The Only Roofer You Should Trust
With Your Project
There are plenty of roofers around, but the only
one you should get is the BEST roofer in town.
Notice I didn’t say the cheapest roofer in town or
the one with the biggest yellow page ad. No, you
want the best roofer you can find. The roof on your
home is too important to trust to anybody else.
You may be pleasantly surprised to find that the
best guy charges little or no more than the others.
It’s true that it costs more to do things right, but
there are also some savings.
For example, the guy you want probably gets a lot
of referral business. That means he doesn’t have
to spend a small fortune on expensive advertising
to make the phone ring.
He also tends to do the job right the first time, so
he doesn’t have to pay service crews to go back
and fix all of his mistakes.
And he isn’t always being dragged into court,
where he has to pay expensive fines and legal
fees.
This is a guy who does it right, day after day,
throughout his entire career. He’s not perfect, but
he shoots for excellence on every job. He’s that
rare craftsman in a world with way too many
“hacks”.
Try to get a guy that does repairs and preventative
maintenance as well as reroofing. A roofer
shouldn’t push reroofing on you when repairs will
do. He also shouldn’t try to sell you repairs when
you really need a new roof. You want a guy that
can offer you the roofing solution need.
As Abraham Maslow said: “When your only tool is
hammer, every problem looks like a nail”.
I’m not saying that your roofer should offer every
type of roofing system made. If you follow my
suggestions in the last chapter, you want a guy
that is good with asphalt shingles and selfadhering flat roofs. If you’ve chosen a different
type of roof system, find a good roofer who
specializes in that system.
By going with a specialist, you avoid many
potential problems. It’s like taking your car in for a
tune-up. Do you want a guy who only does one car
like yours a month? Wouldn’t you be better off with
the guy who does them every day? He would have
all the right tools, the right parts and know all the
best techniques. It would take him less time and
you would probably get a better job for less
money. And it would probably be fixed right the
first time.
Same thing with your roof.
If you choose well, most everything else will fall
into place. Choose poorly and it doesn’t matter
what safeguards you try to employ. You will
probably get burnt anyway. It really is that simple
and that important.
But finding the best roofer can be a little tricky.
Typically these guys don’t advertise much,
because they don’t have to. Most of their work
comes by referral. Their names are on the hearts
and minds of their happy clients. Finding them is
part of a four-step roofing process that includes:
1. Ensure all your bids are “Apples to Apples”.
2. Find the best roofer in town.
3. Supervise the work, without alienating the
crew.
4. Wrap up the job, making sure you get
everything you paid for.
Let’s look at each of those steps in more detail…
How to Ensure All Your Bids Are
“Apples to Apples”
Before you solicit your first bid, you need to
determine the scope of work. If you don’t do this,
the proposals you get from prospective roofers
may be very different from each other. You will be
trying to compare “apples to oranges”.
The problem is: Most people don’t know enough
about roofing to write good specifications. If you
do… great! If not, here are some other ways you
can come up with a good spec:
• If the scope of the project is large enough to
justify the expense, a roof consultant could
establish the scope of work.
men, but not always) can also help select bidders,
oversee the project and inspect the work to make
sure you’re getting what you paid for.
• Most roofing manufacturers have specs written
for their products. Of course they specify their own
components wherever possible, but that is not
necessarily a bad thing. Extended warranties are
available from these companies when you use
their “system”. These specs are often available
right on their websites, which you can find in the
resource section at the back of this guide.
• Another way to get a scope of work is to get
your first bid from the most solid roofer you can
find, and then make a copy of his specs for each of
the other bidders. Be sure to remove the name of
the original company and his price from the specs.
The other bidders may want to use their own spec,
but explain what you’re doing and ask them to use
your spec, so you can compare “apples to apples”.
If they want to present their own spec as an
alternative for your consideration, that’s fine.
Although you might not get the ideal spec with this
method, at least everybody will be bidding the
same way.
To give you an idea of what a good residential
spec looks like, here is one I’ve used a lot. It’s for a
complete reroof down to the bare wood, and
includes both steep-sloped and low-sloped roof
sections. It also includes clauses that are fair and
reasonable to both the homeowner and the
contractor.
======================================
======================================
The proposal should also specify the warranty, the
price for the work, and when the payments are
due.
Keep in mind though, that roofers in different parts
of the country do things a little differently. In snow
country for example, it is common to run a selfadhering waterproof membrane along the eaves to
help protect the edge of the roof from water
trapped by ice dams in the gutters.
Once you have a scope of work, the next step is
choosing your roofing contractor.
Where to Find
The Best Roofer in Town
Start a file on prospective roofers. Stick with
professional roofing contractors. In most areas that
means they are accountable to a local or state
licensing board. That gives you some leverage if
you need it. “Roofers from Hell” don’t worry about
licenses, permits or their responsibilities to you.
Ask your friends, neighbors, relatives and
coworkers if they can recommend someone. They
might also tell you who to avoid!
Call the roofing suppliers in your area or drop by
for some product literature. Talk to the manager,
tell him about your project and ask for the names
of a few good roofers. If nothing else, he knows
who pays their bills and who doesn’t, which is part
of being professional.
Call the building inspector’s office for your
municipality and speak to a roofing inspector. Ask
about the permit and inspection requirements for
your project. While you have him on the phone,
ask for a few names of roofers in your area who do
good work. He probably won’t make an official
endorsement, but he might give you a few names
to check out.
I don’t recommend getting bids from everybody in
the phone book, but your roofer should be listed
there if they’ve been in business longer than a
year or so. A phone listing is just part of being
professional, so prospects and customers can find
you.
But don’t be overly impressed by the big ads you
see in the yellow pages. They’re very expensive
and may be an indication the company depends
on them for leads rather than referrals from
satisfied customers. www.macgregorroofing.com
