Helping a parent hire a contractor

Questions to ask a roofing contractor, for your parent's house

You do not need to know roofing. You need seven answers, and any contractor worth hiring has them ready. Ask them on speakerphone with your parent in the room, or send them by email and ask for the answers in writing.

• What is your state license number, and what business name is it registered under?
• Can we see your liability and workers' compensation certificates?
• Will the full scope be in writing, line by line, before anyone signs?
• If something changes during the job, does my parent get a written change order first?
• Will you share photos at each checkpoint while the work is happening?
• Do you walk the job with them at the end, and register the warranty in their name?
• How do payments and lien waivers work, in what order?

Those seven questions are the seven standards every Informify360 Preferred Contractor signs. Any contractor can answer them. The ones who answer well are the ones to keep talking to.

How to keep a parent from signing at the table

The pressure is rarely rude. It is friendly. "This price is only good today." "I can get you on the schedule if we sign now." "Your neighbor already went with us." None of that is about the roof. It is about ending the meeting with a signature.

Give your parent one sentence to say, and practice it with them: "I do not sign anything the same day. Leave the estimate and I will call you." A good contractor hears that every week and is fine with it. If the price really does change tomorrow, that tells you something too. Guide 1 covers the whole sales conversation without judging anyone, and it has a Questions to Ask page you can print and leave on their kitchen table.

Comparing the bids for them

Ask your parent to get two or three bids, or ask the contractors to email them to you directly. Then read them into the same lines: tear-off, decking, underlayment, flashing, ventilation, warranty, exclusions, payment schedule. The low bid is usually the short scope, not the bargain. If you would rather not do that yourself, the free comparison at the bottom of this page does it, and you can send the bids from anywhere.

What to look for while the work is happening

Your parent should not have to climb a ladder to know the job is going well. Photos do that. Ask the contractor to send pictures at the checkpoints: the deck after tear-off, the ice and water barrier and underlayment down, the flashing in, the ventilation before the shingles cover it, and the finished roof. If the contractor is sharing photos, you can see the job from your own phone. Guide 5 has the checkpoint list for every trade and a log to keep them in.

Close-out: the paperwork to collect for them

The last ten percent of the job protects the other ninety. Before the final check, your parent should have the final invoice marked paid, the manufacturer warranty registered in their name with the paperwork to prove it, the workmanship warranty in writing, the permit closed out if one was pulled, and the lien waivers: the contractor's conditional waiver with the last payment, then final waivers from every sub and supplier once it clears. Put them in one folder, and make a copy for yourself. Guide 7 has the checklist and a warranty registry page to fill in.

Compare their bids, free

Send us your parent's bids, from your own email if that is easier. We read each one into the same seventeen lines, mark what it states and what it leaves out, and print the questions to ask each bidder. Nothing is ranked, nobody is recommended, and no contractor sees the files. Free for one project.

Compare your bids free