Do not just entrust your home's roof and exterior wall coatings project to an unqualified or dishonest contractor. Protect yourself and get the best value for your money by looking at these things when it is time to hire.

Having your roof and exterior walls coated is one of the best ways to increase the value of your home and protect it against outdoor elements. Whether the project is small or it involves the entire roof and exterior walls of your house, you will likely need the expertise of a roof and wall coatings contractor to finish the work and achieve the results you are after.

Picking the right contractor for the job should be dealt with judiciously. While it might be tempting to hire someone who submits the lowest bid or offers an enticing warranty, there are other important factors you need to carefully consider. Here are some of them:

Experience. One of the most important rules in hiring a service professional is to look at their experience. At the most, you want to hire a contractor with a minimum of five years experience to ensure they know everything about the trade and they exercise good work habits and business practices.

License. Roof and wall coatings contractors should have a license to operate and should be authorized by manufacturers to do the coating application. Hence, do a little background check on these aspects. While a license may not always guarantee a reliable contractor, taking this into account is a means to remove fledgling contractors from the list. Also, you can use the license number of contractors to see if there are complaints filed against them. Manufacturer authorization, on the other hand, will ensure you will be given a warranty, so be sure to ask for it.

Insurance. You can never afford to have someone doing work on your roof and exterior walls without an insurance in place. If one of the workers get injured or they did a faulty workmanship and they are not insured, you will be held liable. Get copies of insurance back guarantee policy, general liability and workers' compensation insurance from contractors or their insurance companies. Do not feel bad if you need to be firm on this request since this will protect you in case something unexpected crops up.

Quality of work. When meeting with multiple contractors, see samples of their work to judge their workmanship. Or, ask if they could supply you with the names of their recent clients so that you can arrange an on-site inspection to better gauge the quality of their work.

Bids. Once you have chosen several candidates for the project, get bids from the contractors. For proper comparison, write down a detailed specifications of your roof and wall coatings projects and furnish each contractor with a copy. Doing so will be easier for the contractors to make an estimate based on your specifications.

Contract. This paperwork is essential as it will give you all the necessary details about the work involved, so go over it carefully. The contract should be amended to your specific project and that the terms or clauses are agreeable. Everything should also be written down including the costs, materials, labor and anything in between.

Do Roof Coatings Really Provide Great Savings For the Long Term? 

Nowadays, a lot of homeowners and businesses know that the secret to keeping a quality and long lasting roof over head is the application of roof coating. A well-designed and properly applied roof coating can provide the roof with the ability to resist weathering, hydrolysis, ozone and ponding water, thereby extending its service life for several years without sacrificing aesthetics. Apart from this, more and more people are turning to roof coatings due to the supposed cost savings it can provide. But, do roof coatings really offer long term savings? If so, how?


Initial Outlay

When you attempt to estimate the real upfront cost of a roof coating, you need to consider some important factors that could affect its price. These things may include the type of coating, method of application, coating thickness, building location, the kind of roof, its existing condition and surface area. Therefore, in cases where the roof is recently installed, the application of roof coating may be less expensive since minimal preparation and little to no repair will be carried out. 


However, higher upfront costs can occur when the roof is already nearing the end of its life cycle, considering that a lot of repairs or prep work needs to be done in order for the roof coating product to properly adhere to the surface. A roof that requires the use of specialty reflective pigments–usually in the case of colored roofs that will be converted into cool roofs–can also yield higher costs since tests are meant to be carried out in order to find the right product suitable for the roof.

Apart from these things, you also need to look at the labor cost as well as ongoing maintenance that could add up to the overall price of the application.

Long Term Savings

If you are planning to have your roof coated, the aforesaid cost considerations might discourage you, especially if you have limited budget to spare. However, before you give up on the idea, you should also factor in the savings that a roof coating job can provide to you for the long term.

Energy cost savings. A lot of roof coatings available in the market today use materials that comply with building code standards for cool roofs, such as white acrylic coatings, elastomeric and silicone application among others. Hence, if you opt for a reflective roof coating, your roof will be able to better reflect  UV rays, which means lesser heat is transferred to your home. As your home stays cooler, you can significantly reduce the need for air conditioning use, thereby offering you the opportunity to cut back on your monthly energy bills.

Qualify for rebates and incentives. Some utility companies and government-sponsored agencies provide rebates and incentives to homeowners who utilize energy-efficient roof coatings. In fact, it is possible for you to enjoy a tax deduction of up to $1.80 per square foot, if you use an Energy Star-rated coating product on your roof. The possibility of a rebate or incentive alone makes it worthwhile to have your roof coated.

Reduction on maintenance, repair and replacing costs. As roof coating products are designed to provide an added layer of protection to your roof, a typical application can add anywhere from 10 to 15 more years to your roof's service life. Thus, you don't have to worry about maintenance and repairs as well as replacements in the future, which, in turn, offer a great deal of savings that you can use up for other purposes.

This article was brought to you by Home Coatings, a wall and Roof coating specialist. Some of their notable services include wall and roof restoration and repair, penetrating damp treatments, and insulation application. All their top-notch solutions are offered to clients throughout Scotland and the North of England.