Seven Questions to Ask a Fort Collins Roofer Before You Sign

1. Where is your office, and how long has your website existed?

Start with the boring question, because it filters out the most trouble. A roofing company that will still be here in five years has a physical address in Northern Colorado, not a P.O. box or a rented mailbox, and a web presence that predates the last hail storm. The Colorado Division of Insurance warns homeowners every season about crews that arrive after a storm, sell hard, and leave before the first winter tests the work. Look the address up on a map. Look at when the website was first published. Neither takes more than five minutes, and both tell you more than a brochure.

2. Can I see the written contract before I pay anything?

In Colorado this is not a courtesy. Under the state’s residential roofing law, a roofing contractor must give you a written contract, signed by both of you, before the work starts. Ask to see the company’s standard contract at the first meeting and read it at your own table, not theirs. The law says what has to be in it, so you can check it against the list below. A company that will not show you its contract until you have committed is telling you how the rest of the job will go.

3. Who carries your liability coverage, and may I call them?

The contract has to name the company’s liability coverage carrier, so this question has a short answer or an awkward one. Ask for the carrier’s name and a phone number, then call and confirm the coverage is current. If a worker is hurt on your roof or a dropped bundle goes through a neighbor’s windshield, the contractor’s coverage is what stands between the accident and your homeowners policy. “We are fully covered” is a sentence. A carrier you can call is a fact.

4. What exactly is in the scope, line by line?

A single number on a business card is not an estimate. The Insurance Information Institute’s advice for any repair after a loss is to get written bids that include the materials to be used and the prices line by line, and that advice holds whether or not insurance is involved. For a roof, line by line means: tear-off and disposal, decking inspection and the per-sheet price for any replacement, underlayment and ice barrier, drip edge, starter, the shingle product by name and color, ridge cap, flashings and boots, ventilation, cleanup, and permit. If a line is missing, ask whether it is included or just unmentioned. The second answer is where the change orders come from.

Ask too how the scope was produced. A scope written from the ground is a guess. A scope written after a walk of every slope, with photos you get to keep, is what a roof inspection is supposed to produce, and it is what we hand you whether or not you hire us.

5. What will you do, and not do, with my insurance claim?

Listen for the “not.” A roofing contractor can document the damage, photograph it, write a scope and share all of that with you and your adjuster. A roofing contractor cannot negotiate your claim on your behalf without holding a Colorado public adjuster license, cannot decide what your policy covers, and cannot pay, waive or rebate your deductible. The right answer to this question names those limits without being asked. The wrong answer is “we handle everything with the insurance company,” and the worst answer is any version of “we will take care of your deductible,” which Colorado law prohibits outright. Our insurance claim documentation page spells out where our work ends.

6. Who is actually doing the work, and who do I call during the job?

Many roofing jobs are done by subcontracted crews, which is normal; what matters is whether the company knows and supervises them. Ask whether the crew is the company’s own or a sub, who the supervisor on site will be, whether that person speaks your language, and which phone number reaches a decision maker while the roof is open. Ask what happens if weather closes in halfway through a tear-off. A company that has done this before has a plan and can describe it in two sentences.

7. Can I see local work and talk to the people who own it?

Not photos on a phone: addresses. Ask for two or three roofs the company put on in your town more than a year ago and drive past them. Ask whether the owners would take a call. A roof that looks right after a winter and a hail season, from a homeowner who would hire the company again, is worth more than any review page. If a company is new, as every company once was, it should say so and answer the other six questions all the more carefully.

How to tell if a roofer is stretching the truth

You rarely catch it in a single statement. You catch it in mismatches between what is said and what is written, and in what the salesperson wants you to do quickly. These are the patterns that should stop the conversation:

• A deadline on the price. Shingle prices do not expire on Friday. The deadline is there so you do not get a second bid.
• A verbal promise that is not in the contract. If it mattered enough to say, it matters enough to write down. Ask for it in the document or treat it as not offered.
• Any promise that the roof will cost you nothing. Insurance may cover storm damage after your deductible; nobody gets a roof for free, and anyone who says so is planning to make up the difference somewhere.
• Damage found that you were not shown. Every finding should come with a photo you can keep and a location on the roof. “Trust me, it is bad up there” is not a finding.
• A large deposit before materials arrive. Colorado law requires the contractor to hold your payment in trust until materials are delivered, and the contract must say so.
• An address that is a mailbox. See question one.

None of this requires you to be a roofing expert. It requires you to ask for things in writing, look things up, and refuse to be hurried. Our About page explains how we work, and we answer anything it does not cover in writing. Our guide to local roofers versus storm chasers covers the after-storm version in more depth.