How to choose a roofing contractor

Most roofing disasters are hiring mistakes, not workmanship mistakes. The crew that does bad work usually looked hireable at the door — the problems were visible earlier, in the paperwork they couldn’t produce and the pressure they applied. This checklist is ordered: do the cheap checks before anyone climbs on your roof.

Start with the paper trail

Before you compare prices, confirm the boring things. In most US states roofing contractors are licensed at the state level, and every licensing board runs a free public lookup — search the business name and the license number from their website or card. Check that the license is current, matches the business name you’re dealing with, and covers roofing rather than a different trade. In Canada, licensing runs province by province, and workers’ compensation registration is the equivalent must-check.

Then ask for two certificates of insurance: general liability and workers’ compensation. A legitimate contractor’s insurer will send a certificate directly to you on request — that’s normal, and the direct route matters because certificates are easy to forge. If a roofer without workers’ comp coverage is injured on your property, the claim can land on you.

Get three bids, and compare scope before price

Three is enough to see the spread. When the bids arrive, resist ranking them by the number at the bottom — first check they describe the same job. The commonest trick in a cheap bid is a thinner scope: no tear-off, fewer layers of underlayment, “reuse existing flashing,” no drip edge, no permit. A bid that’s far below the others is usually describing a different roof.

A complete quote for a replacement should specify, in writing:

• Tear-off or overlay, and how many existing layers are coming off
• The exact shingle or panel product line and color, not just a brand
• Underlayment type, and ice-and-water shield placement where climate requires it
• Flashing: what’s replaced, what’s reused, and around which penetrations
• Ventilation work, if any — ridge vents, intake, bathroom exhausts
• Who pulls the permit, and that the price includes it
• Debris disposal, magnetic nail sweep, and gutter cleanout
• Start window, estimated duration, and what happens if hidden decking damage is found — including the per-sheet price for replacing it

Questions that sort the crews from the salesmen

• Who is actually on my roof? Much of the industry subcontracts the labor. That’s not automatically bad, but you want to know whether the crew works for the company whose name is on the contract, and whose insurance covers them.
• Who supervises, and will I meet them? A job with no named supervisor is a job where problems get discovered by you, later.
• What does your workmanship warranty cover, for how long, in writing? The manufacturer covers the shingle; only the installer covers the installation. Most leaks are installation. See the warranty guide for what to look for.
• Can I have three local references from the last two years? Then actually call one. Ask what went wrong — something always does — and how it was handled.

Read their record, not their testimonials

The reviews a roofer shows you are the ones they chose. The ones worth reading are the one and two-star reviews and, above all, how the business replied to them — a company that answers a leak complaint with a name, a date and a fix is telling you how your problem would be handled. That’s the record every profile on this site puts on top, and the reviews guide covers how to read it in two minutes.

Money: the schedule is the safety mechanism

Never pay a large share up front. A common healthy structure is a modest deposit, a payment when materials are delivered or the job starts, and the balance on completion — after you’ve walked the roofline, seen photos of the finished flashing, and received the permit sign-off where one applies. A contractor who wants most of the money before work begins is asking you to carry their risk. Pay in a way that leaves a record; avoid cash.

Walk away if you see

• A price that’s only good “today”
• A refusal to put the license number or insurance certificates in your hands
• An offer to cover or waive your insurance deductible — that’s insurance fraud in many states, with you as a participant
• Pressure to sign anything at the door after a storm — see the storm-chaser guide
• No physical local address, or a truck and phone number from out of state

None of these is exotic. Every one is common enough that the trade has names for them — which is exactly why the checks above are worth an afternoon.