Buyer Beware
Nine Questions for the Roofer at Your Door
Nine questions that separate a local contractor from a crew that will be three states away by Christmas — and the two answers that should end the conversation.
· Reviewed by Kevin Strauss
The Situation
Storm-Chaser Roofing Companies: A Warning, And How To Vet The One At Your Door
How to vet the roofer who knocks after a storm: ask where the shop is, for the Wisconsin credential number, for insurance certificates, who does the work, what the warranty covers, whether the deductible goes on the contract, whether it carries the cancellation notice, whether they will negotiate your claim (they may not), and whether you can think about it.
After significant hail, Jefferson County fills up with out-of-state roofers inside forty-eight hours, door knocking street by street. Plenty do competent work. The structural problem is that a roof is a twenty-year product and they are a two-week presence, so the warranty they hand you is worth exactly their willingness to drive back. Wisconsin has noticed: Wis. Stat. § 100.65 was written for roofing after a storm, and two of the nine questions are simply asking whether the contractor has read it. We would ask them of us, too — the answers are on the about page.
Ask These
Nine Questions To Ask The Roofer At Your Door
Where is your shop?
An address you could drive to, in this county. Not a PO box and not “we’re working out of a hotel while we’re in the area”. Ours is on Main Street in Watertown.
What is your Wisconsin credential number?
Dwelling Contractor Certification. It should be on the contract, and it takes a minute to verify at the DSPS license lookup, which also shows how long it has been held.
Can I see your insurance certificates?
General liability and workers’ compensation, current, naming the company on your contract. If a worker is hurt on your roof uninsured, that can become your problem.
Who actually does the work?
Your crew or a subcontractor? Neither answer is wrong, but a company that will not answer is telling you something, and the warranty is only as good as whoever is accountable for the nailing.
What does the workmanship warranty cover, and for how long?
In writing, with the exclusions. “Lifetime” on labor from a company with no local address is not a real promise. What the two warranties each cover.
Will you put the deductible on the contract?
Anyone offering to waive or absorb it is offering something the state bans outright, with a $500 to $1,000 forfeiture per violation. Why that costs you, not them. Walk away.
Does your contract carry the cancellation notice?
Wisconsin requires every insurance-related roofing contract to state, in bold, your right to cancel within three business days of a claim denial. A contract without it is from someone who has not read the law that governs them.
Are you going to negotiate my claim?
The right answer is no, because a contractor may not. The statute allows them to inspect, estimate and discuss the damage with the adjuster; it forbids them to represent you. A roofer who promises to “handle the insurance” is promising something unlawful.
Can I have this quote and think about it?
The single most useful question. A legitimate contractor says yes. The reviews of the ones who said no are usually instructive.
Paperwork
Two Roofing Documents To Read Before You Sign
An assignment of benefits hands your claim to the contractor and can leave you with very little control over your own settlement. Read anything with that phrase in it extremely carefully; in Wisconsin the contractor is forbidden to negotiate the claim in any case, so an assignment is a document asking for something the law says they may not have.
A “work authorization” handed over on the doorstep is frequently a binding contract contingent on insurance approval. People sign them believing they are agreeing to an inspection. An inspection needs no signature; ours never has.
Straight Answers
Questions About Storm-Chaser Roofers
No. Some do decent work, and after a regional storm the local trade cannot cover every roof in the county in a season. The problem is structural rather than moral: a workmanship warranty is worth the years the company is still reachable, and a company that follows storms is by definition somewhere else next year. Ask the nine questions; the answers sort the good ones from the rest quickly. The storm damage page has the three-item version.
Find out what is not in it. The five usual omissions are the ice barrier the code requires at the eaves, new flashing rather than reused, decking priced per sheet, the permit where your town requires one, and disposal. Ask every quote to price those five by name and the gap generally explains itself. If the gap is the deductible — because they have “taken care of it” — see question six; that is a forfeiture, not a discount.
At the Wisconsin DSPS license lookup: search the business name and look for a Dwelling Contractor Certification, which every contractor pulling a permit on a house in this state needs, and the date it was first issued. A certification issued the month after the storm tells you when the company arrived. Madison’s own building inspection department tells homeowners to do the same check.
Yes, and we will give one. Send it to us and we will read it with you and say what it does and does not include — including when the answer is that theirs is fine and cheaper. We would rather lose a job to a good contractor than watch you sign with a bad one. The FAQ covers how quotes differ.
Related
Before You Sign A Roofing Contract
Your deductible
Why the offer to waive it is a forfeiture on the contractor and a fraud referral for you.
Storm damage repair
The whole storm process: tarp, document, file, adjuster, scope, work — and Watertown’s storm record.
About us
Where the shop is, who is on the crew, and how long we have been here. The answers to our own nine questions.
Reviews
What Watertown-area homeowners say about the work, with names and dates, linked to the original.
No Charge
Want A Second Opinion On A Quote?
Send it to us. We will read it with you and tell you honestly what it does and does not include, even if the answer is that theirs is fine.