Quick answer
Treat a roofer’s photos as marketing until they come with an address you can drive past. Ask for recent roofs near you, look at them from the street and talk to the owners if they agree. Then check what no photo can fake: a City of Calgary business licence (call 311), a WCB Alberta clearance letter before you pay, and the BBB.
Estimates by phone: (587) 804-9266 · Good Roofing · Calgary-owned since 2014 · 10-year workmanship warranty.
Photos are the easiest thing a roofer can show you, and they’ve never been easier to fake. AI tools can draw a convincing roof, a crew and a before-and-after, and we know it first-hand, because our own ads and new site images are made with AI, in Overs, a tool made by our owner, Abhi Chawla. Those images are marketing and illustration. A roofer’s past work is something else, and here is how to check it in Calgary.
01 · Section
Marketing images and job photos do different jobs
A marketing image sells a feeling: a new roof at golden hour, a crew at work, a seasonal offer. It can be staged, licensed from a stock library or made with AI, and that’s fine as long as nobody presents it as a real job. A job photo is evidence of a specific roof, at a specific address, on a specific date. When you’re comparing roofers, only the second kind tells you anything about their work.
02 · Section
Ask for addresses, then drive past
Past work you can stand in front of beats any gallery.
- 01Ask for three roofs near you from the last year or two. A roofer who works in your part of Calgary can name streets, and a house built like yours shows what you’d get.
- 02Look from the sidewalk. Check for straight shingle rows, a ridge line without dips, tidy flashing where walls meet the roof and eavestroughs that drain to downspouts. You don’t need a ladder to spot sloppy work.
- 03Ask to talk to a homeowner. If the roofer can connect you, ask how the crew left the yard, whether the price matched the written quote and how surprises were handled.
- 04Match any photo to its house. If a roofer shows you a job photo, ask where it is. In a real before-and-after the windows, trim, trees and neighbours stay put, and only the roof changes.
03 · Section
Check what a photo can’t fake
The City of Calgary’s advice on hiring a contractor after storm damage starts with paperwork: write down the company name, the owner’s name, the business address and the phone number, then check them.
- 01City of Calgary business licence. Contractors are required to hold a valid City business licence, and the City says to call 311 to confirm it.
- 02WCB Alberta clearance letter. It shows whether the contractor has WCB coverage and an account in good standing. WCB Alberta says to get one before you hire and before you release payment, because if the contractor hasn’t paid its premiums, you may be liable for them. You can request one without a WCB account.
- 03A prepaid contracting licence, if they take money up front away from their office. Alberta requires a prepaid contracting licence for a business that sells home repair or improvement work somewhere other than its place of business and takes payment before the work is done. Service Alberta’s licence search shows who holds one.
- 04The Better Business Bureau. The City’s list includes calling the BBB at 403-531-8784.
- 05A second opinion on the roof. The City points homeowners to roof inspectors through AARA and ARCA.
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After a big hailstorm, check twice
The August 5, 2024 hailstorm led to $3.25 billion in insured losses and more than 130,000 claims, making it the second-costliest insured disaster in Canadian history, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. A storm like that brings roofers from everywhere, and a polished ad costs almost nothing to make now. The paperwork checks can all be done from your phone. Our page on spotting storm-chaser roofers covers the door-knocking side, and how to read roofing reviews covers the star ratings.
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Check us the same way
Run every check on this page on Good Roofing too. Our marketing images are made in Overs, an AI tool made by our owner, Abhi Chawla, and they’re marketing and illustration. Job photos are a separate thing. For an estimate, call (587) 804-9266.