Did Someone Actually Walk the Roof Before Quoting It?

Plenty of estimates get written from a satellite image and a phone call. That is fine for a ballpark. It is not fine for a number you are being asked to sign.

Somebody has to see the decking, the flashing at the chimney, the condition of the valleys, and whatever is going on where the addition meets the original house. That last one is where Merrimack Valley homes hide their problems. A lot of the housing stock around Haverhill, Methuen, Plaistow and Kingston has been added onto twice, and the seams between old and new are where water gets in.

What Does the Warranty Actually Cover, and for How Long?

This is the question that separates estimates fastest, because there are two warranties on every roof and people routinely think they have one when they have the other.

The manufacturer warranty covers the shingle. If the product fails, the manufacturer makes it right. The workmanship warranty covers the install. If the roof leaks because of how it was put on, that is on the contractor, and the manufacturer will not touch it.

A roof almost never fails because the shingle was defective. It fails at the flashing, the valleys, the vents, the places where the install matters. So the workmanship number is the one to read carefully.

Ask for both in writing. Ask what voids them. Ask who honors the workmanship warranty if the company changes hands.

Is the Crew Certified by the Manufacturer Whose Shingle Is Going on Your Roof?

Most homeowners read manufacturer certification as a marketing badge. It is closer to a permission slip.

Shingle manufacturers reserve their strongest warranty coverage for installers they have certified, because the manufacturer is the one on the hook when a bad install fails. Hire an uncertified crew and you can end up with a good shingle carrying a weaker warranty than the same shingle would have had two houses down.

So the question is specific. Not "are you certified," but "are you certified by the manufacturer of the shingle you are quoting me."

Who Is Handling the Flat and Low-Slope Sections?

Almost every older house around here has one. A porch roof, a shed dormer, the ell off the back, a section over the garage. It runs at a pitch shallow enough that shingles will not shed water properly, so it needs a membrane instead.

Flat and low-slope work is a different trade with different materials and different failure modes. A crew that does beautiful shingle work can still get a low-slope section wrong, and you will not find out until the first February thaw.

Ask directly what goes on that section and who installs it.

How Long Will the Crew Be at Your House?

Timeline is where estimates quietly diverge. A three-day job and a one-day job cost the same to you on paper. They do not cost the same in disruption, in weather exposure, or in how long your house sits with the decking open.

That last part matters more than people expect. Every day a roof is open is a day a surprise rain shower can put water in your ceiling.

Ask how many people will be on the roof and how many days they expect to be there. Ask what happens if it rains halfway through.

What Happens to Your Yard?

Unglamorous, and the thing homeowners bring up most after the fact.

A tear-off produces a startling amount of debris. Old shingles, nail heads, staples, torn underlayment, and it all comes off the roof and lands somewhere. Somewhere is your lawn, your flower beds, your driveway, and the strip of grass where your kid plays.

Ask what the cleanup process is. Ask specifically whether they run a magnet over the lawn and the driveway, because loose roofing nails in grass are the part people are still finding in October.

Who Picks Up the Phone in February?

The roof gets installed once. Everything after that is service, and service is where the roofing industry loses people.

New England gives you a specific version of this problem. Ice dams form when heat escapes into the attic, melts the snow above it, and the water refreezes at the cold eave. Then it backs up under the shingles. It happens in the middle of winter, it happens fast, and it does not care that the roof is only four years old.

So ask who you call. Ask whether they do ice dam and snow removal themselves or hand it to somebody else. Ask what the number is at six in the morning.