Home Exteriors – Tips and Advice

When looking to hire a roofing contractor, consider these.

Is the contractor insured with liability insurance? Meaning, any contractor you are considering to have work on your property should be carrying Liability Insurance. This to give you piece of mind that if an accident occurs on your property you cannot be held liable or at fault for possible injuries or death.

Does the contractor carry WCB Insurance for Workers Compensation? Can the contractor provide you with a Workers Compensation Clearance Letter upon request? This to prove they are up to date and current with Saskatchewan WCB payments . This to protect you from having to potentially make payments on their behalf to WCB.

Consider this? Is the roofing contractor speaking to you about proper flashing, or are they putting any on at all? In the images below are examples of what may happen if you home is not being property protected.

Many of you have brick chimneys on your homes from old wood burning fireplaces. Have you had this inspected? Aside from changing the shingles have you considered having the chimney removed if it is no longer in use. Furthermore, is your existing chimney flashing in sufficient condition to protect against future issues such as roof leaks?

Are the metal flashings on the base of your roof being inspected when you are considering hiring a contractor? If these are not considered at your time of hire and before job completion, you can potentially run the risk of your roof leaking in the future causing interior damage in your attack space, your dry wall and possibly becoming a major cost to you later in the future.

Say these listed things are being reviewed to a degree, contractors may try to initially bring you a lesser quote only stating replacement of your shingles. Later though, you may be stuck with a much larger bill than initially quoted as your contractor fixes these issues during the job and does not inform you of them. Bringing the grand total of your additional quote to a much larger value.

Are you being talked to about eave protection? Ice damming is a large issue. Eave protection is a peal and stick product that protects your eaves from potential moisture issues caused by such things as ice damming. This may cause structural damage which may have been preventable in the first place.

What are signs that your roof may have been damaged due to hail? At a initial glance you are looking for discolouration on your shingles as well as small dints. Meaning the hail has taken granules off of your shingles exposing the asphalt. Look for excess granules in your eavestroughs or at the base of your down pipe where water pours out. This being more than usual as as a few granules can be normal.