Lots of Home Owners have difficulty with this.  There are many contractors/companies who claim to be "Approved Applicators" or "BBB accredited". This can be misleading. A contractor/company who has been approved by a manufacturer may have been approved to install their product so that the manufacturer will sell more product. The Company has been approved, but has each person who is actually installing the roof system been approved? Have they been trained? And what was involved in that training?

The BBB is a great organization, if the contractor has a complaint lodged against them, it will be noted on the BBB website and reflected in the contractors rating, but the BBB should not "Accredit"  contractors. It should simply rate them based on the complaints they receive and how those complaints are resolved. Many people do not register complaints with the BBB, so it is not always an accurate way to read a companies viability as a choice for you. An accreditation should only be made by an organization qualified to know the business it is accrediting. How can the BBB verify the training and knowledge of a roofing contractor when it is not a roofing professional? This is precisely why the RCABC is a training facility that trains roofers to receive their Red Seal Journeyman certification.

• Probably the best source of opinion of a contractor is to call the RCABC (Roofing Contractors Association of BC) or an independent roofing consultant (Like Us!) to find out what their experiences have been with that contractor (We work with roofing contractors all day, every day! So we can share our experiences with you about any contractors we have worked with or know of).
• Look for Journeyman certification (and ask to see the Journeyman's ticket! Some contractors say they have them but dont).
• Look for established company name.
• Established dedicated office - not just a residence that they work out of.
• Get references and call them.

All too often, contractors will provide you with a quote that is very minimal in detail. They do this for a reason. They want you to agree to as little detailing as possible so that they can hit you up for extras once the job gets under way. They will often use the cheapest materials (to them) and the easiest to install. This way they get the job done fast and it doesn't cost them much to put your roof on...but it costs you plenty! They know and rely on the fact that most people wont go up on their roof and if they did, they wouldn't know a good roof from a bad roof. BEWARE!

A properly written specification will deal with all of the material choices, all of the detailing, all of the insurance requirements, all of the small details that conveniently get left out of a contractors quote. It costs you money to get a spec written, but it buys you  peace of mind that all of the finer aspects of your roofing project are covered. Before you go and get pricing from a contractor, consider hiring a roof consultant to design the roof properly.

IPRC provides services mainly for large strata residential complexes, Industrial and Institutional building owners and managers, Property management agencies, School districts and municipalities, etc. We only take on single family residential projects on a case by case basis. To be blunt, this is not our bread and butter. Some of the criteria we look for when considering a single family residential project are:

• Is the home owner being taken to the cleaners? We quite often cant help but get involved in situations where a "sweet little old lady" calls and doesn't think she is getting what she is paying for. Again, its case by case.
• Does the home have a challenging roof design? We need to know that you really need us. A straight forward roof with little or no hardware or challenging design to it may be best left to a good contractor, and we can recommend some that we feel would take care of you.
• Is the building large enough to justify the cost? Our services are not free! We bring a lot to the table and we have to charge accordingly. Quite often, homeowners are already shocked by the cost of the roof and are not looking to pay for additional services. In order for us to spend time on your roof, deal with phone calls from the contractor about our reports, perform site visits while work is in progress, etc, we have to take our resources away from our other clients who may have significantly more valuable buildings that may be in the midst of having their roof replaced.

So, Please do call. If nothing else, we are more than happy to give you advice, but we may limit or decline our services based on the situation.

Beware of newly designed and unproven products. There are new types of materials coming into the market regularly that claim to be the next miracle roofing product that will last forever!

The fact is that any products longevity, no matter what type, is subject to so many other factors beyond its own composition. Manufacturers are constantly trying to grab market share by coming out with new fantastic products that will last a really long time, just like the roof you are replacing was supposed to!

Make sure the product you are being sold has been thoroughly tested and meets BC Building code requirements, CSA standards, UL testing standards, and Factory Mutual requirements. Then call the RCABC and see if has been listed on the accepted material list for RCABC guaranteed projects.