jobs as possible in a few weeks, subcontract the work, and move to the next market. Some of these operations do acceptable work. The structural problem is that nobody is here in year three when a flashing detail leaks, and the workmanship warranty is only worth the presence of the company behind it.

The other problem is the incentive. A canvasser paid per signed job has every reason to find damage, and this metro records 304 damaging-wind events to 58 hail events over six years — so "you have hail damage" delivered at your door on a spring evening deserves a specific question about which recorded event, on what date. Storm Check will tell you what NOAA actually logged near your ZIP code.

The four sentences that should end the conversation

1. "We can take care of your deductible." That is a misrepresentation of the loss to your carrier, on a claim you sign. It is also a reliable indicator of how the rest of the job will be run.
2. "Sign here and we will handle the insurance company for you." Negotiating or adjusting a claim on your behalf is the work of a licensed public adjuster or an attorney in both Ohio and Kentucky, not a contractor.
3. "This price is only good today." See above.
4. "Your claim will definitely be approved." Nobody outside your carrier can say that, and anyone who does is either guessing or selling.

Questions worth asking, in order

1. Can you send me a certificate of insurance directly from your agent?
2. Is a permit required in my jurisdiction, and are you pulling it?
3. How many squares is my roof, and how did you measure it?
4. How many layers are coming off?
5. What happens if the deck is bad, and at what rate?
6. Is all the flashing new?
7. What is your workmanship warranty, in years, and does it transfer if I sell?
8. Whose crew is doing the work, and who is on site supervising?
9. What is the payment schedule, and what is due before material arrives?

What good looks like

• They got on the roof, or explained precisely why they could not and what they did instead.
• They showed you photographs of your own roof, and pointed at specific slopes.
• They told you something did not need doing.
• The written scope names quantities, products and details rather than "install new roof".
• They were willing to leave and let you think about it.

That last one is the tell. A roofing decision made in a driveway under time pressure is the one people regret; a roofing decision made a week later with two scopes on the kitchen table almost never is.