How we started
One truck, and a rule about telling people the truth
Frank Delaney had been laying shingles on Queens row houses since the early eighties when he put his own name on a truck in 1994. The business grew on something fairly unglamorous: telling people when they did not need a new roof.
That sounds like a marketing line and it is really an operating constraint. It costs us sales every week. It is also why a meaningful share of our work comes from people whose roof we assessed two or three years earlier and told to wait — and from the neighbours they told about it.
Every full roof we install carries a written workmanship warranty on top of whatever the material itself is covered for, and the warranty is handed over on paper at the end of the job rather than promised on the phone at the start.
By the numbers
Thirty years, in four figures
- 30+
- years roofing western Queens
- 4,200+
- roofs repaired or replaced
- 24/7
- emergency line, answered by a person
- 7
- languages spoken in the office and on the crews
How we work
Four commitments, and what they cost us
On the roof this week, and a real emergency line
A leak call placed on a weekday morning is almost always looked at the same day. After hours the phone is answered by a person in Woodside, not a call centre that takes a message and hopes somebody rings you back in the morning.
A written scope and a fixed price before anyone climbs
You get the measured roof area, the build-up we propose, what happens if we open it up and find rotted decking, and one number — before a single shingle is lifted. No hourly meter, no discovery of a second problem halfway through that doubles the bill.
Licensed, insured, permitted, and warranted on paper
A licensed contractor stands behind the work, we carry liability and workers' compensation, and the workmanship warranty is handed to you as a document at the end of the job rather than described to you on the phone at the beginning.
Our own crews, on our own payroll
The people on your roof are employees who have worked together for years, not a crew a broker found this morning. Several of them have re-roofed the same Woodside blocks twice over a career.
Safety
The part of this trade that is not negotiable
Roofing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and almost all of that risk is a management problem rather than an unavoidable one. Every crew works to the same rules whether anybody is watching or not.
- Fall protection on every roof, at every height, including the quick jobs — especially the quick jobs.
- Ladders footed, tied and set at the right angle, with a standoff so they never rest on a gutter.
- Nobody works in lightning, in high wind, or on a wet steep roof, whatever the schedule says.
- Hector sets out every roof before work starts, and walks it again before we call it finished.
- Ground protection, a container rather than your neighbour's kerb, and a magnet run twice a day.
The last one matters more than it sounds. A roofing nail in a car tyre is the single most common complaint about roofers anywhere, and it is entirely preventable by somebody being bothered.
Credentials
Licensed, insured, and happy to prove it
Licensed home improvement contractor
We are a licensed home improvement contractor, we carry general liability and workers' compensation, and a certificate of insurance naming your building or managing agent goes out the same day it is asked for. Where the work needs a permit and an inspection, we file for it rather than burying an unpermitted roof under the next thirty years of weather.
General liability and workers' compensation
Certificates issued to your building, board or managing agent the same day they are requested, with additional insureds named where a building requires it. For contract customers they are already on file.
Permits and inspections
Where the work requires them we file for them and see the job through to sign-off, rather than leaving an unpermitted roof for the next owner's attorney to find.
Manufacturer-certified installation
Which matters mainly because it is what keeps the material warranty alive. We install to the manufacturer's specification whether or not anybody will ever check.
Written workmanship warranty
On top of the material warranty, handed over as a document at the end of the job. Not described on the phone at the start of it.
Recent work
A few finished roofs
The people
Five of us you will actually meet
Not a stock photograph of a call centre. These are the people who answer the phone, survey the roof and stand on it.
Free survey, written quote, fixed price
Get a roof quote, or call the 24-hour line
Tell us what you are seeing and we will tell you honestly whether it needs somebody tonight or whether it will keep until the morning. Surveys and written quotes are free, and leak diagnostics are $145, credited in full against any repair you approve.