Montana storm damage, we don’t know when a weather event is going to take place or where, but we do know that dwellings sustain roofing damage from storms each year.
Some home owners have been through many storm restoration claims and are experts. Others, have never had a storm restoration claim and don’t know where to start. Our goal is to give both the expert, and the beginner three questions you need to ask your storm restoration contractor, so that you can rest assured you are getting a quality roof to last for decades.
1: What Roofing System Do You Install?
Most home owners never ask this question and some roofers never want them to. It is important to understand why this is number one on the list and why this question needs to be asked. We arrived to a storm damaged area and the neighbor of our client had shingles in the yard and were ready to have their new roof installed, paid for by insurance. The shingles were the exact same shingles we were using, high quality, built to last. The rest of the materials, as cheap as could be found. It is common for a home owner to ask about shingles or shingle color, but not the Roofing System. Your basic roofing system in Montana consists of 6 main components: Ice and water shield, felt, starter strip, shingles, attic ventilation, and cap shingles. The shingles are the most expensive material, but are followed closely by the underlayments, which are the most common materials to be low quality, or where corners get cut. This is most likely because after install day, you will never see the underlayments again, until you have an issue or it is time for the roof to be replaced. The underlayments are immensely important because they are largely responsible for keeping water out of your home. You know why, and now here is the technical knowledge you need to have in order to determine if the roofing contractor is going to install a quality roofing system. With all materials, you want to know the brand of the products they are using. We recommend a high temperature ice and water shield and for the felt layer we suggest that synthetic is used. If your roofing contractor is installing a high temperature ice and water shield and a synthetic underlayment, you can rest assured the roofing system is quality.
2: What is Your Process?
Process is important. You want to know what the process and what the timeline is going to be before selecting your contractor. Make sure you understand how and when things are going to take place. Here is our Storm Restoration process so you can compare:
- Contact: We will get on an intro call and learn about the damages you noticed and understand your unique property and situation.
- Consultation: We perform a through inspection of your property, as if we were the insurance adjuster. The complete inspection is documented and you will receive a full photo inspection with notes for your for your records.
- Collaboration: If there were any damages not documented by the insurance adjuster, we will work with your insurance company to make sure all damages are accounted for prior to work starting.
- Construction: We will go over expectation’s for material delivery and the day(s) of construction will look like. Most roofs will be completed within 1-2 days. You can sit back and breathe easy.
- Clean up: We inspect your roof and ensure your property is as clean as we found it.
3: Are You Certified With Your Shingle Manufacturer?
Most shingle manufacturing companies have a certification program and certified installers are vetted and able to offer better warranties. For example, Montana Roofing Solutions is Certified through GAF and have Factory Trained Installers allowing us to offer the 50 year Systems Plus Warranty. A great part two of this question is ‘how long is the labor warranty’? Common labor warranties range from 5-15 years.
If you have storm damage in Montana and don’t know where to start, Contact us, and our expert team will be happy to help.