Hiring A Roofer: Information You Need
When interviewing a potential roofer, there are some clear bases you need to cover before making your final decision. Hiring any form of contractor needs to be a careful process. Not only is there a vast difference in service and skill from the worst contractor in town and the best one, there is a small, but very real, percentage of contractors who are simply out there to make a quick buck while doing the very minimum of work. The work will often turn out shoddy and dangerous, leaving you to pay the price for repairs and revisions. Avoiding this dilemma is easy, however. As long as you get some good recommendations and go with someone who has a good local reputation, you will be able to avoid being scammed. To find someone who will do the best job possible, however, will take a little more effort.
When interviewing a roofer, you need to make sure he has all of his paperwork in order. That means asking him if he has a proper license for the work you're going to have him do, if he has the correct liability insurance, and if he has the right workman's insurance to cover his crew. You don't want to be held liable should any injuries occur while work is being done on your property. Furthermore, if something should go disastrously wrong, you don't want to be left picking up the pieces while the contractor slinks away and files bankruptcy to avoid paying for the damage. This is an unlikely scenario if you've done the legwork when trying to find a competent contractor, but it could happen. See to it that you're protected.
Though you hopefully arrived at your list of potential contractors by contacting your friends and coworkers, you should still ask your roofer if he has any professional references he can give you. Someone who has been in the business for any length of time should have a multitude of satisfied customers he can refer you to. The point isn't so much what those references will say (if he's giving them to you they have obviously agreed to speak highly of the work), but simply that he has some to hand over.
Finally, you want to get a price quote that is going to be very close to the final price. Unforeseen things can always happen on any job, of course, but you should be able to accurately anticipate how much you'll be on the hook for. If he can't guarantee that, you may want to look elsewhere for your roofer.
When interviewing a roofer, you need to make sure he has all of his paperwork in order. That means asking him if he has a proper license for the work you're going to have him do, if he has the correct liability insurance, and if he has the right workman's insurance to cover his crew. You don't want to be held liable should any injuries occur while work is being done on your property. Furthermore, if something should go disastrously wrong, you don't want to be left picking up the pieces while the contractor slinks away and files bankruptcy to avoid paying for the damage. This is an unlikely scenario if you've done the legwork when trying to find a competent contractor, but it could happen. See to it that you're protected.
Though you hopefully arrived at your list of potential contractors by contacting your friends and coworkers, you should still ask your roofer if he has any professional references he can give you. Someone who has been in the business for any length of time should have a multitude of satisfied customers he can refer you to. The point isn't so much what those references will say (if he's giving them to you they have obviously agreed to speak highly of the work), but simply that he has some to hand over.
Finally, you want to get a price quote that is going to be very close to the final price. Unforeseen things can always happen on any job, of course, but you should be able to accurately anticipate how much you'll be on the hook for. If he can't guarantee that, you may want to look elsewhere for your roofer.
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