Bell Gardens, CA
Find out what you are actually dealing with
Half the people who ask for a replacement need a repair, and a handful of the people who ask for a repair need a replacement. An hour on the roof sorts that out.
Describe the inspection job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Bell Gardens contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Bell Gardens is taking requests through this service yet. We are lining them up, and yours is kept until one can.
- Nobody gets your details yet. Your request stays with us and is not passed to any company.
- One email when someone can help. When a provider covering your area can take it on, we email you once and ask whether you want that company, by name, to contact you.
- Deleted after 90 days. If nobody can take it on, or you do not say yes, your contact details are deleted 90 days after your request.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
Nobody will call you about this request unless you say yes to a company by name.
Before you let anybody on the roof
The things worth pinning down on a inspection job. A contractor who has not raised them has not looked properly.
- Whether the fee comes off the job if you proceed
- Whether the inspection includes going into the attic
- A written report, not a verbal summary
- An estimated number of years left in the covering
- Photographs of anything they flag
Either way, ask for photographs. A report with pictures of your actual roof is worth ten times one with a tick-box condition rating.
The point of an inspection is not to find a disaster. It is to find the two hundred dollar problem before it becomes a twelve thousand dollar one.
Ask for an estimated remaining life in years, and what would extend it. That answer is the useful part.
Locally
The second problem is morning fog that sits on the roof until mid-morning. Damp that arrives every morning and leaves by lunchtime is worse for a roof than rain, because nothing ever fully dries between one and the next.
About inspection here
Are the contractors licensed and insured?
Contractors have to give us their state licence number and proof of liability and workers compensation cover before they can receive requests. You should still ask to see current certificates yourself before work starts — a licence can lapse between checks.
I rent. Can I use this?
You can submit it, but the owner has to authorise any work, so the useful move is to get the landlord to make the request or to give you permission in writing first. Contractors will not start work for a tenant.
What should I do to prepare?
Move the cars out, take pictures off the top-floor walls, cover anything stored in the attic, and put pets somewhere else for the loud days. Expect nails in the driveway however careful the crew is — ask whether they run a magnet at the end.
Do you handle commercial buildings?
Yes. Commercial requests go to contractors who do low-slope and flat systems rather than to residential crews. Say so on the property question and it routes correctly.
Get the roof looked at
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.