The work, and how to start it

Three things, and no fourth

Roofing, gutters and downspouts. There is no siding division, no window division, no commercial arm and no intention to add one. A narrow trade is easier to be good at, and it means nobody arrives to look at a roof and leaves having sold a kitchen.

Replacement

Full tear off to the deck, decking replaced where it is soft, underlayment, ice and water membrane at the vulnerable details, valley metal, new flashings, field and ridge. Shingles are Atlas and Malarkey.

Repair

Pipe boots, step and counterflashing, valley metal, nail pops, storm damaged sections. The detail that is leaking, rather than the whole plane, where that is the honest answer.

Inspection

A written condition report with photographs and measurements. Yours to keep whether or not Keys does the work.

Gutter

Seamless gutter formed on site to the length of the run, sized to the plane feeding it, hung on hidden hangers with deliberate fall. Guards, realignment and repair.

Drainage

Downspouts, extensions, reroutes and underground carry away from the foundation.

And the declines, equally plainly: no representation or negotiation on an insurance claim, because RSMo 407.725 does not permit a Missouri roofing contractor to do it; no work outside roofing and drainage; no price quoted before somebody has been on the roof; and no pressure to decide on the day.

What happens after you call

1. A conversation. Someone calls back, usually the same day, and asks what the roof is doing. If the answer is that nothing is wrong and you want a baseline, that is a legitimate reason to call and it gets the same treatment.
2. Someone gets on the roof. Not a drive by and not an aerial estimate. The details described in what actually ages a roof here are only visible up close.
3. Photographs and measurements. Plane by plane, with the problems shown rather than described.
4. A written scope. Against the fourteen items in what a written scope contains, including the per sheet decking price before anything is opened up.
5. A decision, in your own time. There is no expiring price and no crew that is only in the neighbourhood this week.
6. The work, and the clean up. Protection of the drive and the plantings, the dumpster where the municipality allows it, and a magnetic sweep before anyone leaves.

Working on a Ladue property

A few practical things are different on a large lot with mature planting, and they are worth agreeing before the day rather than discovering during it.

• The drive. Long, often old, sometimes not built for a loaded delivery truck. Where that is the case the material gets staged differently. It is a question worth asking any bidder.
• The plantings. Protection of beds, specimen trees and hard landscaping is part of the scope, not a courtesy, and it should be written down.
• Access and hours. Municipal conditions on start times and on where a dumpster may sit are real and are the contractor's problem to solve.
• The canopy. On a house under old oaks the valleys and the gutter outlets are usually the live issue. See mature tree cover and what it does to a roof.
• Complexity. Dormers, multiple planes, real chimneys and long valleys mean the detail work is the majority of the job. That is where the money goes and it is where the scope should be most specific.

Keys is not a franchise and not a national brand operating behind a local number. The crews are the same crews. The company is licensed and insured, and it does not office in Ladue, for the reasons set out in where a roofer is registered.

You do not need a crisis

• A stain has appeared on a ceiling and you would like to know where the water is actually getting in.
• The gutter overflows in the same place in every heavy rain.
• You are buying or selling and want a condition report that is not a sales document.
• A storm went through and you want to know honestly whether anything happened.
• The roof is of an age where you would rather plan the replacement than be surprised by it.
• Somebody knocked on the door with alarming news and you would like a second opinion from a company that did not come to you.

Any of those is a fair reason. So is simple curiosity about how much life is left.