Roofing & Exterior FAQ

It depends on the size and pitch of the roof, how many old layers have to come off, the condition of the deck underneath, the shingle line you choose, and details like skylights, chimneys and steep-slope access. A simple single-storey bungalow and a cut-up two-storey with multiple valleys are very different jobs even at the same square footage. We give you a real, itemized number after a free on-site inspection — we don't quote roofs sight-unseen or off satellite imagery.

Yes, always. We inspect the roof and the rest of the exterior, photograph any problems, take measurements, and send you an honest written quote — usually within one business day. No cost, no obligation, no pressure, and no charge if you decide to do nothing.

Usually it's scope. Cheap roofing quotes tend to leave out the things that decide whether a roof lasts: full ice-and-water shield at eaves and valleys instead of the code minimum, new flashings instead of reusing bent ones, replacing rotten decking instead of shingling over it, proper ventilation, and disposal. Ask every contractor to itemize those five things and the quotes usually converge. We'd rather explain our number than win on a number we can't build to.

Travel is factored into the quote, not added as a surprise afterward. For acreages and towns further out — Olds, Innisfail, Red Deer, Drumheller, Canmore — we schedule the job so crews and materials arrive together and the work runs continuously, which is what actually keeps rural pricing sensible.

A deposit confirms your spot in the schedule and covers material ordering; the balance is due on completion after you've walked the finished job with us. On approved insurance claims, the insurer's payment schedule drives the timing and we work to it. Everything is written down before anyone starts.

Yes — it's one of the main things we do. Calgary sits in Canada's most active hail corridor, and the June 2020 northeast storm remains the costliest hailstorm in Canadian history. We inspect and photo-document the damage, meet your adjuster on-site, and prepare the scope and measurements your insurer needs. On most approved claims you pay only your deductible.

Hail damage usually isn't obvious from the ground. What an inspector looks for is bruising — soft spots where the mat under the granules has fractured — plus granule loss exposing black asphalt, cracked or split shingles, and matching impact marks on soft metals like vents, flashing and eavestroughs. If a significant storm has come through, book a free inspection. We'll tell you honestly whether there's a claim worth filing.

Have us inspect first. We'll confirm whether the damage is real and claim-worthy so you're not opening a claim for nothing. If it is, we'll document everything properly and walk you through filing.

Policies vary, and some insurers apply a limitation period measured from the date of the storm rather than the date you noticed the damage. Don't sit on it — if a storm hit your area, get an inspection while the evidence is fresh and the date is easy to establish.

That's between you and your insurer, and it depends on your policy and history. What we can tell you is that hail is generally treated as a weather event rather than something you caused, and that leaving real damage unrepaired can create bigger problems later — including trouble with a future claim. Ask your broker directly; we'll give you the documentation either way.

Yes, and you should make sure it's all inspected. Hail that damages a roof frequently also dents eavestroughs and downspouts, cracks vinyl siding on the storm-facing elevation, and hits the detached garage. Because we do all four trades, one scope covers the whole property instead of three contractors arguing about who owns what.

Most residential asphalt re-roofs are done in one to two days. Larger, steeper or more cut-up roofs and full exterior packages take longer. We give you a firm timeline before you commit, protect your landscaping, and finish with a magnetic nail sweep of the property.

Realistically, 18 to 30 years depending on the shingle grade, the quality of the installation, attic ventilation and how much hail the roof takes. Manufacturer 'lifetime' ratings assume a roof that never sees Alberta hail. A well-ventilated architectural shingle roof installed to spec commonly reaches its second decade in good shape; the same shingle on a poorly ventilated attic can cook itself out a decade early.

Often, yes — if the roof is otherwise sound, we repair leaks, flashing and localized storm damage rather than pushing a full replacement. The honest dividing line is age and extent: past roughly 15 years with widespread granule loss and brittle shingles, repairs stop being economical because new material won't seal to old. We'll tell you which side of that line you're on.

Class 4 is the top rating in the UL 2218 steel-ball impact test — the shingle takes a two-inch impact without the mat cracking. In a hail corridor like Calgary's, that's the difference between a storm that costs you a deductible and one that costs you nothing. Many Alberta insurers also discount premiums for impact-rated roofing; ask your broker before you choose a shingle.

Only what actually needs it, and we show you before we do. Once the old shingles come off we walk the deck for soft spots, delamination and rot — usually around chimneys, in valleys and at the eaves where ice damming has done its work. Rotten sheathing gets replaced; sound sheathing doesn't. It's priced per sheet and itemized so nothing is a surprise.

Because Calgary's freeze-thaw cycle punishes unbalanced attics. A warm attic melts the snow on the upper roof; the meltwater runs down and refreezes at the cold eave, building an ice dam that forces water back up under the shingles. Balanced intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge keeps the deck cold and the dam from forming. It's also what stops summer heat from baking the shingles from below and voiding the manufacturer warranty.

Re-roofing generally requires a building permit through the City of Calgary, and other municipalities in our service area have their own requirements. We handle the permit process as part of the job so the work is documented and code-compliant — which also matters if you sell the house later.

