Often times, our customers receive multiple bids from Salem roofing companies on their projects (as they should), and they tell us that there are some roofers who have bid their job at an exceptionally low price. Everyone wants to save a buck where they can, but value truly matters when it comes to hiring roofers in Salem. We’ll start with the obvious reasons why:
Usually, even a “cheap” roofing bid will be within a couple thousands dollars of the average bid. If most of your bids came in right around $10,000 and you have a bid that’s coming in around $7,000, you have to ask where they are cutting corners to keep prices that low. Are they using low quality materials? Are their laborers trained properly? Are they licensed and insured? Will they roof up to code? How about manufacturer guidelines? If you’ve got a bid that’s that cheap, you’re probably dealing with a fly-by-night or a volume roofer. Neither of these are generally great to work with. In this example, let’s say you accept the $7,000 bid and within five years, you’ve got extensive decking damage due to improper waterproofing. This means a full roof replacement and some plywood replacement, which could bring costs up to well over $10,000 to hire a reputable Salem roofing contractor. With the average residential lifespan for a composition roof in Salem being around 20 years, that means you’d spend $17,000 or more (for the decking repair) over the 20 year period if you choose the low bid versus $10,000 if you went with a high quality contractor to begin with.
There are various ways contractors can cut corners when it comes to your roof, including: not installing ice and water shield, skipping eave metal replacement, not installing the proper amount of fasteners, failing to replace damaged or questionable decking, and not inspecting for insulation and ventilation issues. One final thing to consider is that a manufacturer-backed contractor is more likely to follow best practices and manufacturer recommendations rather than just doing the bare minimum, or “allowable roofing guidelines”. This isn’t to say that every low bid will do shoddy work or cut corners, but you should be suspicious of a bid that is well below the others, because value is what matters most when it comes to choosing between different Salem roofing companies.
If you hire a high value Salem roofing contractor for your project, you should expect to pay marginally more for the cost of the work, but your roof should last years longer and cause you less issues. A value-adding roofing company will seek to save you money not by cutting corners, but by optimizing your insulation and ventilation, installing high efficiency materials, and protecting your roof from potential risks that could cut its lifespan.
