Find a roofer in East Tennessee

Disclosure first: this site is published by Brian King Roofing, Inc., and the company we recommend below is ourselves. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and we are not going to pad this page with a fake list of competitors we have ranked. What we can do is tell you exactly who we are and give you the same vetting checklist we would want our own family to use.

How to vet any roofer in Tennessee

Use this on us. Use it on everyone else.

1. Look up the license. Search the contractor's name at verify.tn.gov. Tennessee requires a state contractor license for jobs of $25,000 and up, and a Home Improvement license for residential remodeling jobs from $3,000 to $24,999 in Knox County and eight other counties.
2. Ask for certificates of insurance. General liability and workers' compensation, issued to you by the insurer, not a photocopy from the salesperson. If a worker is hurt on your roof and the company has no workers' comp, you can be the one on the hook.
3. Get a written, itemized quote. It should list the shingle or panel product by name, the underlayment, ice-and-water shield locations, ventilation, flashing, tear-off and disposal, the number of layers being removed, decking replacement pricing, and both the manufacturer and workmanship warranties.
4. Check manufacturer certification. Owens Corning, GAF, and CertainTeed each certify installers and each publishes a lookup. Certification is what unlocks the extended, non-prorated warranties, so a company that claims it should be able to show it.
5. Confirm a local, physical address. A truck and a cell number is not a business you can find in five years when the warranty matters.
6. Ask who will actually be on the roof. Many companies subcontract the labor. That is not automatically bad, but you should know who is accountable and whether the crew is covered by the company's insurance.
7. Read the storm clauses carefully. In Tennessee, a roofer working on an insurance-funded job must give you a written notice of your right to cancel, and you can cancel within three business days after your insurer tells you in writing that the claim is not covered (Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-6-602 and 603). Be especially careful with any paperwork that assigns your insurance benefits to the contractor or that commits you to hire them if your claim is approved.
8. Be wary of deductible "waivers." A contractor who offers to eat your deductible is usually planning to inflate the claim to cover it, which is insurance fraud, and you are the policyholder.
9. Get more than one quote, and compare them line by line. The cheapest bid often leaves out the things that make a roof last: proper ventilation, new flashing, ice-and-water shield, and a real warranty.