Yes, with judgment. Asphalt shingles need warmth to activate their sealant strip, so a January install gets hand-sealing where it matters and we're honest that full thermal sealing happens in spring. Emergency repairs and storm work happen year-round — a leak doesn't wait for May.

All of it — roofing, siding, eavestroughs, soffit and fascia, and garage building. Those trades are one connected water-management system, and doing them together from one accountable crew means the whole exterior works properly and one company stands behind it.

Vinyl is affordable, genuinely low-maintenance, and comes in a wide colour range; insulated vinyl adds real R-value and a more solid feel. James Hardie fibre cement is the premium upgrade — dimensionally stable, non-combustible, far more resistant to hail and wind-blown debris, and it holds its factory colour for decades. Hardie costs more and weighs more to install; vinyl gets you the biggest visual change per dollar. We install both and will tell you which suits your house and budget.

Vinyl becomes brittle in deep cold and is best left for milder stretches; fibre cement cuts and fastens fine in cold weather. Alberta winters usually offer enough chinook windows to keep exterior work moving, and we'll schedule around the material you choose rather than forcing a bad install.

Fascia is the board along the roof edge that your eavestroughs hang on; soffit is the vented underside of the overhang. Together they close the roof assembly, feed intake air to the attic, and keep birds, wasps and rodents out. Rotten fascia is the single most common reason eavestroughs sag and pull away — and it's usually a symptom of a water problem above it, which is why we look at all three together.

Yes — seamless eavestroughs are formed on-site to the exact length of your roofline, so there are far fewer joints to leak or clog. We install 5" and 6" profiles, plus downspouts, extensions, gutter guards, and matching soffit and fascia.

Five-inch handles most Calgary bungalows and standard two-storeys. Six-inch moves roughly 40% more water and is the right call for large roof areas, steep pitches that dump fast, long runs with few downspouts, and acreage homes with big footprints. If your existing troughs overflow in a heavy summer downpour, the problem is usually capacity, not slope.

It depends on what's above your roof. Under mature elms, poplars and spruce — think Elbow Park, Mount Royal, Bowness, older Bridgeland streets — guards pay for themselves in avoided cleanings and avoided ice damage. On a new suburban lot with young landscaping, they're optional. We'll tell you honestly where premium micro-mesh earns its price and where a simpler guard does the job.

Twice a year is the rule of thumb in Calgary — once after spring melt and once in late fall after the leaves drop. Under heavy tree cover, make it three. Clogged troughs in November freeze solid, and the ice that forms is what tears fascia off a house.

Well away from the foundation — a minimum of 1.8 m is a good working target on Calgary's clay soils, which swell and shrink dramatically with moisture. Short or missing extensions are one of the most common causes of a wet basement, and one of the cheapest to fix.

Yes. We build detached single, double and oversized garages from the pad up — concrete slab, framing, sheathing, roofing, siding, soffit, fascia, eavestroughs, doors and trim — so the whole structure comes from one crew with one warranty. We also re-roof and re-side existing garages to match the house.

Almost always yes: a development permit and a building permit, plus electrical and any trade permits. Setbacks, maximum size, height limits and lane access rules vary by parcel, and corner lots and laneway properties carry additional requirements. We handle the permit process and build to what's approved.

Typically three to six weeks of on-site work for a standard detached double once permits are in hand, split across the pad, framing, exterior envelope and finishing. Permit timelines are the variable — they sit with the municipality, not with us, so we start that clock early.

That's the point of doing all four trades in-house. We match the shingle line and colour, the siding profile and colour, the soffit and fascia, and the eavestrough profile so the garage reads as part of the property rather than a shed that showed up later.

Yes — a written workmanship warranty on our installation, on top of the manufacturer's material warranty. Because we install to the manufacturer's published specification, that material warranty stays valid, which is the part most homeowners don't realize they can lose to a bad install.

Yes — licensed, fully insured, and WCB-covered. That protects you directly: you're never liable for an injury on your property, and you have real recourse if anything goes wrong. Ask any contractor for current certificates before they start; a legitimate one will hand them over without hesitating.

We're based in NE Calgary and work a radius of roughly 180 km. That covers all four Calgary quadrants, Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Okotoks, High River, Langdon and Strathmore, the QEII corridor north through Crossfield, Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds and Innisfail to Red Deer and Sylvan Lake, the foothills west through Bearspaw, Springbank, Bragg Creek and Canmore, the ranch country south to Diamond Valley and Nanton, and east to Beiseker, Three Hills and Drumheller — plus every hamlet and acreage in between.

Regularly. Rocky View, Foothills, Mountain View and Red Deer County acreages are a normal part of the schedule. They come with their own realities — long approaches, full wind exposure, large roof areas, well and septic locations to protect, and materials that have to be staged rather than fed off a truck. We price and schedule for that up front.

It depends on the season. Spring and post-storm periods are the busiest — after a major hail event, every roofer in the city books out fast, which is exactly why an early inspection matters. Repairs and leaks get triaged ahead of planned work.

English, Punjabi and Hindi. If it's easier to talk through a roof or a claim in Punjabi or Hindi, just say so when you call.