To feel worried about roofers…

[BEAchDays2]

I need to hire a roofer because we have a Leake, and for some reason I actually feel really stressed about it. I think there is something about the fact that they go up on the roof and Check, and there seem to be so many different ways you can be scammed with Roofing! But you can’t sort of see what they can see… Does anybody have any horror stories, which led you to understand potential pitfalls? Or stories of good roofers, and why you trusted them? I’ve already had one set of people out to look at the roof, and there was just something really untrustworthy about them, which sounds horribly judgemental, I didn’t like the teeth sucking, and the vague grabbing of a figure of a few thousand from the air… Help!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.