What to Know When Hiring a Roofing Contractor

How do you know what roofing contractor to hire when you want a new roof installation or roofing repair?

You’ve got plenty of contractors to choose from in Los Angeles County and across the San Gabriel Valley.

Read through these major considerations outlined and then check Garvey Roofing, a locally-owned contractor that has repaired and installed roofs for homeowners and commercial building operators for over 30 years.

You want to know a contractor’s:

Quality of work
Timeliness in completing the job
Long-term customer satisfaction

What’s tough is that you can’t always know a tradesperson’s work ahead of time and you usually can’t watch to know if workers are cutting corners. What can you do?

Referrals

Get referrals from friends who know of roofing contractors and the work they’ve done. That’s a good firt step.

Roofing Capabilities

The next step is to know their capabilities as roofers.

Did you ever think of how many different types of homes are in the San Gabriel Valley?

Look at all the historic bungalow-style homes in Pasadena and Monrovia, plus apartments, churches, and warehouses. In Pasadena alone, there are blocks of homes now around 100 years old north and south of Washington Boulevard and to the east near Pasadena High School there’s suburbia.

Garvey Roofing has roofed all those types of homes—from the most historic buildings to the most modern residences and to commercial buildings with internal drains.

Thomas Garvey’s team has also re-roofed homes in Heritage Square, the collection of historic homes north of downtown LA and just off the 110 freeway.

Preparation

Thomas Garvey has been roofing homes in the San Gabriel Valley for over 30 years. He studies building science and knows how the latest roofing materials impact a structure and affects important issues like ventilation.

Garvey Roofing has four licenses to handle roofing issues including fireproofing and general contracting.

Customer Satisfaction

Your goals play an important role in answering questions like, “Do I need a new roof or roof repair?”

Thomas Garvey will assess the current condition of your roof. There are simple ways you can do this, too, like checking for shingles that are curled at the edges and checking gutters for granules that wash in.

Consider this:

How long do you plan on living in your home or owning your commercial building?

If you have a slight leak and you only plan to stay a few more years before selling then you can likely get a roof repaired to stop the leak, depending on the location and severity. It’s important to know the health of the decking. The softer the decking is the more likely it needs replaced, too.

Shingle Roofs in Altadena – Image by Don Simkovich

If you plan on staying in your home or owning your building for the next decade or longer, then getting a new roof installed with the newest roofing materials has important benefits like: