Roofers in Iowa City
- Thread starter augiehawk
- Start date
A: I'd just hit Google/Yellow Pages/BBB for local options. Get bids from at least 2-3 guys. I chose a local guy nearby out here (CO) because he had good recommendations, was the first to come out to bid the project, and was really responsive answering questions. Ask about 'cleanup', because there will be roofing nails everywhere. My contractor did a really good job cleaning up, as although I did find some nails in the back yard, many fell into my Virginia creeper/arbor and worked their way through that. I borrowed a rolling magnet thing from a friend and scanned the driveway/front yard and maybe found 1 or 2 more, which is pretty good because they'll never get all of them. There were none in my driveway.
B: Consider upgrading to the hail-resistant shingles; it'll save you a 100-200 hundred bucks a year on your homeowners insurance and will likely pay for the added cost in <5-7 years.
Nearly ALL the bids you are going to get will be for the 'basic' shingle product, because everyone wants to come in with the lowest bid.
Ask each of them to price out that basic bid, along with the itemized cost of the shingle product AND an itemized bid to upgrade to hail-resistant shingles. I think the product my roofer used was StormMaster, and was one of the ones recommended by my insurance company.
Did my roof a couple years ago, and it was only an additional $800-900 (about 10% more) to go with the better shingles. When you are spending that much on the labor, etc, it makes sense to consider putting more durable shingles on. IF you can afford it and IF you plan to stay in the house a few years and get the insurance breaks.
EDIT: Just wondering how long it'll be until the parody "Roofies in Iowa City" post here....
A
anon_89hvcc2uyzmki
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All I can tell you is I would definitely work off of recommendations from people you trust and go with somebody local and reputable. Roofs are expensive. Sucks enough having to put one on. Do it right and make it suck a little less.
A few years ago we had a new roof installed and I used Eastern Iowa Construction of Marion. I would be surprised if they don't service Iowa City.
You may hear some bad things about them, especially from other roofing contractors. I checked with the state attorney general's office before hiring them. There were many lawsuits involving them....but every one was instigated by them for non-payment. There was a single complaint about them, and it was that nobody on the crew spoke English.
In fact, they have at least one guy with every crew who speaks English. I was extremely pleased with the work they did, both the quality and the speed. The clean-up was fast and total; when they left, there was no indication they had been there except a new roof. I had a follow-up problem that turned out to be unrelated to what they did, but they dealt with it, anyway.
If Roof Rider is unavailable or too busy, I'd go with Eastern Iowa Construction. Used both in the past with good results.
Same w/ the crew I had out here in CO; none of them spoke English, but they worked their butts off and were very thorough with cleanup.
Their last day working (a Saturday), I ordered up 3-4 large pizzas for them and set up lunch for them out on my front porch. Cost me a whopping $30 (out of a roofing contract that was around $9-10k). They even cleaned all the boxes and trash up after finishing them....
Something that most people never think of when hiring a contractor at home, but it could possibly be very important if there is a problem...ask for a valid Certificate of Insurance from the contractor and I personally would not let someone on my roof without that in hand in advance.
For a legitimate, reputable contractor, this should be no problem...for someone that perhaps may not be carrying worker's compensation insurance for "their" employees for instance...don't be surprised if they tell you that they/you don't need it, etc.
Without the contractor being properly insured though...if a worker gets hurt at your place, then at a minimum you are in for a real hairball and you may, or technically your homeowner's insurance company, be in for an expensive resolution.
For a legitimate, reputable contractor, this should be no problem...for someone that perhaps may not be carrying worker's compensation insurance for "their" employees for instance...don't be surprised if they tell you that they/you don't need it, etc.
Without the contractor being properly insured though...if a worker gets hurt at your place, then at a minimum you are in for a real hairball and you may, or technically your homeowner's insurance company, be in for an expensive resolution.
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