Questions to ask a roofer, and the answers that should worry you
Nearly every roofing job that goes wrong gave a warning at the quote visit. The roofer wanted a signature that day, or couldn’t produce an insurance certificate. None of that is hidden. It comes out when you ask a few plain questions and listen to how they’re answered.
Below are nine questions to ask every roofer who quotes your job, with the answers you want to hear and the ones that should end the conversation. Further down are the rules that change from state to state, and what to do if you’ve already signed.
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Nine questions to ask every roofer
Ask them at the quote visit, or by email afterwards so you have the answers in writing. You’re listening for two things: whether the answer is specific, and whether the roofer minds being asked.
| Ask | A good answer | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|---|
| Can I take this estimate away and decide next week? | Yes. The price is in writing and holds for 30 days. | “This price is only good if you sign today.” |
| What’s the payment schedule? | A deposit to order materials, then the balance when the job is finished and you’ve looked at it. | “We need the full amount before we start.” |
| Where is your business based, and what’s your license number? | A street address you could drive to, and a license number you can look up, in states that license roofers. | “We’re mobile,” or a license that doesn’t match the company name. |
| Can you send me your insurance certificate? | Yes, the same day. You then call the insurer listed on it to confirm the policy is active. | Delays and excuses, or a certificate in another company’s name. |
| Why is your price lower, or higher, than my other quotes? | A specific reason, such as one layer of old shingles to remove instead of two, or a different underlayment. | “We just have lower overheads,” with nothing itemized to back it up. |
| What exactly does this price include? | A list: tear-off, underlayment by product name, flashing, vents, disposal, and a fixed price per sheet of decking. | “Everything you need,” or one line that says “new roof.” |
| What warranties do I get, and can I see them? | Two in writing: the manufacturer’s on materials and the roofer’s on workmanship, with how long each lasts. | “We stand behind our work,” with nothing on paper. |
| How did you find my house? | You asked for a quote, or a neighbor or local business referred them. | They knocked after a storm and have no local address or local reviews from before it. |
| Do you need me to sign anything about my insurance claim? | No. You deal with your insurer; the roofer gives you photos and a written estimate to send. | A form signing over your insurance benefits or letting the roofer negotiate your claim. |
One vague answer can be nerves or a long day. Two or more answers from the right-hand column from the same roofer means getting another quote, however reasonable each one sounded on its own.
Answers that should end the conversation
Five of those worrying answers have something in common: each one takes away the leverage you have as the customer. Once it’s gone, you depend entirely on the roofer’s good faith, and the whole point of comparing quotes is that you don’t have to.
Pressure to sign today is the clearest case. A roofer with steady work can let you take an estimate home for a week. “Today only” pricing exists to stop you seeing other quotes, which is exactly where problems with the scope tend to show up. If a price really expires tonight, that tells you about the sales process, not the roof.
Payment works the same way. A deposit is normal, since it pays for materials and holds your place in the schedule. The whole price before work starts is different, because it leaves you nothing to hold back if the crew never shows or leaves the job half done. Pay the balance when the job is finished and you’ve seen it. In California the law sets the limit for you: a home improvement down payment can’t be more than $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract, whichever is less.
A roofer you couldn’t find later is the third problem. No street address, a license that doesn’t check out, or an insurance certificate you can’t confirm with one phone call means there’s nobody to hold responsible if a leak appears next spring. It matters on the day, too. If an uninsured worker is hurt on your roof, the cost of that injury can end up as your problem.
The last is a request to sign over your insurance rights. An assignment of benefits lets the roofer deal with your insurer directly, bill it and pursue the claim, including in court, while you lose control of it. Florida made these agreements void for property policies issued on or after January 1, 2023, after years of disputes over how they were used. Wherever you live, you can pay a roofer from your claim settlement without signing the claim over. Talk to your insurer before you sign anything that mentions your policy, and see our guide to getting your roof paid by insurance for how to run the claim yourself.
Answers worth a second conversation
Three of the questions can turn up answers that look bad but have an innocent explanation. The test is whether a sensible follow-up question gets a straight reply.
