To feel worried about roofers…

Go around your local area, look for houses with new roofs. When you find a decent looking one, done properly (they're easy to spot) knock on the door and ask who did it. Then you'll also get a proper review, as people love to complain if it's shit work.

DPs a roofer and he agrees a lot are shites and create problems or over charge for fuck all. He takes photos and videos and shows them everything he also doesn’t take any payment in advance even for materials this pisses me off as it leaves him potentially vulnerable. He tries to do things as cheap as possible for people sometimes too cheap imo and he often sees bits of dry ridge that need fixing and just does it without charging while he’s up there. They’re not all bad, go with recommendations I’d say 90% of his jobs come from word of mouth.

However if I was living in my home town I’d be sorted because I have a cousin or brother in every trade. Especially roofing and electrical. Sometimes I rue the day I left because I could’ve been assured of having everything done top spec and honest.

I liked my roofer because my neighbour used and recommended them and they had an excellent rating on check a trade. They filmed and photographed the whole roof before doing anything and showed me it to talk through the approach they would take and then they filmed and photographed when they finished and showed me again.

Also they invoiced for the work once complete and I had 30 days from completion to pay so any immediate issues and they wouldn’t have been paid until it was fixed.

Good luck with that, as it will be needed.

All the "top" guys in my area are scammers. They have fake good reviews and diligently remove the bad ones.
You can't go by the reviews from family&friends either unless those people really understand the roof structures themselves. For example, there are many people happy with their new roofs.The kick is, they didn't really need a new roof -they were scammed into getting one and scammed out of £££££.
Equally, there is no use of photos to 99% of customers unless they understand the roof structures and can also verify the photos.

I nearly ended up with a new roof, when what I needed were new gutters and downpipes.
That only transpired when I went on the roof myself! And...well, I'm no roofer and had never been on a roof before but it was clear to see what was going on. I fixed the massive waterfall ceiling leak there and then by removing the blocked, rotten wooden gutter completely. Better none than the waterfall indoors! Later on I hired someone to replace the water goods at a fraction of the price of a new roof.
I confronted the roofer and got abuse back. It is telling that they were not the only ones suggesting a complete replacement...

If there is a way to hire an impartial structural roof surveyor for a couple of hundred then I'd do that. Not a roofer who has a vested interest to make the job an expensive one. It could save huge amounts of money or give a peace of mind at least.

My brothers a roofer/brickie and he gets a lot of recommendations through facebook on local pages. He actually gets a lot of work in our village. He has a drone to check without getting on the roof. He films a lot of his work on meta glasses and uploads to facebook too so you can see him working and the finish.

Word of mouth ideally from somebody you know well. Or otherwise has anybody in your neighbourhood had their house re-roofed recently? Knock on the door and ask if they would recommend the people they used.

If you are living alone use the words “we” in any conversation you have (not “I”)
”we have a roof leak” for example

Consider placing mens clothing in places that are seen - a pair of old workboots outside the door / a uniform hat or gilet or similar. Or ask a male relative or friend just to be around your property when they come.

Roofers that came recommended by close friends billed me for “scaffolding” that was not needed nor used on the job.

As the widow of a tradesman, I am finding out now first hand for myself just how many scammers there are and how many unethical tradesmen make a visual assessment of your circumstances…

Ask for photos of the roof also.

Also Trust a Trader etc are useless. The biggest villain "builder" we know is on there.

You are right to be worried. My dh is a builder and the amount of times he goes up onto roofs and can see what an absolute bodge job they have done. Other times they have done nothing to the roof but charged the customer a fortune. I would say the majority of them are dodgy. As others have said, it needs to be word of mouth.

Sorry about typos, I was rushing*

I very nearly.got.scammed 2 years ago after we had a leak. Looked online check out websites, reviews/testimonials. Went and got quotes from the most professional looking website, had them out, quoted 15k for whole roof replacement etc.

They sent a quote through and it had the man's name on the email and luckily I googled him and he was a known scammed, court case after court case for cowboy roofing scams etc.

We cancelled.

I then asked people for recommendations on local facebook group, got quotes from about 6. Temp repair ranging around £600 to permanent replacement of damaged area for approx. £3000.

We went middle of the road with also lots of recommendations. I am not naive but the original lot were so convincing. I always recommend the guys we used in the end, they were great, everything happen on the dates they said it would. I was really worried after my initial experience though.

I.wouldnt use checkatrade type websites from recommendations either.

They should take photos /video to show you

I’d ask around locally for a recommendation (not just on local social media pages where some random person recommends his brother!) Actual people who’ve used them to do a job.

We used a roofer recommended by a neighbour and he was great, I've recommended him to others too. With a warning that he looks like a pirate or as he said once, "I know I look like a meth head bab, but I know me roofs".

Ask on local groups for recommendations. We found an excellent builder that way.

Go on your local face book and ask for recommendations.

We had a roofer recently who used a drone to take pictures of the roof so he could show us and give us a quote (we have a three storey house, so I'm guessing easier than getting a ladder up there).

Yes, don't pay anything up front! When my roof was replaced I paid nothing until the job was finished.

Finding any good tradesman is hard. What annoys me is when you ring , leave a message and they dont bother calling back. Always worth using recommendations

Don’t hire someone who gives you a funny feeling and make sure they come highly recommended. We just spent £60k on building works. I have no idea what the hell they did because I don’t have any technical expertise. But they were really lovely and trustworthy, so much so I left them with our keys while we were on holiday, and they were highly recommended.

My roofer goes up and takes photos, shows me them and we discuss the work needed and cost.

You can ask them to take photos and show them to you to explain where the issue is, then take them again when they've fixed it.
That's what my gutter guy does.

I think you’re right to be cautious. I’ve had a lot of problems with mine, several people I contacted didn’t even bother to turn up and of those who did the quotes ranged from a couple of hundred to thousands. I went with one I felt comfortable with but despite him coming back several times the leak persisted.

One of the biggest issues is getting them to provide proper detailed quotes, they don’t seem keen to commit or spell out specifically what they’re going to do and what happens if there’s a problem.

Trust a Trader and the like make no difference, the people I’ve found through there have been no better than FB recommendations.

Sorry to sound negative but I thought it might help to know what you’re dealing with. My best suggestion would be don’t just go on personal recommendations but try and find someone who is connected to a friend or contact so they have a reason to do a good job but no idea if you can find anyone like that.