People type “John Beal Roofing Yelp” because they want a second opinion on a company before they let anyone on the roof. That is a fair search. What they land on, today, is a Yelp listing for John Beal Roofing in Maryland Heights that shows a 2.5-star average from 93 reviews. Under that number is a second pile Yelp labels, in its own words, “100 other reviews that are not currently recommended.” We captured both of those screens on October 19, 2026. They are on this page so you can see what we saw, not a paraphrase.
This article is not a storm report and it is not a sales pitch for a shingle line. It is John Beal Roofing’s opinion about how Yelp treats this company. We think it is unfair, and we think it has been unfair for years, because those filtered reviews are not a handful of leftovers. They are a hundred write-ups, spanning 2013 through 2026 in the screenshots below, and most of the ones we captured are five stars. Yelp has not told us why they sit outside the 2.5. We do not advertise on Yelp. We cannot think of another reason.
What Yelp showed on October 19, 2026
The public listing at yelp.com/biz/john-beal-roofing-maryland-heights is a claimed page. On the day we took these screenshots it showed the business name John Beal Roofing, categories Roofing and Gutter Services, a “Claimed” badge, and hours listed as open 24 hours. The rating line read 2.5 from 93 reviews. That is the number a stranger sees first. It is also the number that gets copied into Google results when someone searches John Beal Roofing Yelp.
Scroll past the recommended reviews and Yelp itself prints a second count. Our screenshot of the pager shows pages 1 through 9 and, directly under that, the sentence “100 other reviews that are not currently recommended.” That is Yelp’s label, not ours. Those 100 reviews are not in the 2.5. They are not in the 93. They live in a drawer on the same page.
The hundred reviews Yelp is not putting in the average
We did not invent the contents of that drawer. We opened it and photographed it. The heading on those screens is the same on every page we captured: “100 reviews for John Beal Roofing that are not currently recommended.” The write-ups underneath are named customers, with dates, with star graphics Yelp drew next to their names. Harley S. on February 18, 2021. Amy L. on December 9, 2020. Suzanne A. on October 1, 2020. Mary K. on September 26, 2020. Tim C. on September 4, 2020. Marci B. on July 12, 2020. Michael P. on July 8, 2020. Those seven sit on one screen. Each one shows five filled stars.
The next screens are not a different story. Gini F. on July 13, 2021. Belinda Z. on July 3, 2021. Matthew B. on June 5, 2021. Robert S. on May 17, 2021. David E. on May 8, 2021. Kim W. on May 3, 2021. Dale L. on April 22, 2021. Five stars next to every name on that capture. Chris H., C A H., Jerrie H., LuAnn W., Tod M., Brenda M., Aaries W. on later 2021 dates, again five stars. Michael O., Daniel S., Sue L., Andrew H., Julie M., Shirley H., Howard H. in 2022, five stars. Mark W., Keith M., Sonie A., Renee A., Scott W., Francine Z., Liz L. in 2022, five stars. Nancy C. in 2023, Kevin W. in 2023, Vicki P., Joseph R., George H., Kenya A., Russ A. — five stars. D E. on May 6, 2026. Penny L. on July 8, 2025. Matt T. on March 7, 2025. Gary G. on February 20, 2025. Chet P. on September 20, 2024. Mike M. on September 12, 2024. Richard S. on July 22, 2026. Five stars on Richard S., written this year, sitting in the same not-recommended drawer.
The filter is not a pile of one-star complaints
If Yelp were only setting aside attacks, the drawer would look like attacks. It does not. The screenshots include four-star reviews too. Venoria D. on April 30, 2021, four stars: “My roof look fantastic it was worth the wait.” Carol C. on April 10, 2013, four stars: Tim came out the same day. Those are not one-star piles. They are still under the heading “not currently recommended.” A four-star review that says the roof looks fantastic is not being counted in the 2.5 we are asked to explain when someone searches John Beal Roofing Yelp.
We are not going to pretend every sentence in that drawer is a hymn. C A H. on October 1, 2021, still five stars in the filtered list, wrote that gutter workers took photos without permission and that the company was impressive overall anyway. Gary G. on February 20, 2025, five stars, noted a delay in material delivery. Kenya A. on November 3, 2022, five stars, described a later storm repair after a 2019 job. Those are real notes from real jobs. They are also five-star reviews Yelp is not putting into the 2.5. That is the part we object to.
Our opinion, said plainly. John Beal Roofing thinks Yelp is treating this company unfairly, and has for many years, by keeping a hundred reviews — most of them five stars in the screenshots we have — out of the rating a stranger sees first. We do not advertise on Yelp. We cannot think of another reason they would hide hundreds of reviews like that. That last sentence is our opinion. Yelp has not told us that. We are saying what we think.
