Cowboys certainly have their place in Spaghetti Westerns and pop culture, but they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near your roof. Of course, we aren’t talking about the “howdy” cowboys but rather the fly-by-night rogue tradies that unfortunately raise concerns when contracted out for roofing projects.Qualified, reliable roofers are fortunately still in the majority in this particular trade and many others, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch as they say. Why is it so important to only choose a qualified roofer for your home? The answer should be obvious, but actually finding a reputable roofer can be a little challenging.Here are a few quick reasons:
Safety Standards & Best Practices
Reputable roofers will always abide by Australian Standards and best practices for roofing standards to ensure that your roof is repaired or installed properly. The quality of workmanship is up to spec and nothing is left to chance.With rogue tradies, there’s no inherent need to abide by “silly” standards; all that matters is getting the job “done” and receiving payment, standards be darned. This often leads to cutting corners on materials and labour to keep costs low which may lead to faults or defects in the roof that can potentially endanger you and any residents living there.
Insurance & Compliance
Due to the nature of roofing work, there are many potential hazards that can lead to accidental injury or damage to your property. Real roofing contractors are always adequately licensed and insured with liability insurance to cover any such circumstances.Furthermore, qualified roofers will be sufficiently trained and equipped with personal protective equipment to avoid and mitigate accidental injuries. This helps to ensure that in the unlikely event of harm or injury, your roofing contractor will be able to continue progress on the roof with minimal delay.
Support Legitimate Businesses
One of the hallmarks of a rogue tradie is that they often operate businesses that aren’t exactly legal, e.g. cash only and evasion of taxes. Legitimate roofing contractors are, simply, legally operated business entities that lodge all due taxes as required by the ATO.By supporting a legitimate roofing business, you are rewarding honest and fair businesses that duly pay taxes and leave nothing hidden away. This also gives you some recourse in the event that you detect a fault or defect with your roof after the job’s done. Most roofers offer warranties and/or in-house guarantees on workmanship and will rectify these issues, whereas a rogue tradie will likely ignore any calls and leave you with a potentially hefty bill to redo the job.
It Can Save You a LOT of Money
One apparent benefit that rogue tradies tend to offer their customers is that their prices are often very low compared with competitors. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. They are likely cutting corners in terms of workmanship, materials, labour, and likely evading taxes in order to be able to offer rock-bottom prices.Having to get your roof work redone from scratch, however, can be twice as costly and significantly more expensive than if you would have chosen a reputable roofer from the get-go.Although the upfront costs may be higher with a legitimate roofer, you do have some peace of mind in case anything unexpected happens as well as reassurance that your roof was fitted/repaired according to building standards and best practices.
Guardian Roofing
Choose Guardian Roofing for quality roofing services in and around Melbourne.
