As a roofing contractor, I know that most of the companies out there are not conducting thorough inspections. This is one of the reasons that we get the label as being slimy or not ethical. The truth is that most of the bad reputation could be cleaned up with better inspections on your home’s interior and better communication. In this article, we are going to focus on the inspections!
First, Your contractor should be able to gather all of the information they need, 99% of the time, during the initial inspection. There are always exceptions to the rule, like hiring another trade as part of their scope of work. That being said, the initial inspection is where we gather all of the information we need to create an estimate.
It is supposed to go like this; 1) We ask if there is any interior leaking. If there is we document it and take photos. 2) we pop into the attic to take a look at the type of decking and the condition it is in. If the decking is in really bad shape it needs to be replaced and should be included in the estimate. 3) we inspect the exterior of the home for signs of wind and hail damage. 4) We either climb the roof and inspect the slopes or fly a drone to take photos of the slopes.
If your contractor is skipping any of these steps he is likely missing valuable information. This may lead to an inadequate estimate and more money for you down the road.
This should be the goal of every contractor out there. The homeowner expects us to be the expert we are claiming to be. This means that we can not consistently be making huge estimating mistakes. As a roofing contractor, if I hire an electrician to come to give me an estimate to rewire my home and he missed $5,000 on his estimate I would be unhappy. That is exactly how clients of roofing companies feel when we tear off the roof and tell them they have rotten decking that must be replaced. This should have been caught during the home’s interior inspection. Now, do not get me wrong there will be times we things pop up and there is nothing we could do to see it coming. But the vast majority of the time it could’ve been addressed.