One of the biggest problems when looking for a roofer to work with is finding someone who you can trust. Similar to a car mechanics, roofers work on things that most people never go on or sometimes even see. Because many building owners are not familiar with all the parts and intricacies of their roof it becomes difficult to believe a roofer who tells you that you have a problem that you can't see or understand. It becomes easy for the building owner to question the integrity of the roofer, and it becomes easy for the roofer to lie.
Say for example that you have a small leak in your building and your call a roofer, he goes up on the roof takes a look around, comes down and says yeah you have a problem, its gonna cost you 3,000$ to repair. Because the roofer know that you didn't go up on the roof and because he knows that you don't fully understand all the parts about your roof it is easy for him to exaggerate the amount of money it will cost to repair. He can even go as far as to try and oversell by convincing you that you need a new roof when in reality all you need is a small repair. So as a building owner what you do is you get another opinion. the next roofer comes and says yea you have a problem I can fix it for 1000$. Great so now you think maybe the first roofer was lying and really the repair is cheaper than he is making it. The problem is that you have no way of verifying that the second roofer knows what he is talking about. Maybe the second roofer is just not as good and he does not see all the problems that your roof has. So you get a third roofer's opinion and the saga goes on. From roofer to roofer you try and find someone who you can trust, until eventually you get fed up and try and make a gut decision, sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. You try and get referrals from friends but most people don't have a roofer that they love.
Here we have experience dealing with tons of building owner who are fed up of being lied to and deceived. We have heard stories of made up damages that didn't exist. Inflated costs of repairs, being sold new roofs when the roof was in perfect condition, being told that a new roof that was just installed was a disaster and needs to be redone right away, broken promises of warranties, companies that installed new roofs and stopped answering the phone once the roof started leaking, roofers who shut down their companies every couple of years and change company names to avoid lawsuits, immigrant roofers who go on a dishonest earning spree and then return to their home countries.
There are countless surveys that show roofer are among the countries least trusted professions. We even had a situation where a building owner had just paid a company for 3 new roofs on 3 attached buildings and after meeting us sent us to check on the quality. Upon investigating it was discovered that the roofer did not install new roofs rather he painted the old roofs in aluminum reflective pain just to make them look new.
Even if a roofer was completely honest and ethical how would a building owner know? it would be almost impossible fr someone who is not in the industry to verify that a roofer is skilled, honest and ethical.
There is a statistic that 80% of roofs are replaced prematurely, this is probably due to aggressive sales tactics. I once heard a story from a customer, he called a roofing company because of a few leaks he was having. Instead of sending a roofer, they sent a salesman, without going on the roof the salesman told him that he needs a new roof. When he asked how the salesman can know this without seeing the roof he was told that based on the amount of stains and the size of them. The owner new he did not need a new roof so he urged the salesman to go onto the roof to take a look. The salesman insisted it was not necessary. Eventually the owner learned that the salesman was afraid of heights. Upon insistance that the leaks be repaired he also learned that the company the salesman worked for does not sell roof repairs they sell only replacements. This companies strategy was a one size fits all approach. Send a salesman to the property and try and sell a new roof at all costs. If the owner is not interested go to the next property.
My point is that since there is such a barrier of trust between building owners and roofers it is important that we as a roofing company do something about it. Thats why our company specializes in low cost repairs and saving you money. As long as possible we try and extend the life of your roof through repairs. We get a call from someone who wants a roof replacement and e try and convince them that they can save money by repairing it instead. The only time we actually replace a roofs is if the customer is insistent that he wants a new roof or if all other options are exhausted.
Another step we take to try and build trust is that we document everything. From the first time we go up on your roof we are taking pictures of everything. The condition of the roof, the areas above the leak, areas that look like they are nearing failure, the stained ceiling tiles, everything that is of interest we document. This way we have pictures to show you of the defects in your roof and a way to explain what exactly it is that we propose to do. once we get the job we document all our work in stages and we take pictures of the completed work. With all the pictures we create a folder that is accessible to the building owner. This way the owner can feel confident that we did what we agreed to plus extra and that we did it the right way. He can compare before and after pictures and ask any questions that he has. We love when people ask us questions because it means that they understand what is happening and it gives us a chance to explain to them why we are the best choice.
Here at Roofing Repair Team doing "business built on trust" is our highest priority.
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