How to Choose a Roofing Contractor You Can Actually Trust

Roofing is a hard thing to buy well. You do it maybe twice in your life, you cannot inspect the work afterwards, and the difference between a good job and a bad one does not show up for years. That combination attracts people who are good at selling and not much else.

We have been doing this in Beaver and Butler counties for thirty years, and we lose bids regularly to companies charging more for less. Here is what we would tell a friend to check.

Start with the paperwork, because it is the fastest filter

Pennsylvania HIC registration. Any contractor doing more than five thousand dollars of home improvement work a year in Pennsylvania has to be registered with the Attorney General, and the number has to appear on their advertising and contracts. Ours is PA199428. If you cannot find a number on a company’s website, truck or estimate, that is not an oversight.

You can look up any registration on the Attorney General’s website in about a minute.

Insurance, both kinds. General liability covers damage to your property. Workers’ compensation covers injuries to the crew. That second one matters more than people realise: if an uninsured worker is hurt on your roof, you can end up in the middle of it.

Ask for certificates. A legitimate contractor will have their insurer send them directly to you, which is better than a photocopy anyway.

Manufacturer certification. Shingle manufacturers certify contractors who meet their installation standards, and certification is what unlocks the better warranties. We are an IKO Roof Pro Select installer, which is what lets us offer the Iron Clad warranty. Certification is not everything, but an uncertified contractor cannot give you the warranty a certified one can, no matter what they promise verbally.

Then look at where they actually are

The single most useful question is where their shop is.

After a storm, crews appear from three states away, work the neighborhood for a month and leave. Your workmanship warranty is worth exactly as much as the company’s willingness to come back, and a company with no local address has no particular reason to.

Look for a real street address, not a PO box or a virtual office. Look at how long they have been at it under the same name. Look at whether their reviews mention towns you recognize.

Reading the estimate

A real bid is itemized. It should tell you:

• Whether it is a full tear-off or a layover. This is the biggest single variable, and a layover hides rot, voids most warranties and adds weight the framing was never designed for.
• What underlayment, and how far the ice and water shield runs. Code minimum along the eaves is common. Running it further, and through every valley, is what stops ice dams in this climate.
• That all flashing is new. Reused flashing is the most common reason a new roof still leaks.
• How decking is priced. Nobody can know how much is rotted until the old roof is off. An honest bid gives you a per-sheet cost up front. A bid that never mentions decking is either planning to nail over it or planning to surprise you.
• Ventilation. Ridge vent should be in there. Without it the attic cooks the shingles from underneath and the warranty is void anyway.
• Both warranties, separately. Workmanship, from the contractor, and materials, from the manufacturer. They are different things and you want both in writing.
• Cleanup, including running a magnet over the yard.

If a bid is one line and a number, you cannot compare it to anything, which is often the point.

Answers that should give you pause

“This price is only good today.” Roofing materials do not fluctuate hourly. A discount that evaporates if you do not sign tonight exists to stop you getting a second quote.

“We can go right over your existing shingles.” Sometimes offered as a favour. It is the cheapest possible version of the job and it costs you the warranty.

“You’ll get a check from insurance, we’ll handle everything.” Helping document damage for a claim is normal and we do it often. Offering to cover your deductible, or to inflate the claim, is insurance fraud, and you are the one who signs the claim form.

“We’re already working in the neighborhood so we can do yours cheap.” Perennial, and rarely true.

A large deposit up front. Some deposit is reasonable for materials. Most of the money should be due on completion. A contractor asking for most of it before starting is telling you something about their cash position.

Vagueness about who is actually doing the work. Bigger companies send a commissioned salesperson who writes the number and hands the job to a crew he has never met. Ask who will be on your roof and whether anyone from the company will be there while they work.

Check the reviews properly

Volume matters less than pattern. Read the middle ones, not just the top.

Look for specifics: town names, what work was done, how long it took. Generic praise is easy to manufacture. Look for whether the owner responds, and how they respond to anything critical. Look for recent reviews, because a company can change a great deal in two years.

The most useful review is one where somebody describes a problem and how it got handled. Every contractor eventually has a job go sideways. What matters is what happened next.

The question that tells you most

Ask: “Do I actually need a new roof?”

A roof near the end of its life needs replacing, and a roof with a failed chimney flashing needs a repair. Those are very different invoices, and only one of them is in the contractor’s short-term interest.

We have talked plenty of people out of a replacement. One of our Google reviews is from a homeowner who called expecting to be sold a roof and got told his had years left. That conversation cost us a job and earned us a review that has probably brought in several.

If someone gets on your roof and comes down having found exactly the problem that is most profitable to fix, get a second opinion.

What we would want you to do with our own bid

Get two others. Read all three side by side. Ask each one about tear-off, flashing, decking and ventilation, and see who has a clear answer.

If our number is higher, ask what is in it that the others left out. Usually it is one of those four. Sometimes we are just more expensive, and then you should take the other bid.

Justin does every inspection and writes every bid himself. He will get on your roof, photograph what he finds, and tell you plainly what he sees. Free, often the same day you call.

Call or text (724) 494-5614, or send a photo of what is worrying you.