Why we think advertising is the reason
Yelp runs a business. Businesses sell ads. We do not buy ads on Yelp. We have not bought them. We do not plan to. A company that does not pay Yelp still has a public listing, and that listing still shows a number. On ours, the number is 2.5 from 93, with 100 more reviews parked under “not currently recommended.” We have looked at that split for years. We have not been given a better explanation than the one we already hold: we are not advertisers, and the five-star write-ups keep landing in the drawer.
We are not a lawyer’s letter and we are not a Yelp press release. We cannot see Yelp’s recommendation software from the inside. We can see the output. The output, on October 19, 2026, was a 2.5 built from 93 reviews and a second list of 100 that Yelp will show you only if you go looking for it. When a homeowner types John Beal Roofing Yelp, they get the 2.5. They do not get Harley S., or Sue L. telling people to call John Beal Roofing, or Kevin W. describing 89 villa roofs in Chesterfield, unless they open the not-recommended list. That is the unfairness, in our view.
If Yelp has a different reason, they have not put it on that listing in a sentence a customer can read next to the 2.5. Until they do, our opinion stays what it is. We do not advertise there. We cannot think of another reason they would hide a hundred reviews, year after year, while five-star jobs from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 sit in the same filtered stack.
How we want a homeowner to read a Yelp page
Read the 2.5. Then open the list Yelp labeled not currently recommended. Count the stars on the names. Read the dates. Richard S. is July 22, 2026. D E. is May 6, 2026. Those are not leftover reviews from a decade ago that someone forgot to delete. They are current. Then decide whether a 2.5 that does not include them is the whole story of John Beal Roofing on Yelp.
We also want you to read the reviews we did not write. Some of the filtered five-stars name people who still work here: Vincent Pavia, Tara Dixon, Phil Hogan, Greg, Brianna, Nate, Megan, Bri Puni, Lucas. A rating that drops those write-ups out of the average is, in our opinion, a rating that is not describing the company a neighbor actually hired.
Do not take this page as a demand that you ignore every complaint on Yelp. Read those too. We have been family-run since 1947. We still answer 1-800-564-6232 at night. We still send our own crews. A long company collects real criticism. What we will not do is pretend the 2.5 is the full record when Yelp’s own page is holding a hundred other reviews to the side.
Where else to read John Beal Roofing reviews
If you searched John Beal Roofing Yelp because you wanted proof from people who already had the work done, look at more than one shelf. Our Google reviews are collected on our reviews page. Job pages on this site name the city, the ZIP and the materials. The Roof Report is where we publish the long answers, including what happens on a roof insurance claim. None of that replaces a Yelp page. It is the rest of the record Yelp is not putting next to the 2.5.
John Beal Roofing is still the same company on a Saturday night leak that it is on a five-star write-up Yelp filed under not recommended. Call 1-800-564-6232. We will come look at the roof. We will not ask you to take our word for a rating. We will ask you to look at the screenshots on this page, then look at the house in front of you, and decide who you want on it.
Frequently asked questions
Why does John Beal Roofing show 2.5 stars on Yelp?
On October 19, 2026, Yelp displayed 2.5 stars from 93 reviews on the claimed John Beal Roofing listing in Maryland Heights. On the same page Yelp counted 100 other reviews as not currently recommended. In our screenshots, most of those 100 are five-star reviews. It is John Beal Roofing’s opinion that the 2.5 is unfair because those reviews are not in the average.
What does “not currently recommended” mean on the John Beal Roofing Yelp page?
It is Yelp’s heading, not ours. The listing showed “100 other reviews that are not currently recommended” under the pager. Those reviews are visible if you open that section. They are not counted in the 2.5 from 93 reviews. We photographed the heading and the reviews so you can see the split.
Does John Beal Roofing advertise on Yelp?
No. We do not advertise on Yelp. Our opinion is that Yelp has treated John Beal Roofing unfairly for years by keeping hundreds of five-star ratings out of the overall rating, and that the reason is that we do not advertise there. Yelp has not told us that. We cannot think of another reason.
Are all of the filtered Yelp reviews five stars?
No. Honesty matters here. The screenshots include four-star reviews, including Venoria D. on April 30, 2021, and Carol C. on April 10, 2013. Most of the named reviews we captured in that list show five stars, including Richard S. on July 22, 2026. We are not claiming the drawer is only five stars. We are saying Yelp is not putting those reviews into the 2.5.
Is this page a fact sheet or an opinion?
Both, and the line is marked. The 2.5, the 93, the 100, the dates, the names and the star graphics are what Yelp showed on October 19, 2026, and the screenshots are on this page. The claim that Yelp is treating John Beal Roofing unfairly because we do not advertise is our opinion.