How to Choose a Roofing Contractor in St. Louis

Choosing a roofer is a sequencing problem more than a research problem. Homeowners typically start by gathering three prices, then try to work out which company they trust, which means they are attempting to judge credibility while emotionally anchored to a number. Do it the other way around: qualify companies first, then take estimates only from the ones that passed. This page walks the process in the order that actually protects you.

Step One: Decide Whether This Is an Emergency

The process below assumes you have time. If water is actively entering your house, you do not - and the correct move is a temporary tarp or emergency dry-in to stop the damage, followed by the full process afterward once the house is protected. Do not let an active leak pressure you into signing a full replacement contract on the same visit. Emergency mitigation and a roof replacement are two separate decisions, and a reputable company will treat them that way. This is why we run 24/7 emergency service - the point of it is to buy you the time to make the second decision properly.

Step Two: Build a Shortlist Before Anyone Quotes You

Assemble four or five candidate companies from sources with some accountability behind them: neighbors who have had work done in the last few years, your insurance agent if you are on a claim, your local municipality's permit records, and manufacturer contractor locators. Be more skeptical of the top paid search result and of anyone who knocked on your door after a storm.

Then reduce the list to three before any of them writes you a number, using the verification steps on our contractor verification page. Filtering on qualifications while you are still unattached to a price is much easier than trying to do it afterward.

Step Three: Have Each One Actually Inspect the Roof

An estimate produced without anyone getting on the roof is a guess. There are exceptions on genuinely unsafe pitches, where drone imagery is the professional choice, but a contractor who neither climbs it nor flies it is pricing from the curb.

While they are up there, note what they come back with. A contractor doing this properly returns with photographs of specific conditions - a lifted shingle course, a failed pipe boot gasket, rusted step flashing at a wall, granule loss concentrated on the storm-facing slope, soft decking at a particular spot. A contractor doing it improperly returns with a general verdict and a price.

Step Four: Compare Scope, Not Price

This is where most homeowners lose money, and it is almost always because three estimates are quietly describing three different jobs. Build a comparison across these lines:

• Tear-off versus overlay. Is the old roof coming off, or is this a layover on top of existing shingles? A layover is cheaper and shorter-lived, and many municipalities restrict it.
• Decking. Is replacement of rotted decking included at a stated per-sheet price, or is it an open-ended change order?
• Underlayment. Synthetic or felt, and is ice-and-water shield specified in the valleys and at the eaves?
• Flashing. New step and counter flashing at walls and chimneys, or reuse of existing? Reused flashing is one of the most common sources of a leak on a brand-new roof.
• Ventilation. Is intake and exhaust ventilation being corrected, or is the new roof going on over the same inadequate ventilation that shortened the last one?
• Penetrations. New pipe boots, or painted-over old ones?
• Cleanup and disposal. Dumpster, magnetic nail sweep, and landscaping protection - stated or assumed?
• Permit. Included in the price or billed to you later?

Put the three estimates in a column each and fill in those eight rows. Price differences that looked arbitrary usually become obvious.

Step Five: Settle the Money Structure Before You Sign

Roofing payment structure is where homeowners get exposed. Reasonable practice in this market is a modest deposit, with the balance due on completion. A contractor asking for the full amount up front, or for a deposit large enough to cover the whole material order plus labor, is asking you to finance their business and carry all the risk.

If you are on an insurance claim, understand the two-payment structure before you sign anything: carriers typically release actual cash value first and the depreciation holdback only after the work is complete and documented. A contractor who promises to "waive your deductible" is describing insurance fraud, and in a claim dispute you are the one on the policy.

Get the payment schedule, the total, and what triggers each payment written into the contract. If financing is part of the plan, get the roof price in writing before the financing conversation, so you can see the cost of the roof separately from the cost of the money.

Step Six: Read the Contract for the Four Things People Skip

1. The scope, restated. Everything from step four should appear in the contract. Verbal promises that did not make it onto paper do not exist.
2. The workmanship warranty document. Not a sentence in the contract - the actual warranty, with its exclusions and transfer terms.
3. The change-order mechanism. How are discoveries like rotted decking priced, and do they require your written approval before the work happens?
4. The right to cancel. Know the cancellation window and how to exercise it, particularly if you signed at your kitchen table after a door knock.

Step Seven: Set Expectations for Install Day

Before the crew arrives, confirm the start date and the realistic duration, who your on-site point of contact is, what time work starts and stops, where the dumpster goes, and what you need to move or cover in the attic and garage. A typical St. Louis residential replacement runs one to three days depending on the size and complexity of the roofline; older homes in Webster Groves, Kirkwood and University City with steep, cut-up rooflines take longer than newer subdivision homes in St. Charles County.

Ask how the company handles rain mid-job. The answer should involve a plan for drying the roof in, not improvisation.

A Note on Doing This With Us

We are one of the three estimates, not the arbiter of the process. What we will commit to is the part homeowners tell us they find hardest to get: we go on the roof, we photograph what we find, the estimate is itemized, the limited lifetime workmanship warranty document is available to read before you talk to us, and if the roof does not need replacing our written report says so. We have been family-run in this market since 1947 and the reason we are still here is that the last recommendation is one we actually make.

Common Questions