You’ve seen the ads: “New Roof – Lowest Price in Town!”

It sounds tempting—until your “budget-friendly” roof starts leaking during the first storm and suddenly you’re paying twice for the same job. In roofing, cutting corners costs far more than you save.

Here’s why the cheapest bid often becomes the priciest mistake.

Inferior Materials

…are the most obvious but most homeowners don’t understand the differences between manufacturers and sometimes the manufacturers wouldn’t want to have their products compared. Has the contractor done a tear test on different shingles? What were the results? Did one perform better than another? How? What were the differences?

Skipping or reusing flashings

… is one of the most common ways a contractor cuts

corners to save themselves time and money. But there are important questions you as the homeowner should look into. Are the flashings they are going to use appropriate for your climate? Are they using the right flashings around the soil pipes? How about around the bathroom or kitchen vents? An experienced roofer knows that proper flashings and underlayments are key to a durable roof. But most homeowners don’t know the importance of these differences. ✅ Pro Tip: Use a lead boot instead of a plastic sleeve if you have cast iron plumbing in your house.

Buying the sales guy instead of the roof

is a common temptation. You’ve likely already heard the stories. A guy comes into your house, pets the dog and for the next 2 to 4 hours you learn that he too likes the Green Bay Packers, loves puppies and shares your love for bourbon or wine. None of these things have to do with roofing and in most of these cases, he has never installed a roof himself or even raised a hammer for a repair. Puppies and Packers aren’t going to give you and your family a great roofing job and the guy who didn’t explain what he’s going to use, why he’s going to use it or even shown you samples of products besides the shingles may be more focused on his commission than your needs. ✅ Pro Tip: Before you have a company come out, do a quick google search to find out if a company has sold or been acquired by a corporate interest before allowing them in.

Falling for the warranty stories

… is probably the most tragic. Here’s the scenario: A company offers you a lifetime warranty on the shingles and you think that means your lifetime. Nope. Read the fine print, understand the statistics (the average homeowner lives in their house for 7 to 10 years) and connect the dots. You’ll find that these corporate lawyers did a great job in protecting the shingle corporations for payouts. If you haven’t connected those logical dots you’ll be spending money you don’t have to.  Your contractor should also offer a worksmanship warranty. If something is going to go wrong, it typically happens in the first winter after your install. An established company won’t just offer you a one season warranty, but rather a 2 year workmanship warranty. ✅ Pro Tip: 80% of new roofing companies fail after 2 years. Check how long they’ve been in business and connect the dots.

Hidden Structural Damage Left Unaddressed

Low-cost bids rarely include thorough inspections. If your roofer ignores rot, sagging, or ventilation issues, those problems will worsen—and so will your final bill. ✅ Pro Tip: If you have multiple layers of shingles on your roof, chances are you will have additional costs. Make sure your contractor is able to fix those problems if they come up and know what the costs could potentially be.

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Repeat Repairs & Early Replacement

When we visit a home, we explain ventilation needs and talk with homeowners about how we do things. On one such visit I was explaining to a gentleman what we could do so he didn’t have to replace his roof again. He barked at me that he’d replaced 4 roofs and he knew better.  “4 roofs” I said, “that’s quite a few. You must’ve moved around a lot to put that many on your different houses”.  No, he said, he lived in the same house for 40 years. Doing the math, this gentleman had replaced his roof 4 times in 40 years.  Perhaps he wasn’t the authority on roofs that he thought he was. ✅ Pro Tip: Whether it is a family member or a contractor, if they can’t get a roof to last 20 years, their advice is probably not sound.