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.
Thousands of Ohio homeowners in Fort Collins CO and the surrounding areas are faced with the task of choosing a roofing contractor to repair or replace their hail damaged roofs. The hail storms that hit the area in May and June caused widespread damage to roofs throughout the area and homeowners have been scrambling to find a good roofer to handle the repairs to their roofs.
Unfortunately, a large number of “storm chasers” have moved into the area and are busy going door to door soliciting roofing work. Storm chasers are roofers from out of state who move around the country like gypsies, traveling from one storm ravaged area to the next, undercutting the local roofers, then moving on when the work runs out, too many disgruntled customers begin to complain, or their creditors catch up with them.
To be fair, some storm chasers are good roofers, but the majority of storm chasers either do poor quality work or are just downright dishonest. When you use a storm chaser to replace your asphalt shingle roof, you are taking a significant risk that the roofer will either simply disappear with your money or, if they hang around and install a new roof, they will do a poor job and the roof will start leaking with the next heavy rainfall.
Your roof is too important to take this risk. When you choose a roofing contractor for an asphalt shingle roof replacement, try to pick a contractor with a permanent local office. Ask to see proof of workman’s compensation insurance and liability insurance. Ask for references and check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they have a history of unresolved complaints.
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