Help! What should I ask the contractor when getting quotes for a new roof for our building???

The most important, is whether he is state licensed, and you need to contact your state’s Dept of Consumer Affairs to verify his credentials are valid. Some contractors generate too many complaints, and their state license are revoked or suspended, yet they continue to do business. Others will steal someone’s state license, and claim they’re affiliated or a partner to whom ever the license number belongs to. If you do business with an unlicensed contractor, you have no recourse if you pay a partial or full advance, and he runs off without finishing the job. Get an estimate from 2 other state-licensed roofing contractors to make sure they’re all within $ 1,000 of each other’s bid.

If he has other roofing jobs he’s working on currently, ask if you can go over and survey his work crew, and see how he reacts to this question. If he acts worried, its an indication he hires illegal aliens to save on labor costs. Unlike American labor, illegals are ignorant of their legal rights to state & federal labor laws. When injured on the job, they simply go home and wait for their injury to heal. Americans would seek medical attention and file for workmans comp benefits, so its advantagious to hire illegals over Americans.

Ask if the warranty includes materials and labor, or materials only. Usually, warranties will only cover material cost, but they hit you with labor cost to do the job. If labor is not covered, ask what the hourly labor rate is if you call them back to file a warranty claim. See how long he’s been in business. If he’s only in business less than 10 years, its possible he had generated complaints in other states, and had run off and set up shop in your state until he generates too many complaints, and will pack up and move to another state to repeat his operation. Ask for past roofing job clients and contact these people to ask if they were satisfied with his performance. A legit contractor will immediately have a list of satisfied customers. These satisfied customers should be inside a 20 mile radius from you, so you can drive over and survey the job they had completed. If his references are a considerable distance away, making it difficult for you to drive over and speak to his references in person, its possible these references are bogus, and are friends and/or relatives to this guy, who are giving you lip service as a favor to a family member.

Run his name through Ripoffreport.com, and see if anyone filed a complaint in the past. Google or Yahoo search “ripoff contractors” and see if his name comes up. Enter his business name and proprietor name on search as well.