A quote much lower than the others is the usual one. Sometimes the roofer has lower costs or wants work in a slow month. More often the scope is different: one layer of old shingles removed instead of two, felt underlayment instead of synthetic, old flashing reused instead of replaced, or no allowance for rotten decking. Put your quotes side by side, line by line, and ask the cheapest roofer to explain the gap. If they can, you may have found a good deal. If they can’t, the missing money has a way of coming back as change orders once the old roof is off.
A vague scope comes next. “Replace roof, $14,500” gives you nothing to hold anyone to. Ask for the tear-off, underlayment, flashing, vents and drip edge to be listed with product names, along with a fixed price per sheet for any decking that has to be replaced. Our guide to what a roofing estimate should include goes through every line.
Missing warranty terms are the third. You should end up with two documents: the manufacturer’s warranty on the materials, which often has to be registered by the roofer to apply in full, and the roofer’s own written warranty on the workmanship, saying how long it lasts and what voids it. A roofer who says “we stand behind our work” but won’t write it down is offering a promise you can’t enforce.
When the roofer finds you
After a hailstorm or hurricane, crews from other states arrive within days, knock on doors and offer free inspections. Some are honest companies that follow storms because that’s where the work is. Others are gone by the time the first leak shows up.
Three checks tell them apart. Is there a local address, an office or yard you could drive to, rather than a hotel and a cell number? Are there reviews from local customers dated before the storm? And will they hand over an insurance certificate you can confirm? A roofer who passes all three is a contractor who travels, and can be judged like any other. If they also push you to sign that day, or offer to handle your insurance claim, treat it as a dealbreaker.
In Texas, a roofer who offers to “take care of” your deductible is breaking state law. Our Houston roofing guide shows how this plays out after a big Gulf storm.
Rules that change by state
The questions above work anywhere. What changes is how much the law does for you, because roofing is regulated state by state. Three of the biggest roofing markets show how far apart the rules are.
| State | Roofing license | What the state adds |
|---|---|---|
| California | Required. Look it up with the Contractors State License Board. | A home improvement down payment can’t exceed $1,000 or 10% of the contract, whichever is less, and later payments can’t run ahead of the work done (CSLB). |
| Florida | Required. Look it up with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. | Assignment-of-benefits agreements are void for residential and commercial property policies issued on or after January 1, 2023 (s. 627.7152). |
| Texas | None. Texas doesn’t license roofers. | Roofers can’t waive, rebate or absorb your deductible, and can’t act as your public adjuster (Texas Department of Insurance). |
One federal rule applies everywhere. If you agree to a sale of $25 or more at your home, the Federal Trade Commission’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel, and the seller has to tell you so in writing. There’s an exception for a genuine emergency that you called the roofer about yourself, where you sign a handwritten waiver. Many states add their own cancellation rights on top.
If your state isn’t listed, search for its contractor licensing board. Most have a free license lookup that takes a couple of minutes, and many show complaints and disciplinary action against the license. In a state without roofing licenses, the questions in the table do that job instead.
If you’ve signed and something feels wrong
Start with the calendar. If you agreed to the job at your home within the last three business days, you can probably cancel under the federal Cooling-Off Rule or your state’s version of it. Cancel in writing, by email and by post if you can, and keep copies. Where the rule applies, the roofer was required to give you a cancellation form; if you never got one, that weakens their position, not yours.
Past that window, put everything in writing from now on. After any phone call about the price, the schedule or the scope, send a short email confirming what was said. It can feel pedantic, but it’s the record that counts if this turns into a dispute.
Hold back any payment you haven’t made yet until your concerns are answered, especially if work hasn’t started. If the roofer stops responding, send a written demand for a start date or a refund within a set time. After that, you can complain to your state’s contractor licensing board, where there is one, and to your state attorney general’s consumer protection office. Small claims court is often the practical route for a deposit, and a credit card payment may be recoverable through a chargeback. This is general information, not legal advice; a consumer protection attorney can tell you where you stand.
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