Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
You are not trying to catch a liar. Most roofers are not lying. You are trying to find out who was actually taught the work.
Three roofing bids can come back thousands of dollars apart. That does not mean two of them are cheating you. Usually it means the three companies are not describing the same job. Here is how to find that out yourself, with five checks you can run from your own driveway.
· About a 12 minute read
You never have to learn roofing to hire a good Utah roofer. You only have to ask the same five questions and watch what happens.
Mattie Tueller, Master Roofing
You did the right thing. You got three bids. Now they are spread across your kitchen table, thousands of dollars apart, and none of them describes the same work.
Here is what is actually happening. You are not looking at three prices for one job. You are looking at three companies that each decided what the job is. One included new flashing. One is reusing what is up there. One did the ventilation math and one never went in your attic.
That would be fine if you could read the difference. You cannot. Almost everything that separates a good roof from a bad one is invisible from the ground.
What you cannot see, and what it costs. These are the parts a cheaper bid can remove without telling you. Every one of them shows up years later, not on install day.
So price becomes the only thing you can compare. And once price is the only lever, the company that left the most out wins.
You do not fix that by learning roofing. You fix it by running five checks. Each one is a question with a checkable answer, and you can do all five before anybody climbs a ladder.
People go into this expecting to catch someone in a lie. That is the wrong hunt. You will usually come up empty, because the lie is usually not there.
The gap is not honesty. It is depth.
There is no roofer university. Nearly everyone in this trade learned from a guy who learned from a guy. In Utah you can get licensed without ever proving you learned it right. So the market fills up with sincere people who know the pitch very well and were never taught the assembly. Nobody told them there was a difference between the two.
Knows the shingle line, the brochure, the warranty headline, and the close. Answers get shorter when you ask a technical question. Steers you back toward the decision and the number.
Knows what goes under the shingle and why. Gets more interested when you ask something technical, because that is the part of the job they enjoy. Will tell you what your roof does not need.
That second behavior is the thing to watch for. It is very hard to fake, and it shows up in seconds.
Ask one technical question and watch which direction the conversation moves. Ask what your attic ventilation is doing. Ask what underlayment goes down and why that one. Ask what happens at the valleys.
A real roofer gets curious. A pitch gets efficient.
There is one more difference, and it is structural. A real roofer can tell you your roof is fine. A pitch cannot do that, because it has nowhere to go from there. So if someone looks at your roof and says it has years left, take that seriously. It cost them the sale to say it.
Start here because it costs nothing and rules out the worst outcomes. Utah's Division of Professional Licensing keeps a public record of every licensed contractor. You can search it yourself in about two minutes.
That third one catches more problems than people expect. The name on a business card, the name on the truck, and the name on the license do not always match. The name that matters is the one that will be on your contract.
Be clear-eyed about this. A license is closer to a permission slip than a credential. Utah does not put much between wanting to be a roofer and being one. There is a business and law exam. There is no test of whether you can actually roof a house.
So an active license tells you two real things. Someone cleared the state's bar, and they have stayed out of trouble since. That is worth knowing. It is not evidence that they can build your roof well.
Treat it as the floor. Plenty of excellent roofers hold nothing beyond the basic license. Plenty of bad ones hold exactly the same thing. The next four checks are what separate them.
This is the check almost nobody runs, and it is the one that protects the most money.
You ask a roofer for proof of insurance. They send a certificate of insurance. It looks official, and it is genuine. Most people stop there.
Here is the problem. The certificate is a one-page summary. It is not the policy. Exclusions live in the policy, and exclusions are not printed on the certificate.
Roofing policies often carry exclusions that carve out the exact work a roofing crew does. So a contractor can hand you a real, current, unexpired certificate and still not be covered to put a roof on your house. Nobody finds out until a claim gets denied. By then the damage is done and the only question left is who pays for it.
To be fair to the contractors: most people carrying an excluded policy have no idea. They bought coverage. They got the certificate. Nobody ever walked them through the exclusions page. Their broker knew. Nobody asked.
So you ask. Take the certificate and find the broker's phone number printed on it. Call and ask one question. Does this policy exclude any of the work this contractor does on residential roofs?
Five minutes. It is the single most protective thing you can do before anyone climbs a ladder.
Check the date on the certificate too. Utah's minimum went up tenfold in April 2026. A certificate still showing the old limits tells you how closely that company watches its own paperwork.
Then ask about workers' compensation, which is a separate policy. If a crew member falls on your property and there is no workers' comp behind them, that can become your problem.
