Important questions to ask your roofing contractor

When you want a professional team of roofing contractors, licensing is important. Roofing contractors in Queensland are required to hold a licence from the Queensland Building and Construction Committee (QBCC). It should be noted that this license is only required if the value of re-roofing, roof repair or new roof exceed $3,300. So, for smaller roofing jobs, it’s not a requirement to hold a licence, but you’d have to ask yourself if it’s worth the risk.

If a roofing contractor isn’t licensed, you’d have to wonder why that’s the case. Perhaps they prefer only doing small jobs. Maybe they don’t have the equipment or ability to work on larger projects or commercial roofing. Regardless of the reason, if they’re not able to do everything, it’s difficult to really call them professional roofing contractors.

In addition to licensing, roofing contractors should also hold appropriate insurance. Workers compensation insurance to look after their workers, and public liability insurance is essential. Should something go wrong during the roofing job, you want to make sure you won’t be footing the bill for it.

While this might not be a question you’d ask the contractor directly (they’re not likely to tell you their reputation is bad!) it’s definitely something you want to research carefully. Luckily, reputations follow contractors around and a bad one can be hard to shake. So, you’ve got plenty of ways you can check on a roofing contractor’s reputation.

Firstly, social proof is the best indicator in the modern world. Social proof means checking out what others have had to say, usually online. One source is Google, where customers have the opportunity to leave reviews for all businesses. A quick search for roofing contractors and you’ll see how many stars they’ve been awarded on Google.

The other source is the company’s own website, where they should have some testimonials. If they don’t have any, you’d be right to wonder why. As a final step, ask around your network of family and friends. Social media is a great tool for researching businesses, because you can ask for recommendations and even check what other customers are saying.

When you’re shopping for products and services, finding a good warranty is always a big consideration. In fact, for most major purchases, you could even be swayed between brands purely on the strength of a warranty. Certainly, cars are a good example of this. So, if you’re looking for residential roofing work to be done, you should always be asking for a warranty or guarantee.

Unfortunately, the roofing industry isn’t exempt from mistakes, particularly if you’re dealing with cut-price contractors. Imagine spending thousands on roofing work, only to find six months down the track that problems start showing up. You’d rightly be frustrated, but even more so without a guarantee.

A warranty or guarantee protects you against paying twice, either because of poor workmanship or faulty materials.

Now, we get into the dollars and cents of the service offering. We mentioned that price shouldn’t be your major concern, but here’s where you need to look at the value for money. Not all roofing contractors work the same way, so you want to know exactly what you’re getting for your money.

Firstly, you need to make sure they inspect your property thoroughly. This helps them to understand exactly what work you need and also formulate an accurate quote. You don’t want any surprises halfway through the job, and a thorough inspection can limit the chances of that occurring.

Secondly, ask them to clearly outline what their quote includes. Are all materials and labour included? What additional work might be required, and how much will it cost? How long do they expect the job to take? More importantly, if the job takes longer than expected, does that mean you’ll be paying more?

Again, your contractor should be able to answer these questions and give an accurate quote. If they can’t do this, keep looking around, because you don’t want any surprise costs along the way.