Montclair, CA
Replacing a roof in Montclair: what it takes
The price gap between the cheapest and the most expensive quote on the same roof is routinely forty per cent. That gap is not always quality, and it is never obvious from the paperwork.
Describe the replacement job
Three questions, then the address. Up to three Montclair contractors who do this work.
You are on the list.
No provider in Montclair 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 replacement job. A contractor who has not raised them has not looked properly.
- Ventilation: what is there now, what it should be
- How the site is protected, and who cleans up the nails
- Tear-off or overlay, and what the local code allows
- A written per-sheet price for replacing bad decking
- Who pulls the permit, and what the inspection schedule looks like
Warranties come in two halves that get deliberately confused. The manufacturer covers the material, and only if it was installed to specification. The contractor covers the workmanship, and only for as long as they stay in business.
Insist on knowing what happens to decking that turns out to be rotten. The good answer is a per-sheet price agreed in writing before the job starts.
Two quotes at the same price can be very different roofs. Compare the layers, not the brand name on the shingle.
Locally
The second problem is ember intrusion through vents and open eaves. Most houses lost to wildfire are lost to embers arriving ahead of the fire, not to the fire itself.
About replacement here
Why three quotes and not one?
Because one price tells you nothing. Three tells you where the middle is, and the outliers are informative in both directions — the very cheapest is usually leaving something out, and the most expensive should be able to say what you are getting for it.
Do you handle commercial buildings?
We do. It is a different set of contractors — commercial and low-slope work is a separate trade from residential re-roofing — so answering the property question accurately matters.
I have solar panels. What happens to them?
Panels have to be detached and reset. Budget for it separately and coordinate the two trades. Never put a new solar array on a roof with under ten years left.
I rent. Can I use this?
Only the owner can approve roofing work. If you are renting, the fastest route is to send this to your landlord or property manager rather than gathering quotes nobody can act on.
Get the roof looked at
Free, no obligation, and your details go to no company until you say yes.