About This Site
We've been documenting roof and siding projects since 2018, recording what good work actually looks like and what questions matter when hiring a contractor.
The homeowner behind these notes
We are a homeowner who spent the last six years watching, learning, and documenting what happens when contractors replace a roof, install siding, repair gutters, or work on the exterior of a house. We started this site because we couldn't find honest answers to the questions we had: What should this actually cost? What does good work really look like? Which problems require a professional, and which can a homeowner reasonably handle? Every piece of information published here comes from either our direct experience or careful research into industry standards and manufacturer specifications. We learned early that roofing and siding failures often don't show up for years, and by then the fix is expensive. That clarity drove us to keep this journal and share what we've learned.
What we've learned
The difference between a well-executed roofing job and a poorly executed one often doesn't appear for years, making it impossible to judge the work on the day it's finished. We've watched roofs that failed in three years because the flashing was undersized, nailing patterns didn't match the manufacturer's spec, and ventilation was compromised. We've seen siding installations that looked fine initially but began pulling away from the house when the first winter arrived because the fastening pattern wasn't right. These weren't failures of materials—they were failures of workmanship and attention to standard. That experience taught us to read the specifications, ask contractors to explain their process, and verify that work actually meets the published standard that protects your home.
Why we stopped hiring the lowest bid
We started by believing that the lowest bid was the best choice and would save money over time. That assumption lasted exactly one project. The roof we hired the cheapest contractor for was finished faster than we expected, but within three years we were patching leaks that a properly installed roof should never have developed. The flashing was undersized, the nailing pattern didn't follow specification, and the ventilation was compromised. We ended up paying twice: once for the original install, and again to have it done right. Since then, we've seen enough projects to know that price is less important than whether the work meets the standard that actually protects your home. The cheapest contractor costs more in the end.
Judging the work against the published standards
We start by reading the manufacturer's specifications and the industry association standards that govern the work. We talk to contractors about their training, their process, and which standards guide their installations. We look carefully at what shows on a job site: how the surrounding areas are protected, how existing materials are handled, and how thorough the cleanup is. Most importantly, we ask homeowners about work that was completed months or years ago, because that's the only way to know whether something was actually installed correctly. The standards we rely on are free and public: the National Roofing Contractors Association publishes homeowner guidelines, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association releases technical bulletins on installation, and the Polymeric Exterior Products Association maintains the siding installation manual that installers are trained to. A contractor who can explain their work against these standards is one worth trusting; a contractor who gets defensive about them is one to question.