The Only Roofer You Should Trust With Your Project

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.  

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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