A roofing company telling you how to choose a roofing company is not a neutral document. Read it with that in mind.
What we have tried to do is make every test in here one you can apply to us as easily as to anyone else, and one you can verify without taking our word for it. If a criterion only works when it points at Dignity, it does not belong in an article like this.
Finding a good roofer is hard for a structural reason. It is a trade where the work is invisible from the ground, the failure shows up years later, and the homeowner usually only buys twice in a lifetime. That combination is what makes it possible for bad operators to survive. Here is how to filter them out.
The three-question version
If you do nothing else, ask these three. They are quick, the answers are checkable, and almost everything else follows from them.
- Can I see your WorkSafeBC clearance letter and your liability insurance certificate?
- Will the person quoting this job be on the crew that does it?
- What happens, in dollars, if the deck turns out to be soft once the old roof is off?
None of those three are difficult questions for a legitimate roofer. That is exactly why they work. You are not testing knowledge, you are testing whether the answers come readily.
What licensed and insured actually means
Every roofing company in British Columbia describes itself as licensed and insured, including the ones you should avoid. The phrase does less work than people assume, so it is worth knowing what sits behind it.
Roofing is not a compulsory-certification trade here in the way electrical and gas work are. There is no provincial ticket a person must hold to install a roof. So “licensed” almost always means the company holds a municipal business licence, which is a low bar and says nothing about craftsmanship.
The checks that do mean something are the ones you can verify independently:
WorkSafeBC clearance letter
This is the important one and the one people skip. It confirms the contractor is registered with WorkSafeBC and current on their premiums. If they are not and someone is injured on your property, you can be exposed. Any established company can produce this within minutes.
Certificate of liability insurance
Ask for the certificate rather than a verbal assurance, and check the expiry date on it. Coverage that lapsed in March is not coverage.
A real, findable business
A yard or an address, a landline or a number that has been the same for years, a business licence for the municipality they operate from. Storm-chasing outfits fail this test quietly: the phone works fine in September and is disconnected by February.
What a real estimate contains
This is the single most useful filter, because it is objective. A proper estimate is itemised and should include all of the following:
- A line-itemed scope of work, not a single figure
- Material specification naming the manufacturer and product line
- The labour component, stated separately
- Disposal and tipping costs
- Permit costs where the municipality requires one
- Workmanship and material warranties, listed separately
- A start date and a realistic duration
- A stated per-sheet rate for replacing decking if the deck is soft
That last line is the one that separates careful roofers from optimistic ones. Nobody can see the sheathing until the old roof is off, so it is the one genuine unknown in any quote. A contractor who has priced it in advance has thought about it. One who has not will be having an awkward conversation with you on day two. There is more on this in our 2026 cost guide.
The red flags
None of these are proof of bad faith on their own. Two or more together is a pattern.
- 01
They knocked on your door after a storm
Not automatically disqualifying, but the burden of proof goes up. Storm-chasing roofers move through a region after wind events, work fast, and are gone before the first winter tests the work. Ask how long they have been operating locally and where their yard is.
- 02
The price is only good today
Roofing materials and labour do not reprice hourly. A discount that expires when you close the door is a pressure tactic, not a price. A real quote is still valid next week.
- 03
One number, no breakdown
If the quote is a single figure with no scope, you cannot compare it to anything, and you have no reference point when the number changes halfway through the job.
- 04
They want a large deposit up front
A deposit against materials is normal. Paying a substantial share of the total before anything has been delivered or started is not, and it is the most common way homeowners lose money in this trade.
- 05
They offered to roof over your existing shingles
It is faster and cheaper for the roofer. It also hides the deck so nobody can assess it, adds weight, and shortens the life of what you just paid for.
- 06
The diagnosis came from the driveway
Moss is the classic version of this. If someone quotes a full replacement without getting on the roof and checking what is happening under the shingle edges, they are selling rather than diagnosing.
Questions worth asking on site
Beyond the three at the top, these separate roofers who have thought about your specific roof from ones reciting a script.
- What is the ventilation like in the attic, and does it need correcting?
- Are you reusing any of the existing flashing, and if so, which?
- What underlayment are you using, and where does the self-adhered membrane go?
- Who is on site each day, and who do I call if something goes wrong?
- What does your workmanship warranty actually cover, and for how long?
- Can I see a job you did five years ago rather than last month?
The last one is worth insisting on. Any roof looks good the week it goes on. A roof that still looks right after five Lower Mainland winters tells you something about the detailing.
How to read the reviews
Reviews are useful, but the star average is the least informative part of them. A few things are worth more.
Read the recent ones. A company that was excellent four years ago may have grown, changed crews, or started subcontracting. The last six months tell you who you will actually get.
Look for specifics. “Great job, highly recommend” could be about anything. A review that names the crew, describes the problem or mentions what went wrong and how it was handled is worth ten generic ones.
Read the owner responses. How a company answers a critical review tells you what happens when something goes wrong on your roof, which is the situation you actually want information about.
And be a little suspicious of perfection. A contractor with a hundred reviews and not one below five stars either has a remarkable record or has been managing which customers get asked. Both are possible.
What we would want you to ask us
It would be a poor article if we listed a set of tests and exempted ourselves. So, specifically:
Ask us for the WorkSafeBC clearance letter and the insurance certificate. Ask whether the person who quoted your roof is on the crew. Ask what our per-sheet decking rate is before you sign, and check it is written on the estimate. Ask what the workmanship warranty covers and where it ends.
Ask us to show you a roof we did five years ago rather than last month. And ask us about a job that went wrong, because every roofing company that has been operating for any length of time has had one, and the ones who claim otherwise are not being straight with you.
The reason we can write this without flinching is that our normal process already answers most of it. The site visit is free, the estimate is free and itemised, and a good share of the time our answer is that the roof does not need replacing yet. That is not a marketing position, it is just what happens when you get on enough roofs.
If you are still working out whether you need work at all, start with the seven warning signs. If someone has told you the moss means a new roof, read this first.
Free site visit
Apply the list to us
Free site visit, a straight answer on what the roof needs, and a free itemised estimate within 24 hours if it needs anything. Bring the questions. Serving Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Delta and the wider Lower Mainland.
Common questions
Three things you can verify independently. Ask for a WorkSafeBC clearance letter, which confirms they are registered and in good standing on their premiums. Ask for a certificate of liability insurance and check the dates. And ask for the municipal business licence for the city they are based in. A contractor who hesitates on any of the three is telling you something.
Not in the way electrical or gas work is. There is no provincial trade ticket a person must hold to install a roof here, so when a company says it is "licensed" it usually means it holds a municipal business licence. That is worth knowing, because it means the meaningful checks are insurance, WorkSafeBC standing and evidence of actual work, rather than the word licensed on its own.
Ask whether the person quoting will be on the crew doing the work. Ask what happens, specifically and in dollars, if the deck turns out to be soft once the old covering is off. Ask what the workmanship warranty covers and how it differs from the manufacturer's material warranty. Those three answers tell you most of what you need to know.
Two or three is plenty, and they only mean something if each one is itemised. Comparing three single-figure quotes tells you nothing except which contractor guessed lowest, and the lowest guess is often the one that discovers extra costs once the roof is open.
Sometimes, but check what is different before assuming so. Common reasons one quote comes in well under the others: a roof-over instead of a tear-off, reusing existing flashing, a lighter shingle, no allowance for decking, or no ventilation work. Those are not savings, they are things removed from the scope.
A deposit against materials is standard practice and reasonable. What is not reasonable is paying a large proportion of the job total before materials have been delivered or any work has begun. Ask what the deposit is specifically for and when the balance falls due.