Paying for a roof you did not plan on

Paying on completion

Repairs, which are most of what we do, are paid on completion by card, check or bank transfer, at the price on the written estimate. A replacement may carry a deposit as set out on the estimate, with the balance due when the work is finished. We do not ask for large cash sums up front, and you should be wary of any roofing contractor who does — particularly one who turned up on your porch after a storm.

Financing

For a full replacement, a metal roof or a roof-and-gutters package, we can connect you with third-party home-improvement financing offering fixed monthly payments. Approval, interest rates and terms are set by the lender and not by us. Ask at the estimate and we will include the details alongside your price. One piece of advice worth more than anything we could say about rates: ask for the total cost of credit over the full term, not just the monthly figure, and compare that against the cash price.

Insurance

In Montgomery County, insurance pays for a large share of roofs, because storm damage is a covered peril and this county sits in Dixie Alley. What it does not pay for is age, wear, deterioration or a leak that has been running for a year. Two parts of your policy decide what you actually receive. First, your wind and hail deductible, which in Tennessee is frequently a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat sum — one or two percent, so $3,000 to $6,000 on a $300,000 dwelling limit. Second, whether the roof is covered at replacement cost or actual cash value, the latter paying the depreciated figure and nothing more. Read both lines on your declarations page before a storm rather than after. See the insurance guide.

Your deductible

You pay it. Tennessee law requires that you do, and a contractor offering to absorb it, waive it, or make it disappear into the scope is proposing something that is a problem for you as well as for them. It is also one of the most reliable warning signs there is about how a company operates generally. We will not offer it and we would be sceptical of anyone who does.

Timing and phasing

If the roof has a few years left and money is the constraint, say so. There is often a sensible middle path: repair the failed details now, correct the ventilation so the remaining years are not shortened further, and plan the replacement for a year you choose rather than one a storm chooses for you. We will give you an honest estimate of remaining life so you can make that call with real information.

Reports and letters

When a lender, a buyer, an insurer or a landlord wants a written opinion on a roof's condition, we will write it with photographs for a flat fee, credited against any work that follows. For VA loan certifications in particular, ask your lender for their exact wording requirement before we write it, so the document does what it needs to first time.