The roofing industry has evolved. In a land where the phrase building industry has all but ceased to exist in many parts of the country, there have been many from which that have moved to the roofing side, consisting of hail and wind damage claims to make ends meet. I for one am one of them. Back in early 2005 as a young entrepreneur, I opened my own flooring store after many years of working and saving. Things were really looking up for me and my business was doing well. I was quickly approaching the point where I had enough work to contract out and I could focus on managing the store, closing the sales, and finally give my own back a rest. That quickly faded. 2006 hit and things were on a fast pace downhill. Building came to a halt. The only thing I had to rely on were walk in's and referals for those who wanted to remodel their homes. Needless to say I had to start doing all the work myself again just to pay the bills. Soon enough there were no walk in's and the phone wasn't ringing any longer. I held on as long as I could without losing my shirt and had to let it go. This is a story for many business owners at the time.
How I came into the roofing business is simple. A storm had hit in my city which brought very large hail. It seemed the only people working were roofers. So naturally I investigated and found a company to work with and learn from. Truth be told,they threw me out to the dogs and said go get some sales, insurance are paying for hail damaged roofs. After about a month and a half, I felt like I knew more than the owners did and cared more about the customer's interest than they did. When insurance didn't pay enough or something came up that would eat the profit a bit, they cut corners. They had no knowledge of how to deal with the insurance company.
So I asked myself who would know how to deal with these insurance companies and hold them accountable for paying a fair market value and not just not just write a check and say (were done here and this is what the roofer has to try and do it for) I started questioning the adjusters writing the claims, of course i always got vague answers but i read enough out of them to know that they did know the answers. My first priority then was to get my adjusters liscense.
After the insurance course I started my own roofing company. I have sustained where a lot of other companies could not because most roofing companies were no more than former builders or other tradesman forced into it by the economy. Most of which are uneducated with handling insurance for their costumers best interest and the result some of the time would lead to corners being cut, or poor quality products. I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way.
There are many roofing companies now who have evolved to learn the in's and outs of insurance and have the homeowners best interest at heart. Just be confident that the one you choose is more than just a roofer, but also a qualified advocate willing to serve in your best interest, who knows insurance company pricing and procedures. You'll be glad you did. Read more at the central md roofing website.
