Roofing Contractors

[Rustward]

We had hail damage from a recent storm and we need a new roof. We have not filed an insurance claim yet. We have met with about six roofing contractors -- they pretty much stormed the neighborhood. I asked them all for estimates. Only two have provided estimates. The others want to meet with the insurance adjuster and are saying they will do the work for the insurance money. Am I wrong to try to separate the insurance adjustment from the re-roofing contract? There is no mortgage -- we own the property outright. This will be $15K-$20K.

The way this worked 11 years ago is that I dealt with the insurance company and got a settlement, then selected a roofer. I talked to four: two who actually measured the roof and provided written quotes, one who just said something like "Yeah, I can do this job", and one who wanted to see my settlement and after I showed it to him, said "Yea, we'll do it for that." which extraordinarily underwhelmed me.

How does this generally work?

 

[REWahoo]

I recently replaced my hail damaged roof and the insurance company (USAA) suggested I give each roofing contractor I was getting a bid from a copy of their estimate.

 

[braumeister]

Sounds reasonable to me. The insurance company would rather not give you a big check, then see you contract with some cheap outfit doing substandard work. They just want to pay a fair price. If it's a reputable insurance company, I would expect their estimate to be a fair price, and would also expect a reputable roofer to recognize that and accept it.

 

[Rustward]

Sounds reasonable to me. The insurance company would rather not give you a big check, then see you contract with some cheap outfit doing substandard work. They just want to pay a fair price. If it's a reputable insurance company, I would expect their estimate to be a fair price, and would also expect a reputable roofer to recognize that and accept it.

Well, for the record, we don't want any substandard work, even if we come out ahead a few $s. In fact the policy states that we must properly maintain the roof for the other coverage to remain in effect.

We expect the insurance settlement to be fair based on the 11 year ago hail claim (they even paid to have the AC guy come out and comb the dents out of the AC condenser fins) and an auto claim earlier this year in which the car was totaled by -- hail.

 

[meierlde]

While considering this think about a hail resistant roof if you intend to be in the home for a while. It will cost more but then replacing a roof every 11 years or so with the ever higher deductibles being imposed tends to pay over 10-20 years. Such a roof may cost 2x the cost of a regular roof, but if you take the option to not insure against cosmetic damage to the roof there is a homeowners discount. (typically in the 10-30% range).
Where I live over the last 28 years the roof was replaced twice the second time with metal, and a third time would have been required based upon all the neighbors when the metal roof was on.

 

[eytonxav]

While considering this think about a hail resistant roof if you intend to be in the home for a while. It will cost more but then replacing a roof every 11 years or so with the ever higher deductibles being imposed tends to pay over 10-20 years. Such a roof may cost 2x the cost of a regular roof, but if you take the option to not insure against cosmetic damage to the roof there is a homeowners discount. (typically in the 10-30% range).
Where I live over the last 28 years the roof was replaced twice the second time with metal, and a third time would have been required based upon all the neighbors when the metal roof was on.

Just a comment on composite hail resistant roofs; if the hail approaches baseball size or larger, be prepared to re-roof. My neighbor had one of these roofs and had to replace just like I did, after a fairly significant hail storm and we didn't even have baseball size hail, but did have hail that was larger than golf balls.

 

[MichaelB]

We had a new roof put on a few months ago. Sadly, no insurance. We did have a few roofers walking the association offering to do free inspections, put in. Claim and deal with the insurance company, it seems a common practice, but is no assurance of quality work. Having seen more than a dozen roofs put on the same type of house over the past couple of years, there is no doubt not all roofers do the same quality job. We chose to pay a bit more but make sure the repairs were thorough.

 

[sengsational]

A guy came to our door and said he'd do everything with the insurance company...all I had to do was agree. So, reluctantly, I did.

We got an estimate that included the roof, and interior (ceiling) work.

I got a big check from the insurance company covering the exterior and interior work and the contractor wanted me to sign-over the check (I refused). Once they had the new roof on (did it in under 9 hours!), I paid them the portion of the estimate that covered the exterior work and pocketed all but $10 of the amount for the interior work. The $10 was spent on this:

 

[Mulligan]

A guy came to our door and said he'd do everything with the insurance company...all I had to do was agree. So, reluctantly, I did.

We got an estimate that included the roof, and interior (ceiling) work.

I got a big check from the insurance company covering the exterior and interior work and the contractor wanted me to sign-over the check (I refused). Once they had the new roof on (did it in under 9 hours!), I paid them the portion of the estimate that covered the exterior work and pocketed all but $10 of the amount for the interior work. The $10 was spent on this:

That's good stuff...a water stain is what let me know I need a roof. So I used the Kilz to cover the stain, dreading the fact I was going to have to be repainting the ceiling afterwards. Much to my surprise I realized after the Kilz, I needed no paint job as it blended and covered perfectly.


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[Sunset]

Few years ago, we had hail damage.
The roofers all came and swarmed the neighborhood.
Most folks went with the "let the roofer talk to the ins company" then they subbed out the work to the cheapest workers around. Some lousy jobs got done.
I checked my roof with 1 of the roofers (who has been in business locally for many yrs). and he showed me the damage.
I refused to allow him to deal with the ins. company.
I called my ins. company and they sent out their fellow who looked at the roof,siding, deckchairs etc, and gave me the ins estimate, and check for about 85% (they hold back some).
Then I phoned 3-4 roofers that I had checked out on the web for complaints/BBB/etc.
Asked them all for quotes, picked one, had roof done and I paid them.
I bought my own siding, did my siding myself, and bought new patio furniture.

I will not work with the swarm, as I have seen our neighbors shingles and siding/fascia fall off the house 2-3 yrs after a storm fix session has happened.

 

[John Galt III]

I had a new roof put on a year ago. Shortly after I had signed a contract to have the work done, a flier mysteriously appeared at my front door, advertising free inspections for hail damage.

 

[jerome len]

The insurance company wants to make sure you get the roof fixed right, not cheap. Why? A future roof problem could cause more problems inside the home and then you would want to file another damage claiim. I've had roof problems.....too many times over the past many years. What I learned is to check references.....both of the roofer and the roofing. I check years of warranty, both on materials and labor....credit worthiness of the materials company.....one time the materials manufacturer wouldn't honor their warranty.....their attitude? "sue me" ......so, I'd probably go with materials sold by Home Depot or another large retailer, check references on roofers.....try to stay with someone that's been a roofer for a few years.....don't worry about making a little money on this......worry about a good job that will last years into the futurel.

 

[Rustward]

We went with a Class 4 Impact Resistant shingle. My insurance agent says that will lower the premium by 26%.

This never was about getting the roof done as cheaply as possible. The process seems to have changed since we last went through this 11 years ago. 11 years ago, I got a check for the full settlement directly from the adjusters before they left the site. This time the insurance company held back some of the settlement for the depreciation of the old roof. I'll get that as soon as the contractor sends some paperwork to the insurance company. There is a separate form the contractor has to file with the insurance company certifying that they installed Class 4 shingles in order to get the discount.