In the free market, there are a lot of roofing companies and not all roofers are up to the mark of providing standard services.
Roofing services
It is always better to get to know them so that you may judge the caliber of their services.
Asking questions from roofers is one of the best ways of knowing them.
Here are the top questions to ask from a roofing service before hiring:
Q# 1: Will the company hire subcontractors?
Find out if the company will hire subcontractors to finish the work. Find out about their reputation and review their past work. Make sure that the subcontractor is insured, licensed and has a good track record.
Q# 2: What is your experience?
Ask the past experience of a roofing company. Request them a portfolio of their work. Those ‘Before – After’ images look great and ask for a referential list of past customers.
Contact the company’s past customers and ask them if there were happy with the company’s provided services. Not only you will get to know of pros and cons of working with a company, you will gain a better insight of a company’s background, professionalism and the way of doing work.
Q# 3: Do you offer insurance?
If yes, can you show proof of insurance? In ideal case, you want to ensure that the company repairing your roof has worker’s compensation insurance as well as liability insurance.
WCI protects the homeowner if there is an accident while roof construction and the company’s workers have been injured. If the company does not have WCI, you (the homeowner) could be held responsible for paying medical bills of the workers.
Liability insurance protects your actual property. For example, if the roof cracks down or caves in during the replacement, the company will be responsible for all charges.
Make sure both insurances are offered by the roofing company.
Q# 4: Is the company licensed?
In most states, it is compulsory to get a license before a company can start legally start work so make sure that the company you are hiring is licensed.
The thing about licensing is that although certification is needed for a company, the state codes vary from place to place.
In any case, it is best to contact your local licensing office to see that the contractor’s license is free of violations and up to date.
Q# 5: How will the work take place?
If you are looking to install a roof, make sure you ask: Is roof removal included in roof installation? If you don’t clear this beforehand, you could end up paying loads of dollars and all because of confusion.
Similarly, ask about the ways of waste disposal. Will the company provide a dumpster or would you have to call a waste disposal company?
Q# 6: What is the complete physical address of the company along with phone number?
Normally, this is not a big deal but what if you were just handed a phone number by someone, you call them, give them a task and after a few months, you start experiencing problems.
Who will you call then? Therefore, it is best to double check the physical address of the roofers.
Q# 7: What is the duration of project completion?
Some companies have a fixed rate of completing a project and some charge by the hour. Make sure you ask the duration of project completion, before you make a decision.
Q# 8: Do you offer a warranty and what does it cover?
Roofing companies typically offer two types of warranties. One is the manufacturer’s warranty and one is the contractor’s warranty. Manufacturer’s warranty covers the defects of the product while contractor’s warranty covers the quality of the work.
Typically, manufacturer’s warranty is around 10 – 30 years, depending upon the material you use and contractor’s warranty gives you a leverage of 1 – 2 years but again, it is important to check and authenticate these details.
Q# 9: How have you put up the price?
Roofing companies either offer complete package deals or individual payment plans for separate operations. In any case, ask how they have put up the collective price.
To make this information beneficial for you, you have to do a little search of your own and find out the costs of labor hours and used supplies and then you can counter your argument of the price.
Who knows, you may end up getting some discount from the roofers.
