When you’re looking for a roofer for your commercial roofing project you need to find a contractor who understands the special needs of a commercial roofing project. For example it can be harder to work on a business during business hours so either the business has to be shut down for the repair or replacement or the job has to be done after conventional business hours. Is the roofer you are considering for the job willing and able to work around your schedule constrictions which might involve working weekends or evenings?
When you begin your search for a roofing contractor not only do you need to answer those questions but you also want to find someone that will do a high quality job without a lot of time delays. Going about finding someone can seem like an obstacle in itself but there are some ways to make the search easier.
Ask friends and family for referrals and try to find at least three contractors to give you written bids on your job. Before you go any further you need to make sure that the contractors you are considering are fully licensed and bonded. A simple search with the state contractor’s board will verify if your roofer is licensed and if there are any past judgments or claims against their license.
Once you select three or four roofers to place bids, you should prepare yourself for the bids to be widely varied. Roofers will have brand preferences that will vary and may factor in more or less than the next guy for a labor estimate. The more detailed a written bid is the more helpful it will be for you to see where the cost are going to be incurred. Don’t, however, select a roofer based solely on the bid price. Any low ball bids may be tempting to take, but if they are low because of poor quality workman ship it may not be worth it in the end.
As the saying goes, you generally get what you pay for, so if you can afford a mid-priced bid it’s always a good idea to go up in your price range rather than down. You also should select your roofer based on how professional they were and how comfortable you anticipate you will be working with them.
Finally your cost will vary based on what type of roofing material you choose as well as the cost to haul your old roof to the landfill. If you are looking for places to cut corners on your roof, instead of cutting labor cost you might want to ask about a metal roof option. Metal roofs can be cost effective and energy efficient making them overall money savers for the long run, and on commercial buildings they can be very low maintenance. Plus since they can be placed on top of an existing roof, you don’t need to have the old one removed and hauled away, which can make a big impact on your cost.