This one question explains most of the spread between your bids.
Some companies employ their crews. The crew is on payroll, trained by the company, and works for that company next month too. Other companies subcontract. Whoever is available that week does your roof, and the company that sold you the job may never see it.
Both models are legal. They cost different amounts, because one of them pays for things the other one does not.
Ask every company the same four things. Five minutes each, and the answers explain almost the entire price gap.
You are not looking for one right answer. You are looking for whether they can answer at all, and how fast. A company that has to check gets back to you. A company that knows tells you standing there.
Half of your roof is only visible from inside your house. That surprises people, and it is the reason this check works so well.
Two things can only be judged from the attic. The first is ventilation, which is a code item with a required ratio of intake to exhaust. The second is the condition of the sheathing, which is the wood deck your shingles are nailed to. Neither one can be seen from the driveway.
Both are the roofing contractor's responsibility on a replacement. So a bid written without looking is a bid built around a guess.
Unknowns do not disappear because nobody looked at them. They just move.
An unknown found before the bid becomes a line item you can compare and plan for. The same unknown found after your roof is torn off becomes a change order on a day when you have no leverage at all. Your roof is open and the crew is standing there.
That is the whole argument for the attic visit, and it has nothing to do with sales.
That instinct is healthy, and plenty of people have earned it. You do not have to choose between an accurate bid and your own comfort. Set the terms yourself.
Watch what happens when you ask. A real roofer wants to go up there. A salesman tells you it is fine and gets back to the number.
This is the move that breaks the whole trap, and it takes one email.
Write down what you want included. Send the identical list to every company bidding your roof. Now all three are pricing the same job, and the number at the bottom finally means something.
Your list does not need to be expert. It needs to be specific.
The product warranty comes from the manufacturer and covers the shingle. The workmanship warranty comes from the roofer and covers the install. They are separate promises from separate parties, and most roof problems are install problems.
So ask for both, separately, in writing. Then ask two questions that sort real commitments from marketing numbers.
Poor ventilation voids most manufacturer warranties, which is one more reason the attic check is not optional.
Here is the part people miss. Doing this does not mean you have to spend more. Once all three companies are quoting the same written job, the cheapest bid is finally safe to take. You just made it safe.
Run them in this order. The early ones are free and fast, and they clear the field before you spend real time on anybody.
Ask for the number, then search Utah's public license database. Confirm it is active, covers this work, matches the business name on your contract, and carries no disciplinary history. Two minutes, no cost.
Ask whether the policy excludes any of the work this contractor does on residential roofs. Ask about workers' compensation as a separate policy. Check the certificate date against the current state minimum.
Who employs the crew, how much liability coverage, who inspects the finished work, and where is your office. Ask all three bidders the same four. The answers explain most of the price gap.
Walk them to the hatch and stand there. Ask what they see. Ask for photos and for the ventilation numbers. Watch whether they want to go up or want to get back to the price.
One email, identical to each bidder. Then compare the numbers, because now they describe the same job. Get both warranties in writing and ask what voids them.
None of these prove someone is dishonest. Each one is a good reason to slow down.
Take the time. Your roof is not going anywhere. And the company still standing in the same building next year has no reason to rush you today.
I came into this business through a roofing sales shop. It subcontracted every job and checked none of them. I lasted less than a year.
What I took away was not that those people were villains. It was something more useful and harder to see. A company can be excellent at selling roofs while knowing very little about roofing. From your kitchen table, those two look identical.
That is really what the price gap is. You are not getting three bids on one job. You are getting numbers from businesses built for different purposes, each one priced to cover what it actually pays for. None of them will volunteer which kind they are.
Here is the fair part. Most low bids are sincere. There is no roofer university, and in Utah you can get licensed without ever proving you learned the trade. So plenty of cheap numbers come from people who genuinely do not know what they left out. Both of you can be acting in good faith while the roof still fails.
I also see the other end of it. Part of my work is serving as an expert witness when roofing jobs end up in court. That is where these questions show up after they got answered badly, or never got asked at all.
So I built Master Roofing as the opposite of that first shop. Crews I train and vet myself, and a quality-control person whose whole job is checking what you were promised. Even so, I would rather you not take my word for any of it. Every check on this page is one you can run from your driveway. The answers do the climbing for you. You do not have to know roofing to hire the right roofer. You just have to watch what happens when you ask.
You started with three numbers you could not read. That is a bad position, and it is not your fault. The parts that decide whether a roof lasts are invisible to almost everyone who is not up there.
