Sheet 09 · verification

Checking a St. Louis roofing company yourself

Everything above this sheet is public data being honest about its own limits. This is the sheet where you stop reading numbers and start verifying a company. Nine checks, ordered by how much each one tells you per minute spent, and every source is free. Three companies through this sequence is an afternoon, and it is the afternoon that decides how the next twenty years on your roof go.

1. Find the legal entity, not the trading nameSearch the Missouri Secretary of State business registration database for the name on the contract. You are looking for three things: that the entity exists, that it is in good standing, and how long the registration has been on file. A company trading under a name that belongs to no registered entity, or an entity registered a few months ago while the advertising implies a long history, is worth a direct question.
2. Get the certificate of insurance sent to you by the insurer, not by the rooferAsk for general liability and workers compensation, and ask that the agent email the certificate to you directly with your name listed as certificate holder. A PDF forwarded by the salesperson proves that a PDF exists. A certificate issued to you by the agency proves the policy was live this morning. If somebody falls off your roof and the crew turns out to be uninsured subcontractors, the exposure lands in your direction.
3. Check the municipal licence where the work will happenMissouri has no state roofing licence, so licensing here is entirely municipal and it varies by a few miles. Ballwin and Kirkwood run their own contractor licensing. St. Louis County has its own requirements. Call the building department for the municipality your house is in, give them the company name, and ask whether it is registered to pull permits there. This is a two minute phone call that almost nobody makes.
4. Ask who will physically be on the roofAsk it plainly: are the crew your employees or subcontractors, and will the person selling me this job be here on the day. Subcontracting is normal and legal and not a disqualification, but the answer determines who is accountable when something is done wrong, and a company that is evasive about it in the driveway will be worse about it when there is a problem.
5. Ask what happens when the decking is badNobody knows the condition of the boards under your shingles until the shingles are off. So the contract has to answer it in advance: what the price per sheet or per board is, whether it needs your approval before replacement, and whether you get photographs of what was found. A company that has no answer either does not replace bad decking or intends to price it on the day, standing on your roof, with your house open to the sky.
6. Get the scope in writing before anybody talks about a discountA real scope names the shingle line and colour, the underlayment, the ice and water membrane and where it goes, the drip edge, the valley method, the pipe boots, the flashing at every penetration and chimney, the ventilation being installed, the nail pattern, the tear off count, the disposal, and the clean up including magnetic sweeping. If the document is one page and one number, it is not a scope, it is a price.
7. Ask about permits before you sign, not afterIn St. Louis County a like for like asphalt reroof on a slope of four in twelve or steeper generally does not require a permit, while a shallower slope, a change of material, or replacing more than a quarter of the decking generally does. The rules differ across the river and across the county line, and municipalities layer their own requirements on top. Ask which permit this job needs, who pulls it and who pays for it. If the answer is that no permit is ever needed for a roof, that is wrong often enough to be a warning.
8. Read the payment schedule as carefully as the priceA deposit before materials are delivered is normal. A large payment demanded before any material reaches the site is not. Neither is a contract that becomes binding when a salesperson signs it rather than when you do. Look specifically for whether the document lets the company keep your deposit if you cancel, and on what notice.
9. Listen for the offers Missouri law already forbidsUnder RSMo 407.725, a roofer who offers to handle your claim is offering something Missouri law forbids a contractor to do, and the same statute forbids a roofer to advertise that it will pay your deductible or absorb any part of it. Either offer, made at your door, tells you the company is either unaware of the statute governing its own trade or unbothered by it. What a contractor may lawfully do is photograph and measure the roof, write a scope, and be on site as the contractor when the adjuster is there.

What is still invisible after all nine checks →