They are everywhere, in every small town and big city all over America. Roof contractors come in a variety of sizes, from the one man crew with a truck, ladder, and nail gun to full fledged companies with offices, staff, dedicated support, sales and installation teams and everything in between.
In larger Metro areas, such as Atlanta, hundreds of companies and independent roof contractors compete for your business. Some are branches of regional or national companies, some are local, some are neither and just travel from state to state following storms and taking advantage of high-demand times. It’s the latter of these you really need to watch out for.
Of course. not every one man operation is a scam and in some cases, that is all that is needed. It depends on the job. Small roofing companies have their advantages and disadvantages, as do large companies.
When searching for a roof contractor, consider the job and choose carefully! Let’s take a look at both.
Small Roofing Companies
Pros:
- Cheap Prices:
Without overhead, smaller companies or “one-man band” type operations will generally be at the lower end of the cost scale - Flexibility:
Able to handle variations to the project themselves where larger companies have a more systematic approach which makes all jobs as close to the same as possible.
Cons:
- Lack of Customer Service when problems occur:
With smaller or one man operations, once they move on to another job, they have their hands full. When you do it all yourself, or with a very small crew it’s tough to be in 3 or 4 places at once. A lot of the time, if you are lucky to find the person or company, confrontations are necessary to get them to honor their agreement causing a dispute because the roofer is taking it personally. - Most are Nomadic by nature and may only be around for days or weeks:
A big portion of smaller roofers also sub-contract for larger companies. When their work slows down, many abandon their “companies” to work for these larger companies, if you need them back you may find it difficult as they have responsibilities to the other companies and that their “company” has shut down. - No Quality Control:
No one is checking their work. Even the best roofers can slack off or make mistakes. These can go unnoticed with some kind of quality control in place. The worst cases are when the homeowner see the mistakes and has to confront the roofer, which most people don’t want to do.
Large Roofing Contractors
Pros:
- Quality Control:
Most large roofers have quality control processes in place to ensure quality. Dedicated supervisors will inspect every aspect of the job and rectifies any problems before the job is completed. Having a process like this in place avoids the uncomfortable confrontations between clients and the company. - Customer Service:
If you’ve ever used a single roofer or small operation you know how hard it can be to get hold of them! With an office staff, larger companies can handle after-sales services and any other request much better than the one-man operation with a cell phone. - Accountability and Service:
These days customers will review their contractor on many of the various reviews sites on the internet. A larger company with a lot of customers tend to have a lot of reviews posted so that potential clients can see firsthand the experience their customers had. This motivates the larger roofing contractor to provide the best service to each and every customer to avoid very public disputes.
Cons:
- Price:
With staff, physical location, and other overhead costs, larger operations are often more expensive than smaller roofers. Although the long terms costs arguably will be less in terms of service and aggravation. - Inflexible:
Larger companies who do many jobs a week need to do these jobs with as little management as possible. Projects with a lot of customization and little extras and variations from the norm are often difficult for larger companies.
So, where is Atlanta Roofing Specialists in all this? We are the best of both worlds!
- 4 roofing crews, a metal crew, a gutter crew, 2 repair crews and several carpentry/construction crews. We have the muscle to handle multiple jobs at once! Each crew has a foreman and supervisor who checks each job on a daily basis. Upon completion a representative then performs a 40-point inspection.
- All crews are factory trained and certified
- A dedicated office staff and salespeople to handle all your needs from start to finish
- Hundreds of customer reviews available all over the web. We care about our customers and our reputation and it shows!
While we are a larger company and have the benefits, we are also family owned and operated and run like a small company. Our owners, Mark and Kevin work directly with many of our clients and are accessible to all.
Like the smaller companies, we have one crew assigned to any one project from start to finish and can handle most custom requests and variations to normal requests. Unlike smaller companies we also include a supervisor who inspects everything the crew does to assure the best possible job.
At Atlanta Roofing Specialists we give that small company attention with large company service and stability. Call us today at 770-419-2222 to see why we win so many awards and so many customers recommend us to their friends and family.