8 Questions to Ask Every Austin Roofer Before You Hire Them

After the April 2024 hailstorms, Austin got flooded with out-of-state storm chasers. I watched trucks with Florida and Oklahoma plates knocking doors in Cedar Park within 72 hours of the last hailstone hitting the ground. Some of those crews did fine work. A lot of them collected deposits, slapped shingles on wet decking, and were unreachable by the time the first leaks showed up. Homeowners lost real money, and worse, they lost warranties, because you cannot enforce a warranty against a company that no longer exists in Texas.

My brother-in-law Benny has installed 7,000 roofs in Austin over 27 years. He has repaired plenty of storm chaser work in that time, and the pattern is always the same. The homeowner never asked the hard questions up front. So here are the 8 questions we tell our own family members to ask any roofer, including us. Ask all 8. A legitimate Austin roofer will answer every one without flinching.

1. "Do you have a physical Austin office, and how long have you been at that address?"

This is the fastest filter there is. A roofer with a real office in the Austin area has something to lose. A roofer working out of a motel room off I-35 does not.

Here is why it matters beyond the obvious. A workmanship warranty is only worth something if the company is still around to honor it. Most storm chaser failures show up in years 2 through 5, after the sealant strips fully cure and the first real freeze-thaw cycles hit the flashing. If the company that installed your roof folded its Texas LLC and went home to work the next storm, your 10-year warranty is a piece of paper. Ask for the address. Then drive past it. Thirty minutes of your time protects a $15,000 to $30,000 investment.

2. "Are you licensed, and do you carry general liability and workers comp? Can I see the certificates?"

Here is something most Austin homeowners do not know. Texas does not require a state license to be a roofer. Anyone with a ladder and a magnetic truck sign can call themselves a roofing contractor tomorrow. The closest thing we have is voluntary licensing through the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas, and serious companies carry it because it signals they submitted to background and insurance verification nobody forced on them.

Insurance is where this gets personal for you. If an uninsured worker falls off your roof, your homeowner's policy can become the target. You could be personally exposed for medical bills on a stranger's injury. Ask for the general liability certificate and the workers comp certificate, and ask that the insurer send them to you directly. A fake certificate handed over in your driveway costs nothing to print. A certificate of insurance emailed from the carrier is real.

3. "Who is the crew lead on my job, and how long have they worked with you?"

The salesperson who quotes your roof will probably never touch it. The question is who does.

There is a real quality gap between an in-house crew that has worked together for years and a subcontracted crew assembled last week from a labor pool. Roofing is sequencing work. Underlayment, valleys, flashing, penetrations, ridge. A crew that has run that sequence together 500 times catches each other's mistakes. A pickup crew does not. Subcontracting is not automatically bad, plenty of good roofers use trusted subs. But you deserve a name. "Miguel has run our crews for 11 years" is an answer. "We use quality installers" is not.

4. "Can I see 3 completed jobs in my ZIP code from the last 24 months, with references I can call?"

Every roofer's website has beautiful photos. Photos prove nothing. Stock images and out-of-state jobs look identical to local work on a screen.

Three addresses in your own ZIP code, completed within 24 months, with phone numbers attached, prove everything. It proves they work your area, it proves the work is recent, and it proves past customers are still willing to vouch for them. Then actually call the references. Ask two things. Did the final invoice match the contract, and did anyone come back when you called about a problem? Those two answers tell you more than 50 online reviews.

5. "What manufacturer certifications does your company hold, and are they current?"

Shingle manufacturers like GAF, CertainTeed, and Owens Corning run certification programs, and the top tiers are hard to get. GAF Master Elite, for example, goes to roughly 2 percent of roofing contractors. These programs require proof of insurance, a track record, and ongoing training.

Here is the part that hits your wallet. The strongest manufacturer warranties, the ones covering workmanship for 25 years or more instead of just materials, are only available when a certified contractor does the install. Two identical roofs with identical shingles can carry wildly different warranty coverage depending on who nailed them down. Ask which certifications they hold, then verify on the manufacturer's website. Certifications lapse, and companies keep the logo on the truck long after.

6. "Will you pull the permit in the correct jurisdiction, and is it included in the price?"

Permit rules in Central Texas are a patchwork. City of Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, unincorporated Travis County, and unincorporated Williamson County all handle re-roofs differently. Some require permits and inspections. Some do not. Your roofer's job is to know exactly which rules apply to your address and handle it, with the cost in the written quote.

The trap is what unpermitted work does later. If required permits were skipped, a future insurance claim can get complicated fast when the adjuster finds undocumented work. It can also stall the sale of your home when the buyer's inspector starts asking questions. A roofer who says "we don't really need permits around here" without knowing your specific jurisdiction is telling you how they handle everything else too.

7. "How do you handle deductibles, and what is your policy on supplements?"

If a roofer offers to waive, eat, or rebate your insurance deductible, end the conversation. Under Texas Insurance Code Section 27.02, that is a crime, and it has been since 2019. It is insurance fraud, and the homeowner can be pulled into it, not just the contractor. Storm chasers use "free deductible" as their number one door-knocking pitch. It is the clearest red flag in the entire industry.

Supplements are the flip side, and they are legitimate. A supplement is documentation your roofer files when the adjuster's initial estimate missed real items, like code-required drip edge or decking replacement. A roofer who knows how to document and file supplements properly gets claims closed correctly the first time, at roughly an 80 percent close rate in our experience, instead of leaving you to fight the carrier alone. Ask them to walk you through their last supplement. If they cannot, they have never done one.

8. "What is your workmanship warranty, how many years, and does it transfer if I sell?"

Materials warranties come from the manufacturer. Workmanship warranties come from the roofer, and workmanship is where roofs actually fail. Around 10 years is the standard among established Austin companies. Top-tier certified installers can offer 25 years or more through manufacturer-backed programs.

Then ask the question almost nobody asks. Is it transferable? A transferable workmanship warranty follows the house, not you. When you sell, your buyer inherits the coverage, and that shows up in your negotiating position. A roof with 8 years of transferable warranty left is a selling point. A roof with a dead warranty is just an old roof. Get the term and the transfer language in writing, in the contract, before any material lands in your driveway.

Ask Us All 8

We built Austin Area Roofers to pass every one of these questions, because Benny got tired of tearing off 3-year-old storm chaser roofs. If you want them answered about your own roof, we will do a free inspection within 48 hours and hand you an exact written number, not a range that grows later.

Call 737-802-2272 or use the quote tool right on our homepage. Ask us all 8. We will sit at your kitchen table and answer every single one.