How to Find the Right Roofing Contractor

The roofing contractor you select will have a direct bearing on how your project turns out. Making the right decision at the forefront will ensure a smooth process, the best warranties and peace of mind that your building has adequate protection.

But for many building owners, it’s challenging to know where to turn because options are plentiful. Finding a contractor isn’t hard, but finding a quality one is.

Domack Restoration has been providing quality roof installation, restoration and maintenance for 50 years. To verify its quality and experience, review these 6 steps to vetting and selecting a roofing contractor.

6 Steps to Selecting a Commercial Roofing Contractor

Here’s the best way to find a high-quality roofing contractor for your commercial property.

  1. Look Locally at Your Options

Review your local area when considering which contractor is best for you. Working with a local contractor ensures that they know building codes and permit requirements for your area. That way, you know you won’t encounter issues in case of an insurance claim or sale of the building.

Sometimes, out-of-state companies swoop in following a large storm. They’ll try to undercut local contractors to win the business, but it doesn’t always mean it’s in the building owner’s best interests to use these companies. Storm-chasing companies generally are not as high quality as those who focus on customer relationships and investment in their community to build trust with their customers.

  1. Read Google Reviews and Other Third-party Sites

Past customers are the best sources of information about the quality of a contractor. That’s because they can share both short-term and long-term results with you without any strings attached.

You’ll learn what it’s like to work with the contractor starting with the quoting process through to service delivery and beyond.

When reading reviews, go back 3-6 months to look at experiences. As you read reviews, keep in mind that you’ll most likely see the best of the best experiences alongside the worst. That’s because those with common, everyday experiences are not as compelled to write a review. Extreme experiences on either side of the spectrum are what you’ll likely see.

But regardless of that fact, you’ll get a good idea of the quality of the working relationship, materials and workmanship when reading these reviews.

Try to find the company on multiple review sites to gain a broader perspective. Another good place to check is the Better Business Bureau to see if there are outstanding disputes with the company.

  1. Request Quotes and Meetings with Multiple Contractors

If you’ve never overseen or managed a roofing project before, it’s a good idea to meet with more than one contractor. That way you can experience the differences between them. If you only meet with one, you might not know that a 10-year warranty on a certain material is less than what you might experience with a different company or that getting through to the contractor is not as easy as it might be to reach other contractors, which can help you project move more smoothly.

Plus, getting multiple contractors on your roof will ensure that you aren’t getting oversold on what needs done or that the contractor is missing something. For example, one contractor might recommend full roof replacement while three others say the roof just needs some repairs. You could end up paying for a full new roof you don’t need if you don’t do a more thorough evaluation with multiple contractors.

  1. Consider Quality Before Price

The more important element of selecting a roofing contractor is quality rather than price. That can be challenging to stomach at first because commercial roofing projects are not inexpensive. However, if you look for the lowest installation price, you’ll likely need to repair or replace the roof sooner rather than later, which means it will cost more when broken down over the course of how long you use the roof.

When you need a full roof replacement, the cheapest price at the forefront of the project will likely end up being the most expensive over the life of the roof. Price shopping the project can also mean that contractors provide the lowest price, which generally means cheap materials because that’s where they can save on cost. Or worse, they might cut prices by excluding crucial components.

  1. Spend Time Comparing Quotes

As you go through your quotes, evaluate the materials the contractor will use, timelines for installation, how quickly the contractor can get you in if you’re experiencing a leak or lack of protection for your building.

Make sure all essential project elements are included in the quotes. You can do a side-by-side comparison from various companies to see what is included and what’s excluded to better understand the value of the quote and not just the price. The quote should include all materials, labor and clean-up fees. You should see these as line items.

Some red flags to look out for when reading roofing quotes include the following.

  • Lacking fine print or hiding it in a reference you can’t find
  • Estimates that just show a total price and no line items
  • Hidden fees
  • No warranty information
  • The company is dodgy when you request a meeting to go through the quote line item by line item
  1. Request References

Once you’ve narrowed down your contractors to a shortlist, you can request references to get a better idea of the contractor’s quality and performance. Make sure the contractor is providing references for jobs within the last three to six months.

If the reference will allow it, go out to the job site and view the completed work. Talk to the building owner or the maintenance professional who oversaw the contractor selection and installation work to get their thoughts on how things went.

Reputable companies will willingly offer references to you to showcase their work and quality. So if you’re getting the runaround when asking for these, it probably isn’t a good sign.

Commercial Roofing You Can Trust

When you want a reliable roofing contractor in Connecticut, turn to the trusted team at Domack Restoration. Not only will you find a skilled roofing installation team, but you’ll also find a resource for ongoing maintenance and repairs to keep your roof in great shape. Request a quote now to work with our skilled team.

Commercial Roofing and Waterproofing in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. For more than 40 years, Domack Restoration, LLC has been providing commercial roofing and restoration services for all of Connecticut, Westchester County, New York, and Southern Massachusetts. We focus on high-quality work. This ethic is ingrained in us, which is the reason for our tradition of excellence. Our work is well built, durable, and reliable.