Most People Spend More Time Picking a Restaurant
I watched a neighbour last summer hire a roofing crew off a door-knocker’s pitch. The guy showed up two days after a hailstorm, walked the roof for about four minutes, wrote a number on a card, and my neighbour signed a contract before dinner. Six months later, three shingles had already blown off, the flashing around the chimney was leaking, and the contractor’s phone number went straight to a full voicemail box in a different area code.
This happens in Calgary more than you’d think. People who would spend a week researching a new dishwasher will hand their biggest home asset to a stranger with a clipboard and a firm handshake. In a city where your roof deals with hail, Chinook winds, and temperature swings that can span 30 degrees in an afternoon, the person you hire to protect your house matters enormously.
Here’s how to get it right.
Credentials Aren’t Optional — They’re Your First Filter
Alberta requires roofing contractors to carry a valid municipal business licence. They also need commercial general liability insurance and Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) coverage. These aren’t bureaucratic extras. They’re the legal protections that keep you from being financially responsible if a worker falls off your roof or if something goes wrong during the project.
Ask to see current certificates for all three. Don’t accept a verbal assurance — ask for copies. You can verify the standing of a professional Calgary roofing contractor by checking their licensing and insurance before any work begins. Any legitimate contractor will produce them without hesitation because they’re used to the question. If someone gets evasive, tells you their insurance is “being renewed,” or claims they don’t need WCB coverage, end the conversation. You’ve just learned everything you need to know about how they run their business.
Local Experience Isn’t a Nice-to-Have — It’s Essential
A roofer from B.C. or Ontario might be skilled, but they probably don’t know what Chinook wind cycles do to adhesive strips on shingle tabs. They may not be familiar with which shingle products actually survive Calgary hail seasons without cracking. They might not know that the City of Calgary requires permits for full replacements or what the inspection process involves.
Local knowledge accumulates through years of working in a specific climate and municipality. Ask how long the company has been operating specifically in Calgary. Ask how many roofs they complete in a typical year. Ask if they can put you in touch with recent customers in your area. A company with deep local roots will have answers to all of these without blinking.
Three Quotes Minimum — And They Need to Be Detailed
Never hire the first contractor who gives you a number. Get at least three written quotes, and insist that each one is itemized. A real estimate breaks out the cost of shingle materials, labour, and ventilation components. Sometimes, a detailed assessment might even reveal that you only need a high-quality roof repair rather than a full, expensive replacement
If a quote shows up as a single lump sum with no breakdown, something is being hidden. Maybe they’re planning to skip the ice and water shield. Maybe they’re using a cheaper underlayment than they mentioned. Maybe they haven’t accounted for the possibility of damaged decking and plan to charge you extra when they “discover” it mid-project. Detailed quotes protect you because they create a record of exactly what was promised.
The Cheapest Bid Is Almost Always a Trap
I understand the temptation. Roofs are expensive and the lowest number is the easiest to swallow. But when one quote comes in dramatically below the other two, something is being sacrificed. Cheaper materials. Fewer layers of protection. Workers without proper insurance or training. Shortcuts on flashing and sealing that won’t show up as problems until next winter.
The roofers I know who do quality work consistently land in the middle of the pricing range. They’re not the cheapest because they don’t cut corners. They’re not the most expensive because they’re not padding margins. When someone undercuts the field by 30 percent, the gap is coming out of your roof’s longevity.
Warranties Are a Window Into a Contractor’s Confidence
Every new roof should come with two separate warranties. The manufacturer’s warranty covers defects in the shingle product itself — delamination, premature granule loss, material failure. The workmanship warranty from your contractor covers installation mistakes — bad nailing patterns, improperly sealed flashing, ventilation errors, anything that went wrong because of how the roof was put on rather than what it was made of.
Manufacturer warranties are relatively standard across the industry. Workmanship warranties are where you see the real differences. Some contractors offer two years. Some offer five. The best stand behind their work for ten or more. The length of warranty a company is willing to put their name on tells you exactly how much confidence they have in their crews.
But a warranty is just a piece of paper if the company doesn’t exist when you need it. That ten-year workmanship guarantee means nothing if the contractor closed up shop after two seasons and moved on. This is why local tenure matters so much. A company that’s been operating in Calgary for 15 or 20 years, with a physical address and a reputation to maintain, is making a real promise. A company that materialized after the last hailstorm and operates out of a P.O. box is making a marketing claim.
How to Read Reviews Without Being Fooled
Online reviews are useful but imperfect. Every business gets the occasional angry customer — that’s just the mathematics of serving a lot of people. What you’re looking for is patterns. Consistent praise for communication, cleanup, and professionalism is a strong signal. Repeated complaints about missed timelines, surprise charges, or difficulty reaching someone after the job is a warning.
Pay attention to how the company responds to negative reviews. Do they get defensive and dismissive? Do they ignore criticism entirely? Or do they acknowledge the issue, explain what happened, and describe how they tried to make it right? That response tells you what it’s going to be like working with them when something doesn’t go perfectly on your project.
Check Google reviews, the Better Business Bureau, and any trade association directories you can find. Cross-reference. A company that looks great on one platform and terrible on another deserves closer scrutiny.
Storm Chasers Are Calgary’s Biggest Roofing Hazard
Within 48 hours of any significant hailstorm, Calgary gets invaded. Contractors from across Western Canada — sometimes from as far away as Texas — descend on damaged neighbourhoods. They knock on doors. They offer free inspections. They promise to handle your entire insurance claim. They push hard for a signature before you’ve had time to think.
Some of these companies are legitimate operations expanding their service area. Many are not. The pattern is predictable: high-pressure sales tactics, a large deposit collected upfront, mediocre work done by a transient crew with minimal supervision, and a phone number that stops working about six months after the job is done.
Protect yourself by insisting on the same credentials you’d require from any contractor. Municipal business licence in Calgary. Current liability insurance. Active WCB coverage. Verifiable local references. If they can’t produce those within 24 hours, they’re not worth your time.
Find Out Who’s Actually Doing the Work
Some roofing companies operate primarily as sales organizations. They close the deal and then hand the actual installation off to a subcontracted crew. There’s nothing inherently wrong with subcontracting, but you need to know if it’s happening. Ask directly: will your own employees be doing the work, or will it be a subcontractor?
If it’s a subcontractor, ask whether they carry their own insurance and WCB coverage. Ask what quality control measures the main company uses to supervise the work. The best companies in Calgary use their own trained crews and have project managers who are physically present during the installation. That level of oversight is how consistent quality gets maintained.
Communication Style Predicts Everything
The way a contractor communicates during the sales process is exactly how they’ll communicate during your project. If they take three days to return your initial call, expect the same response time when you have a question about exposed decking mid-installation. If they show up late for the estimate, expect schedule slippage on the project.
Good contractors communicate proactively. They tell you about weather delays before you have to ask. They explain the scope of work clearly without jargon or condescension. They answer questions patiently even when the questions seem basic. They give you their cell number and actually pick up when you call.
Cleanup Tells You Everything About Standards
After the last shingle is laid, watch what happens next. A professional crew tarps the landscaping during tear-off, picks up every scrap of debris at the end of each day, and runs a magnetic roller across the lawn, driveway, and sidewalks to catch stray nails. They leave the property looking better than they found it.
A sloppy crew leaves granules in the flower beds, nails in the grass, and packaging material blowing around the yard. If they can’t be bothered to clean up properly — the most visible, easiest-to-judge part of the entire project — what do you think the hidden workmanship looks like?
Your roof is the single most important protective system on your house. Hire accordingly.
