Top 10 Important Things when Hiring a Frisco Roofing Contractor

 

Local Frisco Roofing Contractor

Anytime a storm hits an area you will get a flood of people that come in from out of state and out of the city. We just had a storm in Frisco, TX in February and within a day or two there were countless roofing companies driving around with out of state plates. Generally, these companies will hire door knockers to canvas neighborhoods and set up appointments.

 Lots of local Frisco roofing are good contractors that use door knockers as well, but you want to be sure you hire a local Frisco roofer or another contractor that is in the DFW metroplex. Storm chasers a lot of times they will get a local number and a temporary PO Box in the area to appear like a Frisco roofer. You don’t want the stress of not being able to contact the company if a problem arises later down the road.

Insured

When hiring a Frisco roofing company anywhere in Texas you want to make sure they have a general liability insurance policy. These policies are important in the event something goes wrong it will protect both the homeowner and the business. Roofing contractors are also required to have insurance to pull permits with the city they are performing work in. This is one reason a large portion of companies don’t pull permits.

Frisco Roofing Contractor - Permits

Any professional Frisco roofing contractor will apply for a permit for every job. Once the job is finished the contractor must request an inspection by the city of Fri. Once the city performs the inspection, they will close out the permit ensuring the job was done correctly.  If a city inspector sees a job being performed without a permit, they can fine the company but even worst can halt the job. The homeowner could have a half pulled off roof and be stuck in a bad position.

Waiving Deductible

Do not hire a Frisco roofing contractor that offers to waive your deductible. This use to be in a very grey area of law but September 1, 2019, a new law passed and it’s 100% illegal. There are still storm chasers that will waive it, but they will cut corners when they do the work. Then later down if you have a leaking roof or other issues it will be about impossible to reach them to get the problem resolved. Texas Department of Insurance has a good article here on it. 

Signed Contract

You should have a contract signed between you and the Frisco roofing contractor so there are clear expectations of what they will be doing on the job. The homeowner should understand the timeframe that the job will take and clearly understand of everything else that will be taking place. Generally, the roofing contractor will handle the whole scope of the project such as gutters, fencing, windows, etc and this can be quite a few moving parts. So as the homeowner you want to make sure and have a clear understand of everything.

Money Upfront

Do not pay upfront for the job. It’s not unusual for a Frisco roofing contractor to collect a deposit upfront, especially if there are items that are special ordered. The deposit should never be more than 1/3 of the total cost of the project and don’t pay the deposit in cash. Make sure it is paid with credit card or check. Also make sure there is a contract signed between both parties if the roofing contractor makes you pay a deposit.

Check Reviews

It is very easy to do but check reviews online. You can also make sure the company is a local Frisco roofing contractor by making sure not all the reviews are just recent ones. You can also check the status the company has with BBB. It isn’t very hard to get accredited by BBB, but you can make sure they don’t have complaints on them. You can also check google reviews, yelp and several other good sources. 

Frisco Roofer Referrals

Ask whatever Frisco roofer you’re looking at hiring for three to five referrals of roofs they have replaced. Any local Frisco roofing and legitimate contractor should be able to easily provide.

Tearing Down to Decking

This is an extremely important part when replacing a roof that is often not done so the contractor can save a little bit of money and time. Contractors will remove the shingles but not remove the underlayment to save time and money on the replacement. The problem with doing is you can’t see the decking to see if you need to replace any rotting wood. 

Recently we did a roof in Southlake, TX that had four layers of underlayment. This means it had multiple roofs replaced over the years without removing down to decking. We ended up having to replace nine pieces of decking which was about 20% of the roof decking because they were rotted and compromised.

Using Ice and Water Shield

Although it isn’t as important as it is up north it is still important. The last two years we have had some pretty good ice storms and people that had ice and water shield were in a better position than those without. The ice dams that were in the valleys would start melting and water would find its way through the roof.  It is not required by code and not all companies include it. We include on 100% of our roof replacements as it will prevent leaks and give your roof a longer life.

Replacing All Accessories

You will see lots of new roofs go up, but companies will reuse the vents and soft metal accessories. It tends to look bad when you have older vents and accessories but more importantly can lead to issues. Some of them have rubber boots that will crack and split overtime leading to leaks. Insurance companies pay for replacement of all these accessories on the roof so there is no reason they should be reused.