I’m lucky. My neighbor is a roofer. And one of the better one’s in the area.
It sounds like your getting hit with “storm chasers.” Whenever a storm rolls thru, these guys show up because the normal day to day roofers can’t get to all of the work. Even the regular contractors in the area will sub contract with them. If you can wait, I would. Then ask around and find the guy who is mentioned most often. Do your due diligence. Good luck.
I have only a tale of woe, but have learned several things:
Go local. Pick a local company that has been around for a while. Speak to locals whose roofs they have done a few years ago. Are they happy after several seasons of wind, rain, snow, ice?
Ask if the foreman who shows up daily speaks English. (Or be sure that you speak whatever language they speak!)
That ice and water shield matters if you live in an ice dam prone region. Ask about the various types and how far up they should extend.
A side piece of advice: don’t use a roofer who might retire soon and close up shop. Or at least, learn who carries the warranty, if he does. Also, if there is a delay, see if prices are fixed or could go up if materials costs do.
That would be wonderful, but for the fact that most jurisdictions have explicit rules prohibiting their personnel from making recommendations. So frustrating!
Don’t use a storm-chaser company. Don’t use a non-local company.
While we have not replaced our roof yet, we had two re-siding projects. I knew I wanted Hardi, so I went to the manufacturer’s website to look at their recommend contractors. Found a locally based company that had a gazillion of great reviews. Noticed that they just re-sided a bunch of townhomes nearby, so checked that out (not that easily done with a roof). Checked their BBB ratings and other reviews, all came out stellar. Made sure their license and insurance were current. The estimator who came gave me a very detailed quote (9 pages long explaining what they do and what they do not do and how they do it). It was easy to communicate with the company, and the price was reasonable compared to what our friends paid recently… Hired. 
When it comes to replace the roof, I will research the products but will get a couple more quotes. That is if Mr.'s stupid Elon roof does not materialize.
I used to joke that I would keep getting estimates for home improvements until the highest one was exactly double the lowest one (which is what typically happened).
I had a roof redone (not storm damage). It was a tear off (already had two layers of shingles). A couple of years later I found out they had not done the proper shielding of the bottom to prevent ice/water damage. Had to get another roofer/contractor to do that at that time. Luckily I had lots of extra roofing material for them to use to make the repair.
I have used an electrician, in our town a few times. He does a very good job, if he shows up. After his last episode of not showing up, I have done all I can to spread the word.
I think likely the trouble is supply not yet caught up to demand.
We lost part of our roof in Superstorm Sandy. Everyone on Long Island needed repairs of some sort.
We asked a friend who recommended a roofer. He got there, and got the job done right away.
It was a good thing-- we had a SNOW storm about a week later.
Talked to the insurance adjuster and he thought the same thing that I did about the first estimate. He talked to a roofer he trusts and came up with an estimate that was more in line with what he (the adjuster) estimated. It is just a couple of thousand dollars less and the adjuster would like us to accept that offer from our insurance company.
The adjuster has been easy to deal with, has communicated with the insurance company to pay for some damage that we originally thought wasn’t going to be included. It’s a private independent adjuster. My husband and I talked and he thinks that we should accept the adjuster’s quote.
I need to get another quote on this roof. It’s still an outrageous amount to me for the roof. My hairdresser’s husband is a local contractor who I know uses good subs so I’ll ask her. And I have some leads on a couple of other roofers.
Now the question is to lock into a roofing contract now (which locks in the price) or wait to sign a contract in the spring.
In other great news! A deer hit my H’s car, so now I get to deal with the same insurance. The good news, I guess, is that the damage isn’t too bad and the car is fixable. My insurance goes through June so I’m hoping I won’t get dropped until at least then.
Just to make clear, the original (high) estimate is from a local company.
It cost us almost $12000 to get our roof done. We have a lot of ice dam stuff…going up 12 feet instead of six. We had some work done on some flashing.
I’m curious what folks think is a high price. We thought the price was a good one.
