Ask Each Roofer for Recent Jobs Near Your Address, With Dates

A roofer's references tell you more than a brochure does, but only if you ask for the right ones. Many homeowners in St. Louis County get handed a list of three happy clients with no street names, no dates and no way to reach anyone. That list proves very little. What you need is a short list of recent jobs near enough to your house that you can drive past them, with a rough date for each roof and a homeowner you can call.

Why distance and date matter in St. Louis

A roof that went on in a neighborhood on the west side of the county in the spring has been through a different set of seasons than a roof installed in late fall on a block in north county. The freeze-thaw cycle works the nail line and the shingle tabs hard in January and February. A roof put on in late summer has had a different first winter than one put on in October, so the date on the job tells you how much weather it has already survived. Hail season here runs hardest from late spring into summer, which means a job from two years ago may already have met a storm. Ask for jobs that are young enough to show their condition and old enough to have seen a hard freeze.

Distance matters for a different reason. Subdivisions in the county often share the same builder, the same lot grading and the same drainage problems. A crew that has worked three roofs on your street or in your subdivision has already learned where the ladder sets, where the trucks can park and where the gutters back up after a storm. A crew that has never worked your area will learn those things on your property.

What to ask for, in writing

Send the request by email so the reply has a time stamp. Ask for the following:

• Two or three completed residential roofs within a few miles of your address, from roughly the last two to three years.
• The street name and a rough completion month for each job. The roofer does not need to name the homeowner to give you this.
• A homeowner contact you may call, or a note confirming that the homeowner is willing to take a call.
• The shingle line installed on each job, named by product, not described as architectural or premium.
• Whether that crew did the tear-off, the install or both, and whether a subcontractor handled any part of the work.

Ask every roofer you are comparing for the same list, in the same words. If one roofer sends a detailed answer and another sends three photos with no addresses, you have learned something about how each company keeps its records.

Check the permit record on each reference job

Most St. Louis County cities and unincorporated areas issue roof permits through their own permit desks, and the record of a permit shows the date it was pulled, the contractor named on it and the inspection results. Ask each roofer whether a permit was pulled for each reference job. Then ask the permit desk for the record. Many desks will tell you whether a permit was issued, what inspections were requested and whether the final inspection passed. A reference job with no permit on file is not automatically a bad job, but it is a fact you should know before you choose a roofer.

Missouri does not issue a state roofing license, so the local permit record and the references carry more weight than a license number would. The permit record also tells you whether the roofer named on the reference job is the same company you are considering. If the permit names a different business, ask the roofer to explain the change in writing before you go further.

Drive past each address from the curb

Drive past each reference address on a weekday morning, from the street, and look at the work you can see without leaving the public right-of-way. Check whether the gutters are attached and pitched toward the downspouts. Look along the eave and the rake edge for shingle debris in the gutter trough or in the beds below the eave, because debris there can mean the cleanup was rushed. Look at the valleys and the ridge line if you can see them from the street. Note whether the roof lines look straight and whether the ridge is level from one end to the other.

Do not walk onto the property, knock on the door or ask a homeowner to walk you through the roof unless they have offered. A ten-minute look from the curb is enough to tell whether the crew left a tidy job. Take dated photos on your phone and keep them with the bid so you can compare them later.

If an address on the list does not match a house you can find, ask the roofer which job it was. A wrong address is not always a sign of anything serious, but it is a simple thing for the roofer to correct, and the reply tells you how careful the office is with its own paperwork.

What a reference call should cover

When you call a homeowner, keep to a short set of questions so the answers can be compared. Ask when the crew started and when they finished. Ask whether the start date held or moved, and if it moved, why. Ask what the crew did when rain came in the middle of the job and how the homeowner was told. Ask whether anyone came back afterward to fix something, how quickly it was fixed and whether the homeowner had to call more than once.

Write the answers down in the order you heard them. A homeowner who says the crew was two days late because of a documented weather hold is giving you better information than one who says the crew was great. Ask the homeowner whether they would hire the same crew again. A yes with a reason is more useful than a yes alone.

What a reference list cannot tell you

A list of recent local jobs cannot show you the crew's insurance certificate, its pay terms or its written scope, and it cannot prove that the roof will hold up through the next freeze. Those questions belong in the written bid and the contract. The reference list answers one question: whether this roofer has finished work in your part of the county that you can check yourself. That is useful, but it is one input among several.

Missouri law also limits what a roofer may do when a storm claim is involved. A roofer may not represent or negotiate a homeowner's insurance claim, and may not say anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. If a reference homeowner says the roofer handled their insurer, treat that as a question to ask the roofer about in writing, because the statute forbids that role and a good roofer will explain what they can do instead, which is document the damage, put a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands and attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

When the list comes back thin

If a roofer cannot produce two local jobs within a few business days, note that as an answer in itself. It may mean the company is new to your area, that it subcontracts most of its work or that its recent jobs are out of the county. None of those reasons is fatal, but each one changes what you should ask next. Ask who the crew is, whether the same crew will work your roof and how many jobs they are running at the same time.

Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 if you want to ask for references from recent jobs near your address. Ask the same question of every roofer you compare, put the replies side by side and check each address yourself before you choose.