Roofing Houston: Understanding Contracts
Contracts have been as much a part of roofing Houston projects as asphalt shingle fasteners. However, most homeowners are kept in the dark when it comes to truly understanding a contract.
A written contract protects you and your roofer. As a contract is the agreement between you and your contractor, you are bound to whatever you have agreed upon in the contract. As such, a contract should be comprehensive and should address all of these issues:
Description of Materials
Materials take up a bulk of roofing Houston projects, so it is important that the contract specifies the materials to be used in the project and their description. The most common materials included are the following:
- Shingles
- Vent Materials
- Underlayment
- Rake Edge
- Valley
Mode of Payment
The contract should likewise determine the specifics of payments for the project. Some contracts have more provisions for payments, but your contract should generally have the following:
- Terms of Payment – Defines how payments are to be made.
- Amount – The contract should state the final amount of the project. This should also state how excess fees from emergency repairs are to be dealt with.
There are some contractors that ask for a small amount as initial payment during the start of a project, while other contractors ask for a percentage of the final amount during certain phases of a project. Both are acceptable practices, but in no way should you pay a contractor in full before a job is completed and has undergone inspection.
Lien Waivers
Be sure that your roofing Houston contractor signs a lien release form. Lien waivers protect homeowners and the workers. Without a lien release waiver, you put yourself in a vulnerable position. When a roofing firm decides not to pay the supplier and sub-contractors for any reason, you have to pay for the materials and labor fees even though you have paid the contractor already. There are generally four lien release forms.
- Conditional Waiver And Release Upon Progress Payment
- Unconditional Waiver And Release Upon Progress Payment
- Conditional Waiver And Release Upon Final Payment
- Unconditional Waiver And Release Upon Final Payment
As lien releases and waivers cover a lot of ground, we will be tackling this topic in depth on a separate post. However, it is worth noting here that a lien waiver is only effective when a claimant signs the release and waiver.
Insurance
Your insurance protects you, your property, and the roofing Houston contractor. Never sign a contract unless it states that you will receive a certificate of insurance before a project. In addition, industry standard for roofing projects is one million dollars. Do not settle for anything less.
To ensure that you make the most of your contract, be sure that you only hire a trusted roofer. Trusted contractors provide fair contracts that are easy to understand. With over 20 years of experience, All-Tex Home Improvements is among the most trusted roofing Houston firms. For quality roofing replacement projects in Houston TX areas, call us at (281) 358-2553.
We recently bought our house and it needed a lot of exterior work. All-Tex helped us above and beyond our expectations. Our new roof, pergola, fascia and soffit look fantastic and are built to last. Every time I pull into our driveway I am so proud to have a beautiful home! I can not begin to tell you what an amazing and pain free process the designer and crew made this project. Aleck, our designer knew exactly what we needed to do when we didn’t know where to start and we are so thankful for his utmost honesty, respect and patience. Thank you so much for everything!!
We had the house exterior re-painted and got a new roof. The job was beautifully done. It was on time, and the workers were friendly. My only, very minor, whine is that it has seemed difficult to schedule some small touch-ups.
We were extremely pleased with the repair work done on our termite damaged home that required walls, studs, insulation, & painting performed inside & outside of our home. We also had all the siding replaced & painted & 2 doors replaced & painted. The same workers were present every day until the work was completed. The attention to detail & the clean up afterwards was as if they were working on their own home. We always received a prompt reply with our emails & someone always answered the phone when we called the office & no voice mails. The customer service was excellent & the skill of the workers was exceptional. We will certainly use this company again for future needs.
Used All-Tex to replace some siding on our home. Scope included demo of old siding, repair insulation, install vapor barrier, replace old single pane windows with double pane, install new hardi-plank and paint. Very competitive pricing. Installed hardi-plank “butt-trim” method and did not have to debate that this was the way to install hardi-plank or pay more for it. They were also reasonable on scope changes once project was underway (e.g. water damage repair). I’m definitely including them routinely on bid list for future scopes.
I recently had my first experience with All-Tex. I hired them to enclose a small patio on the back side of my home. Overall, it was a very positive experience. I was a little fuzzy about the details of the project. I had a few specifications; but, needed some help with the details. The sales rep provided good suggestions and helped with the details. The quote was not cheap; but, was reasonable for quality work. The construction team had to deal with some weather issues; so, scheduling was a little challenging. In spite of that, the project was completed in a very satisfactory amount of time. The construction team had all the skills required to complete the job from start to finish. All-Tex even handled the electrical work we needed. We really like the new sunroom and have plans to use All-Tex again in the future. Based on our experience we highly recommend them.
All-Tex Home Improvement Services constructed a screen room with stamped overlay to our existing patio. The finished product more than met our expectations! The installation crews were efficient, thorough and courteous. It was a pleasure to work with All-Tex personnel from initial sales call to completion. I would not hesitate to choose All-Tex for future home improvement needs.
All-Tex did an excellent job on a large project, which consisted of a patio cover, stamped concrete, pergola and new windows. All construction projects have challenges and changes weather delays etc. etc. During this process I emailed or phoned Aleck Miller over 40 times. His quick responses and followup where like clockwork and is the mark of a true professional. As we are fairly new to the area we did obtain multiple bids and the All-Tex bids were also the best for comparable work. On our next project we will save a lot of time because I will be only be calling Aleck.
We had a pergola built by All-Tex. They were professional, reasonable, courteous and did a fantastic job! We absolutely would recommend their services to others.
We love our new patio installed by All-Tex Exteriors. The crew worked very hard to get the job done on time, even in rainy weather. Once it was done, they immediately came back to address a few touch up items I requested. I would definitely recommend this company to my friends and family and would use them again.
I would have to say that I am most impressed with the customer service that All-Tex provides. I have always dreaded calling companies and asking questions because the employees seem to get “irritated”. To my surprise every one in the office has always been so friendly and helpful, I would definitely recommend AllTex…
All-Tex Home Improvement did a great job installing our new patio cover. We had an existing patio cover and wanted to make the patio larger with a new cover yet have it look like it was one cover done at the same time. All-Tex was able to make the existing cover look like the new one that they installed for us! It looks great!
All-Tex just completed a project for us, replacing posts and railings on our wrap-around porch and they did a great job. Quality work at a fair price. Russell was fun to work with and made the process painless. The crew was friendly and professional. We are pleased with the results!