It’s hard to find a good roofing contractor. In Hawaii, things are even more complicated because the weather is so variable and roofs have to withstand a lot of precipitation in very high winds. So how do you find a good roofing contractor in Hawaii? Here are five steps that will make it easy.

1. Talk to friends. It’s amazing how strongly people will react when you ask them about their roofing contractors. Most people either have an amazing experience or a terrible one, depending on how professional and reliable their contractor was. This can tell you a lot about how a company operates and how you yourself might feel if you hire them, after the job is done (or not done). Whether you need simple roof repairs or you plan to redo the whole roof, talk to your friends and colleagues first and ask them if they’ve used a certain roofing contractor in Hawaii, and how it went.

2. Focus on experience. While the word of friends goes a long way, the truth is that a few recommendations don’t, by themselves, speak to how consistent and reliable a roofing contractor’s work is. Your friend may have simply gotten lucky, or a company’s work may vary with the specific employees on the job. However, one strong indicator of consistency is experience. If a roofing contractor has good reviews from friends and they’ve been in the business in Hawaii for years and years, chances are good that they do the same great work every time.

3. Ask for references. Recommendations aside, it always helps to ask for references. Inexperienced roofing contractors may hesitate to provide them at all, or may only have one or two names to offer. Experienced contractors should have plenty. Call three of these references at random—not the first three on the list—and ask them what their experience was like working with this particular contractor.

4. How experienced are their workers? Just because a roofing contractor has been working in Hawaii for 15 years doesn’t mean they’ve had the same workers the whole time. In most cases, workers come and go over the years. It’s fair to ask your contractor what qualifications they require of workers and how experienced those people are as individuals. Chances are good that they’re the ones who will actually be working on your roof.

5. Check for licensing and insurance. You know you’ve found a dodgy contractor if you ask for proof that they are licensed and insured and get a runaround. Any legitimate contractor will have these qualifications, so never forget to ask about it. Or, if you want to be proactive, look it up on either the BBB’s website or the Hawaii.gov PVL (professional & vocational licensing) search site. Don’t forget safety, either! It’s all well and good that the company offers a warranty and will pay to fix your roof if it caves in after they have worked on it. But that could be dangerous to you, so choose a company whose work is considered top-notch and reliable in the first place.

Have you had a good experience with us at Heritage? How did you find us?