We got quotes to replace our roof with conventional materials. 2 story with a detached garage, so lots of roof: $16k high end composite shingle, $36K metal… lol don’t even want to know what Elon will ask for.
I’d be happy with those quotes. The first quote was $29,000. I have a 2 story 2400 sqft house. On an acre lot, so houses are not close together. In a cheaper part of the country to live in, rural Michigan
Composite shingles.
I have another company out to quote the roof next week. .
Our roof was hit with hail damage in July. Our insurance company sent out an adjustor, he climbed the roof marking damage, created a detailed quote including an eagle view drawing of the roof and a table with total area, hip length, ridge length, etc. There was a set price for each item, ie, Remove 3 tab 13SF @ $50 + tax less depreciation. Other items were felt, shingles, drip edge, additional for steep roof, valley, flashing, exhaust cap, etc. Depreciation was 30% of total but you got depreciation money back if you replaced roof (less deductible). All the roofing companies accepted the adjustor’s quote as their estimate, the roofer we chose covered our deductible, so we got a free roof. All of our neighbors had the same experience using different insurance companies and roofers.
We had to replace our roof (tear out and replace down to the rafters) a few years back and the quotes were all over the map. Also - roofers tend to be odd people. All of them were sure that the other bids were for inferior products, shoddy work… I guess there’s a lot of mistrust in roofing. I got bids from 6 contractors before I found the company I chose. They weren’t the cheapest but I trusted they’d do good work and they did. Their estimate didn’t include a break-down by item - the total was listed only but the estimate was detailed - this is exactly what we’ll do, this is the material we’ll use, this clean-up is included, this is the time-frame we’ll do it in, this is our guarantee. Boom - deal done. They didn’t break down the hourly rate or the materials sq ft cost and I didn’t care. Yes, it’s nice to have an estimate with the line item costs but imo it’s more important to get the right company for the job.
Thumper, I’d love a 12k or 14k cost, but have a hipped roof. And live in an area where many contractors up the $ based on address. Quote for a tear out, 25 years ago, was 35k. No, we didn’t take that seriously. (We still had an overlay option and only two sides needed attention.) The joke here is. “He must want to pay off his airplane.”
Good luck, OP. Glad your adjuster is supportive.
We needed to replace the flat roof over our lanai last spring. Got recommendations for two good companies and their quotes. Similar with what they would do and pricing for breakdown items. Neither company thought the main roof (single story house) needed replacing- good they weren’t out for extra business.
Decided to reevaluate our home insurance and check out other companies a bit later. Found out the 2012 inspection report (purchasing house then) was off by a couple of years for the age of the roof and it is now too old for new insurers to want to insure us. An insurance agent was able to find the permit with an accurate date. Good to know. Fortunately we are happy with our current insurance company and won’t try to change until we have a new roof in years to come. Had never heard of insurance companies concerned about the age of a roof- it was over, not under, 15 years old and in fine shape. Welcome to Florida, limited options for insurance…
In 2005,after hurricane, my roof on 2500 house was @2400-2500. That was a long time ago.
Our insurance made a stink about our roof… the roofer who replaced one leaky skylight said the roof itself was good for 10 years (old growth cedar shake) - we are keeping the roof and changing the insurance complay.
We had storm damage in March. Guy who installed our roof 11 years ago came by to look, said he’d give me a quite, and fell off the face of the earth. (He lives in our neighborhood. Long-standing company, great reputation. I have sent customers to him. WTH?!?!) He said to not contact the insurance til we had estimates.
My question: should I call the insurance company, let them know, and have them send out folks to repair (or get their recommendations?)? Should I contact local contractors, get estimates and then contact the insurance?
The squirrel folks who found the hole in our roof (the branch went straight through) did a quick repair and said it would on;y be a couple hundred $ to completely repair. Our roof guy said, nope, it would be more than that. We also have some downspouts and porch window frames that were damaged. I’m reluctant to contact the insurance for what may be something barely over our deductible, but I am stymied in finding anyone reliable and local to do the work, so could use their input.