The Cohoes homeowner I’ve written about elsewhere paid $650 for a repair after getting two quotes for full replacements in the low twenties. The difference between the roofers who quoted her a replacement and the roofers who quoted her a repair wasn’t dishonesty — at least not necessarily. It was process. The replacement quotes came from crews that never went on the roof. The repair quote came from a roofer who did. That’s the whole difference.
I want to write down here, plainly, what a diagnosis-first call looks like versus a sales-first call — because if you know what you’re calling for, you’re much more likely to get the answer you actually need.
Diagnosis-first: what happens
Someone comes to your house. Not a salesperson. A roofer or a foreman who’s actually going to be involved in the work. Ideally the owner. In our business, on any diagnostic visit, one of the three brothers — myself, Vlad, or Dan — is the person on your driveway.
They ask you what you’ve seen. Where is the stain? When did it show up? Has it grown? Is it associated with a specific weather event? Have you had any prior repair work done? Where in the house is the stain located?
They go into your attic first. With a flashlight. In daylight if possible. They look at the underside of the sheathing directly above the stain and trace back toward the peak of the roof — because water travels along rafters and can emerge inside the house six or twelve feet from where it actually entered the roof plane. They look for the entry point on the sheathing, not the exit point on your ceiling.
Then they go on the roof. Actually on it. Not around it with a phone camera. On it, with time. Depending on the roof size, a proper diagnosis takes twenty minutes to an hour. They look at every flashing detail. They walk the field for lifted or damaged shingles. They open a downspout to check granule loss. They check the ridge vent for proper sit and function.
They come back down with an answer. Not a range. Not a “we’ll get back to you.” A specific diagnosis of what’s causing the leak and what it will take to fix it. In writing, ideally with photos.
That’s a diagnosis-first call. That’s what we do.
Sales-first: what happens
A salesperson comes to your house. Not a roofer. Someone whose job is to close the deal.
They ask you what you’ve seen — and start framing. Every question gets folded back into the framing of “this is probably worse than you think.” Small stains are signs of bigger problems. Any roof over fifteen years old is nearing the end of its life. The word “peace of mind” appears within the first ten minutes.
They may or may not go into the attic. If they do, they stay for four minutes. They look at the stain from below, take a photo, and confirm what they were already going to tell you.
They usually don’t go on the roof. They may walk the ground perimeter. They may take photos from a distance. What they will not do is spend forty minutes lifting shingles and checking flashings, because they don’t need to. They already know what number they’re going to write on the quote.
They present a replacement. Sometimes with a discount if you sign today. Sometimes with financing built in. Sometimes with a warranty pitch that’s technically real but rhetorically inflated.
That’s a sales-first call. If you get one, you can politely thank them and get a second opinion.
What to ask when you call
Here are the questions I’d tell my own mother to ask on the phone before she agreed to have a roofer come out:
“Will the person coming out actually go on the roof?” Yes should be the answer. If it’s a maybe or a “we’ll assess from the ground first,” you’re heading toward a sales-first visit.
“Will they go in the attic?” Yes should be the answer. If it’s no, ask why not.
“If it turns out to be a repair, will you quote it as a repair?” Yes should be the answer. If they hedge — “we don’t do small repairs,” “we recommend replacement whenever a roof shows age,” — you’re being told, kindly, that they’re going to try to sell you the big job.
“What’s the smallest repair job you’ve done in the last month?” A shop that regularly does $500 flashing repairs and $700 pipe boot replacements is a shop that will quote you a real repair when the situation calls for one. A shop that says “we mostly focus on full replacements” is a shop where the smallest hammer they carry costs $18,000.
Why we work this way
I’ve written elsewhere about our economics. We built the business on referrals. Referral work only compounds if the person doing the referring feels like they were treated straight. The single fastest way to poison referral work is to quote a homeowner into a job they didn’t need. So we do the diagnosis first. If it’s a repair, we say so. If it’s a replacement, we say so and we show you exactly why. If we’re honestly not sure, we tell you that too and we propose a targeted repair with a follow-up window.
That’s it. That’s the whole process. It’s the reason a Cohoes homeowner ended up paying $650 instead of $22,400. It’s the reason a retired teacher in Bellevue got three additional years out of his roof before we replaced it. It’s the reason my brothers and I are still on somebody’s roof every week instead of behind a sales desk.
Paul Sandul, Elite Contracting. Family-owned. Clifton Park.
The full Cohoes story is our repair pillar: The Cohoes Chimney Drip. The service page: Roof Repair.