How the business runs

A roofing business built around the certificate

This is a roof replacement business working La Porte and the bay-shore cities beside it. The work is residential: replacement, repair, wind damage, shingle, metal and flat roofing, from the 1970s and 1980s subdivisions inland to the exposed streets down by the water.

It is organized around the way this city actually regulates roofing, which is not the way most people assume. There is no contractor register here and no state license behind it, so the usual reassurances mean nothing. What exists instead is a specification -- 150 mph shingles, nails rather than staples, to the manufacturer's pattern -- and an engineer's certification on the finished roof within 30 days of the permit. This site explains both, because a homeowner who understands them can tell a competent quote from an inland one in about two questions.

Roofing only -- no siding, windows or general contracting
No storm-damage paperwork of any kind
No doorstep prices and no same-day signatures
No price without walking the roof and the roof space

A cluttered attic room under a sloped timber roof — **Up there**Survey before any price is given

How it runs

Four steps, no surprises

Free inspection, the 150 mph specification in writing, and the certificate agreed up front.

Call or message

Tell us the address, and if you know it, which side of Highway 146 you are on. That is not trivia: east of it an additional state windstorm certification step applies, and it is much better established at the start than discovered after the permit.

Survey, roof and roof space

Outside: the slope, the perimeter, and how the existing covering was fastened, because on this coast that is the finding that matters most. Inside: the deck, the layer count, and anything the roof space says about water that has already been getting in.

Written scope, then the price

The specification stated rather than implied -- the shingle rating, the nailing pattern, the perimeter detail -- and the certification route named, with who is signing it. Decking as a rate per sheet. Read it somewhere other than your doorstep.

Permit, work, certificate

The permit taken out, the work done to the specification in the scope, and the certification letter to the city inside its 30 days. You get a before-and-after set of photographs, including the fastening, whatever you decide to do next.

Before you choose

Five things worth asking of every quote, including this one

The first two are about how the roof gets fixed down, which on this coast is most of whether it survives.

Does the quote state a wind rating

The city's policy calls for shingles meeting a 150 mph rating. If a written scope does not say what is being fitted and to what rating, it is not a specification, it is a price.

Does it state the nailing pattern

Not 'nailed properly' -- the pattern, referenced to the manufacturer's instructions. This is the single line most likely to be missing and the single line most likely to matter.

Who is certifying, and is that arranged

Named, and arranged before the permit rather than chased afterwards. The 30-day clock starts when the permit issues, not when the work finishes.

Is the decking priced per sheet

Nobody knows how much deck has softened until the covering is off. A rate per sheet is honest; a lump sum gets revisited upwards once the roof is open.

What is being done at the perimeter

Starter course, rake metal, ridge. On a bay-shore roof these are not trim, they are the parts that hold the rest on, and a quote that prices only field area has not priced the roof.

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