Your home’s roof should always be maintained and repaired by professional roofers. A lot of people try to save money by performing their own repairs, but this is a very bad idea. Roofers spend years training and learning how to properly maintain and repair people’s roofs. You are significantly more likely to make a mistake or even injure yourself than a roofer is if you try to maintain or repair your roof yourself.
If you agree that it’s a very bad idea to try and fix or maintain your roof yourself, then here are some tips for finding a reliable roofing company.
Creating a List
Finding roofing companies shouldn’t be difficult. A single internet search will yield thousands of results. You need to create a list of all of the ones that are in your area (or service your area). You might want to suffix your search with ‘near me’ so that you only see the websites of roofers who are local to you. When you have a full list of roofers you can move on to the next step.
Finding Warranty
You should never work with a roofer that doesn’t offer a warranty. Take this roofing company operating in Vancouver, WA, for example; they make it clear on their website that if their customers aren’t happy with the quality of the job, it’s free. Having a warranty or guarantee of this kind will protect you from cowboy builders or negligent work. A warranty is usually supplied in addition to guarantees. Once you have created your list of roofers, begin working through them and identifying which ones offer warranties and guarantees. Strike the ones that don’t off of your list.
Asking Around
A good way to find roofers is to ask around. However, when you are asking people in your local community for roofer recommendations, bias is always something that you need to take into consideration. Naturally, if the person that you ask has a friend or loved one that is a roofer, then they will recommend them to you, even if their work isn’t great. You should always do background checks on anybody that you have referred to you, even if it’s by a close friend or loved one. You may be able to get better prices by asking for referrals, too.
Internet Searches
An internet search is, as already mentioned, the best way to find a local roofer. Remember though: when you are conducting internet searches the top displayed results are not always necessarily the best. Sometimes, people buy sponsored ads. A sponsored ad is an advertisement that’s paid for. These advertisements only appear at the top of the search listings because of this. They aren’t there because they have ranked highly organically. Always watch out for sponsored advertisements. While sponsored businesses aren’t necessarily bad, they are taking shortcuts. You shouldn’t discount them because of this, but you should still research them extensively.
Reading Reviews
You should never work with a roofer until you have read their reviews. A company’s reviews will give you a clear idea of what it’s like working with them. When you are reading reviews, you should remember that it is commonplace for businesses to purchase false reviews. False reviews are usually very easy to identify because they are typically all written in the same style and appear one after the other. In addition to reading a roofer’s reviews on Google and Trust Pilot, you should also ask around locally and try to get reviews from people who have actually dealt with them before. Some contractors also delete bad reviews.
Price Quotations
Once you have whittled down your list to only the most qualified and experienced roofers, you can go ahead and reach out to them for price quotations. When you are asking for price quotations make sure that you haggle. You can usually argue down the price, even when you’re getting a quotation. You should do this with every roofer that you talk to. Arguing down the price will help you to get a better deal. If a roofer is very rigid and won’t budge then you shouldn’t immediately discount them, but you should put them at the bottom of your list.
Background Checks
Even if a roofer’s reviews are all good and you hear good things about them in the community, you still need to do a background check on them. The reason why you need to do a background check is so that you can be sure that they aren’t cowboy builders. The easiest way to perform a background check on a contractor is to pay an independent screening company to do it for you. You don’t have to tell the contractor that you are doing this. The screening company will be able to tell you the contractor’s full history and whether or not any complaints or court orders have been filed against them.
Document Communication
All throughout the process of hiring a roofer, you need to make sure that you document your communication with them. This is so that you have evidence of any promises or assurances that they have made you. It is not uncommon for roofers to swear to complete tasks by a certain date, and then fail to do so. If the roofer that you hire makes a bunch of promises to you that they aren’t able to keep, then you could take them to court. Documenting communication will help to prove your case if it does go to court.
Licensing and Insurance
Finally, you need to make sure that the roofer that you hire has a license and is insured. Most roofers will be more than happy to supply their license information and show proof of insurance. You might think that it’s rude to ask a roofer for this information, but it isn’t. Most customers probably ask them for it. Seeing their license and insurance information will help to allay any fears that you have about them being untrustworthy, which is why they will be happy to do it.
If you need your home’s roof repaired, maintained, or replaced, then you need to go out of your way to try and find the best roofer that you can afford. In order to do this, consider all of the various points suggested in this post. Make sure to always research contractors, even if they have been recommended to you by a close loved one.
