How to vet a roofing contractor in Canada

Start with the paperwork, not the pitch

Roofing is one of the easier trades to enter and one of the harder ones to judge from the ground. The work is hidden the moment it is finished, the failure shows up years later, and by then the company may not exist. Vetting is therefore mostly an exercise in documents, and the documents are all obtainable before anyone signs anything.

Licensing, which is provincial

There is no national roofing licence. What exists varies:

• Quebec has the strictest regime. Contractors must hold a licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec in the appropriate subclass, and the licence number can be looked up in the public register.
• British Columbia requires builders of new homes to be licensed and the homes to carry mandatory third-party warranty; renovation roofing falls outside that, so business registration and insurance carry the weight.
• Ontario, Alberta and the Prairie provinces generally handle it through municipal business licensing and provincial consumer protection law rather than a trade licence specific to roofing. Some municipalities do require a contractor licence; your city clerk's office will say.
• Atlantic Canada is similar, with consumer protection and direct-sales rules doing most of the work.

In every case the company should be a registered business in good standing, and the legal name on the contract should match the name on that registration. A numbered company is perfectly normal, but you want to see both the numbered company and the trade name together in writing.

Workers compensation coverage, and why it is your problem

This is the item most homeowners skip and the one that can cost the most. If an uninsured worker is injured on your property, you may be exposed to the claim. Each province and territory runs its own board:

• Ontario: the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, WSIB.
• British Columbia: WorkSafeBC.
• Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador: a Workers Compensation Board, WCB.
• Quebec: the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, CNESST.
• New Brunswick: WorkSafeNB.

Ask for a clearance certificate, sometimes called a letter of good standing. It confirms the contractor's account is current as of a date. Two details matter: it must be recent, and you can verify it yourself through the board's online clearance service rather than taking a photocopy at face value. A one-person operation may be exempt from mandatory coverage in some provinces, which is legal, but then nobody is covered if that person is hurt on your roof. Know which situation you are in.

Liability insurance

Commercial general liability covers damage the contractor causes to your property: a dropped bundle through a skylight, water entering an open roof overnight, a fire from a torch on a flat section. Ask for the certificate to be sent to you by the insurer or broker, not forwarded as a scan from the contractor. Check the policy period covers your installation dates and that the named insured matches the company on the contract. Many homeowners also ask to be added as an additional insured for the duration; whether a contractor will do it varies, but asking is reasonable.

What the written contract has to say

Verbal agreements and a one-line quote are where disputes come from. A workable contract covers:

• Legal business name, address, phone and the licence or registration number where one applies.
• Tear-off scope: how many existing layers are being removed, and whether the deck will be inspected once exposed.
• A named unit rate for replacing damaged sheathing, agreed in advance, so the inevitable mid-job discovery is not a negotiation on the driveway.
• Every material by manufacturer and product line: shingle, underlayment, eave protection membrane, drip edge, starter and ridge cap, flashing metal, fasteners, and the specific vents.
• Ventilation work: how many vents, what type, and whether soffits and baffles are being addressed.
• Who pulls the permit where one is required, and who arranges the inspection.
• Disposal, site protection for landscaping and vehicles, and a magnet sweep for nails.
• Payment schedule tied to milestones rather than dates, a start window, and a stated completion target.

Deposits should be modest and progress payments should follow completed stages. A contractor who wants the full amount up front, or who only takes cash, is telling you something.

Three kinds of warranty, often confused

Manufacturer material warranty comes with the shingles and covers manufacturing defects. It is usually prorated after an initial period and rarely pays for labour on its own.

Extended or system warranty is offered by some manufacturers when a certified installer uses a full set of that manufacturer's components. It can include workmanship, but only if registered after the job, so ask for the registration confirmation in your name.

Contractor workmanship warranty covers installation error. This is the one that matters most, and it is worth exactly as much as the company's likelihood of still being in business in five years. A ten-year workmanship warranty from a business started last spring is a sentence, not a protection.

Signals worth paying attention to

Crews that appear door to door after a hailstorm, offer to handle your insurance claim and need a decision today are a recognisable pattern across the Prairies and southern Ontario every summer. So are quotes that arrive without anyone having been in the attic, since ventilation and deck condition cannot be assessed from the driveway. Pressure to sign on the first visit is worth resisting on principle. Most provinces give consumers a cooling-off period for contracts signed at home; the length and the conditions are set out in your province's consumer protection legislation, and it is worth knowing yours before you sign rather than after.

References that actually tell you something

Ask for addresses of roofs done three to five years ago rather than last month, in your own municipality. Anything can look good when it is new. Drive past, look at the ridge line, the valleys and the flashing at the chimney. Then phone the owners and ask one specific question: what happened when something needed fixing afterwards. The answer to that separates companies far more reliably than photo galleries do.