Recently we quoted on a roof and the customer asked: “Why are you so high in price we got a price from 
Roofing Co. and they were thousands less and our friends were very happy with them!”
You may find our response helpful in your quest to find a good roofer in the Framingham, Wellesley or Natick area.
Hi Ms. Smith,
Thank you for letting me know. It’s not unusual for us to see pricing range from about half of our quote to about twice as much. I already discounted the pricing to you because you’re a friend of George’s (a previous customer of ours and neighbor). But if you want to get some second opinions perhaps some perspective from 40+ years of doing this might be helpful for you.
As discussed when I met with you and your husband one of the dirty little secrets of the remodeling business is that 25% of the work has to be replaced within five years. We see this ourselves: we do 300 to 400 roofs a year and about 100 of those are less than five years old. I’m glad your friend had a good experience but that doesn’t mean the roof is technically correct. Arguably the worst roofer we’ve seen around here has good references.
We keep records of roofers we hear complaints about: leaks, poor workmanship and failure to honor warranties. Year after year it’s always the same people. We also keep records on roofers we lose work to because their prices are lower and again year after year it’s always those same people on the complaints list with but one exception. There is a roofing contractor locally that we know does good work and is lower priced than us but usually only by about 10%. That Roofing Co. is a third lower than us is a big red flag.
Also year after year we NEVER hear complaints about other roofers that we know to be good and we’ve found their pricing to be similar to ours. Our conclusion is that below a certain price it’s not possible to do a good job. The parts are the same but the commitment to a proper job is missing.
The roofing trade seems to have two groups: Half are committed to doing a proper job and charging accordingly and the other half firmly believe that the only way they can get any work at all is to be the lowest price. Sadly 1/3 of consumers believe that low price is all that matters which leads to the unfortunate statistic of the five-year fail.
Here are our 3rd party roofing credentials:
• On Angie’s List, we have 55 reviews, are A rated and are a Super Service Award winner.
All has nine reviews: two-thirds rated A and one third rated F
• On the Better Business Bureau, we have an A+ rating with no complaints.
Roofing Co. has a B+ rating with 8 complaints in three years.
• Watertite is a family owned remodeling company in business for 44 years under the same name.
• We are Velux certified 5 Star Skylight Specialists and 1 of only 150 in the country. Velux is a very conservative company and we had to go through a 3-year vetting process to become a 5 Star.
• We are a CertainTeed ”Select Shingle Master”, their highest certification putting us in the top 1% of all roofers in the country. This also allows us to offer an extended warranty direct from CertainTeed of 50 years on materials and 25 years on workmanship at no extra charge.
Lastly some tech:
I explained to you and your husband about our G-6 system that’s evolved over 20+ years to make ice and water shield bullet proof to ice dams. Developed in house this shows our commitment to doing a good job for the customer instead of just doing what every one else does (6 feet) and if it leaks later just saying “It’s an Act of God”.
Hope this helps and thanks for your interest in WaterTite, I’ll talk to you soon.
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Cheers,
Stephen