The five checks fix that without turning you into a roofer. Look up the license. Call the broker about exclusions. Ask who employs the crew. Go into the attic. Send everyone the same written list.
None of them requires expertise. All of them produce answers you can hold onto and compare. And they work on any company you point them at, which is exactly the point.
Do them before you sign, not after. Afterward the only tool you have left is a warranty claim, and that is a much worse place to be standing.
Hiring well is not about knowing roofs. It is about asking the same five questions and listening to who answers.
Building codes, permit rules, and licensing requirements change over time, and they differ by city and county across Utah. Verify current requirements with your local building department before relying on anything here, and work with a licensed contractor who knows the rules in your jurisdiction.
This article is general information about Utah roofs, not an assessment of yours. Every roof is different, and no article can tell you what is actually happening on your specific house. Have a licensed roofing contractor look at it in person before you act on anything here.
Ask for the license number, then look it up yourself through Utah's Division of Professional Licensing. It is public, it is free, and it takes about two minutes. Check four things. Is the license active. Does it cover this kind of work. Does the licensed business name match the company name on your contract. Is there any disciplinary history. That third one catches more than people expect, because the name on the truck and the name on the license do not always match. Do this first, before you spend time comparing anything else. It clears the worst outcomes off your list at no cost to you.
They are three separate things and people use them as one phrase. Licensed means the state has issued that contractor a license to do the work. Bonded means there is a surety bond, which is a limited pot of money a customer can claim against in specific situations. Insured means the contractor carries insurance, usually general liability plus workers' compensation. Insured is the one that protects your house, and it is the one worth digging into. A certificate of insurance only proves a policy exists. It does not show exclusions. Call the broker printed on the certificate and ask what the policy excludes.
Three is a good number, but the count matters less than what you do with it. Three bids on three different jobs tell you nothing. Three bids on the same written job tell you almost everything. So write down what you want included and send that identical list to every company. Ask each one to price that list. Then the numbers are actually comparable. If you only have time for one thing on this page, make it that. It costs you a single email and it turns a confusing spread of numbers into a real comparison.
Yes, once you have made it safe to. The problem with a cheap bid is not the price. It is that a cheaper number usually means a smaller job, and the parts that got removed are invisible to you. Fewer code items, reused flashing, no ventilation math. So do it in this order. Send every bidder the same written list, run the license and insurance checks, and ask who employs the crew. If a company clears all of that and still comes in lowest, take it. You are no longer guessing about what is missing, because you defined the job yourself.
It is a reason to slow down, not proof of anything. Storm chasers follow weather into a neighborhood, sell hard while tarps are still up, and are gone before any warranty problem surfaces. The morning after a big storm is the most dangerous shopping day in roofing. Sign nothing at the door. Not an agreement, not an inspection authorization, not a contingency contract. Take their license number and look it up later. Your roof is not going anywhere and your insurance claim does not expire this afternoon. If the work is real, it will still be real after you have checked them out properly.
Not on their own. Manufacturer certification programs vary a lot. Some require real training and testing. Others are weighted toward how much product a company sells, which is a sales achievement rather than a craft one. So a wall of logos is weaker evidence than it looks. Ask one question about any badge you see. What did you have to do to earn that one? The answer separates the training programs from the buying programs in about ten seconds. Certifications do buy you something real, though. Enhanced manufacturer warranties are usually only available through certified installers, so they are worth having.
The full scope in writing, priced as line items rather than one lump number. Name the specific products going on your roof, including the underlayment. Include the ventilation plan with the actual numbers. Say whether flashing is new or reused. Include the permit, the cleanup, and the start and finish window. Then get both warranties written separately, because the product warranty and the workmanship warranty come from two different parties. Ask what voids each one. Ask what happens if the company is sold. If a company resists putting any of this in writing, that answer is the useful part.
Start by finding out what you actually have, calmly. Look up their license today. Ask for the insurance certificate and call the broker about exclusions. Ask for photos of the work in progress, which any crew can take from up there. If the roof is finished, you can hire an independent roofer to assess it and tell you what they see. That inspection costs far less than a repair and gives you something concrete. Keep every document, every text, and every photo. If there is a real problem, that record is what makes it fixable instead of a disagreement about memory.
We're here to see what's going on with your roof. A real assessment starts with your history and your attic, not a number from the driveway. You'll get a straight answer about what's up there, what it needs, and what it costs. Sometimes the honest answer is: your roof looks great.