In short, the answer is NO – you really do get what you pay for.
You will find that the cheapest quote often comes with more risk. If a company comes in with a really low quote, ask yourself if this is truly going to be a home upgrade, or a headache for you down the road?
This is a real story about 3 Neighbors who had contracted 2 different Ottawa roofing companies. Names have been changed to keep their identities a secret. John, David, And Jessica lived in detached homes in Ottawa’s West end. Jessica and John had been neighbors since the community was developed around 15 – 18 years prior. David had just purchased his home that winter knowing the home would need a roof in the spring.
The trio have a brief conversation about banding together to receive a group discount, they decide they should all get quotes and see which company decides to be the most competitive. Long story short, they all get quotes and share them with each other. Most quotes are comparable, however one is significantly cheaper than the others. John and Jessica immediately take out the cheapest from the list thinking it may cause headaches. David decides a roof is a just a roof and because the contractor did not want a significant deposit that David felt it safe and besides he would like to save almost $1500.00. He feels that John and Jessica may be a little over worried.
John & Jessica pick the more reputable company that offered better warranties. David went with the other company and all 3 roofs were completed in summer of 2015. Neither had any troubles with their roof, that is until the wind storm of 2018 which caused majority of Davids roof to fly off. John and Jessica’s roof did not lose any shingles, but they were not sure they could see all the way on the roof. Now, just because some shingles blew off with a wind storm does not mean David had a bad contractor, maybe some mistakes were made.
David attempted to reach his contractor to come back as the warranty he was offered was for wind was up to 110 MPH which would still be covered as the winds were below 100 KM/H let alone 110 MPH. David had a hard time reaching his contractor and the times he did he was given false promises’s. John & Jessica called their Roofing Contractor who showed up the next morning to inspect that everything was still good, which it was.
David had no choice but to end up paying John & Jessica’s contractor to provide an emergency water proofing which cost him $500.00. David was still hoping his contractor would fix the issues, 2 weeks went by and the contractor never came back, ignoring all of Davids calls. David called his insurance which sent an adjuster to investigate the damage and its cause. The adjuster found that majority of David’s shingles had been ‘high nailed’ which is poor workmanship. Insurance refused to cover the damage and David was left re doing his entire roof.
Before you hire a roofing contractor, dig deeper and ask these questions we provide
