The May 25 hailstorms have brought waves of fly by night roofers to the Dayton, Ohio area, especially hard hit Centerville and Xenia.  These storm chasers have a reputation for shoddy work, high pressure sales tactics, and unscrupulous practices.

Conventional wisdom is to avoid using any roofing contractor that shows up uninvited at your door.  Most of the time this is good advice.  Storm chasers don’t have a local reputation, they don’t get any referrals from satisfied customers, and they are not in an area long enough for advertising to be effective. The primary way storm chasers get business is by sending high pressure salesmen to knock on doors and use scare tactics to sign up new roofing contracts. 

On the other hand, the reputable local roofing contractors are so busy they don’t need to use door to door salesmen to get new work.  Good local roofing contractors with a solid reputation for high quality work get most of their business from referrals from satisfied customers. 

With that said, there may be some instances when a reputable local roofer is working in a neighborhood and takes a few minutes to knock on the doors of neighboring houses if it looks like they may have had hail damage but have not had their roof replaced. 

The bottom line is to use your common sense in these situations.  Don’t sign a contract with the first roofer that knocks on your door.  Get their business information and check them out like you would any other business.  Look at their vehicle to see if the name of the business name and license number is painted (not just a magnetic stick on sign) on the side.  If everything checks out, then you can hire them with confidence.