Would you let the neighbors kid fiddle with the engine of your $80,000 Mercedes?  Would you let the neighbor’s kid frame your Picasso?

Would you let the neighbors kid do brain surgery on you?

OK, you get my point but I bet you are still not convinced.

Here is the problem.  You want to help the kid pay for college and you want to save a few dollars also.  It’s just some shingles, right?  Think about it, if it was easy to put on a roof than why do roofing contractors exist?

There is so much more than installing shingles to roofing.  In fact it’s rare for a roof to leak in the ‘field’ areas.  It leaks around chimneys, pipe flashings and areas where the roof meets a wall or two different roof angles meet.  Anything that penetrates the roof.  You need to know how to ‘flash’ that properly.  Well YOU don’t need to know, your roofing craftsmen needs to know.  I bet you the neighbors kid doesn’t know.   Why take that chance?

I use the neighbor’s kid as an example because when I was first married we rented a house from a well-to-do family.  They asked me about getting a new roof on their own home and I gave them a few names.  BUT, they went with the neighbor’s kid.  The kid tore off the roof and it rained.  They called me in a panic at 9:00 at night and we got a roofer there to tarp the entire roof.  Every wall in their house was ruined.  Why oh why would you try and go cheap on your house?

(Hence my Murphy’s law: If you tear it off, it will rain, and I live in Southern California)

If you want to save a buck, I’m with ya!  Just don’t do it on your roof.  Too many unknowns.  Your home protects you.  It’s one of your most important assets. Why would you try and cut costs there?

Be smart get a good price.  But if you go cheap and they don’t install it correctly, don’t call me in the middle of the night.