What Can (& Often Does) Happen When Commercial Roofers Hire Poor Subcontractors

Who Is Actually Installing Your Roof?

One question we encourage property managers to ask during the proposal process is surprisingly simple:

Who will actually perform the work?

Some commercial roofing companies maintain their own trained workforce. Others rely heavily on subcontracted labor. Subcontracting itself does not automatically mean poor workmanship. There are excellent specialty subcontractors throughout the construction industry.

The concern is what happens when price becomes the primary criterion for selecting labor. A commercial roofing company may win a project based on its reputation, presentation or proposal and then look for ways to reduce installation costs.

When labor is pushed toward the lowest possible price, something eventually has to give. It may be experience, training, supervision, quality control, time spent on details, or the willingness of workers to stop and correct something before moving to the next section of roof.

The property owner may never see those decisions being made in real time on the roof surface. They see the aesthetics of a finished roof. The consequences of any corners cut can appear months or years later.

Ask Questions Before You Award the Roof

When comparing commercial roofing proposals, price matters - but so do several other factors. Here are a few questions you can ask before you award a procurement:

• Who employs the installers?
• How long have those crews worked together?
• Who supervises the project?
• What quality-control process occurs during installation?
• Who inspects completed sections?
• What happens when workmanship does not meet the company's standards?
• Who responds if there is a leak after completion?
• Is the person responsible for the project empowered to solve the problem?
• Who will still answer your phone call after the final invoice has been paid?

Those questions may tell you more about the future performance of your roof and reputation of its contractor than the number at the bottom of the bid. Hiring a roofing consultant or engineer for basic minimum requirements is important, but you also need to make sure that your subcontractors actually install those recommendations properly.

Focus on the long term over short term

A commercial roof is supposed to spend years protecting everything underneath it. For a condominium, that may mean hundreds of residents and millions of dollars in individual property. For an office building, it may mean businesses, employees and equipment.

The installation deserves to be treated with the same importance as the asset it protects.

Do not stop your contractor evaluation at:

How much will this roof cost?

Instead, ask:

• Who is installing it?

• Who is supervising them?

• How is their work being inspected?

• Who will be accountable if something goes wrong?

A roof can look finished - and still not be installed properly.