Roofing Contract Checklist: What a Good Roofing Quote and Contract Must Include in Alberta

A roofing quote for a full replacement should read like a bill of materials plus a description of the work, not a single number. Below are the line items you should expect on an asphalt reroof of a typical Airdrie home, whether it is a bungalow in Thorburn or a two-storey in Kings Heights.

If any of those rows is missing from the roofing contract, ask. The two most revealing are the decking allowance and the shingle line: a contractor who writes "30-year shingles" without a brand and product is leaving room to install whatever is cheapest on the day. On permits, our guide to roofing permits in Airdrie, Alberta explains when one is needed. For what each of those items contributes to the total, our roof replacement service in Airdrie page explains how we itemise every quote.

Alberta regulates businesses that take money before delivering work under the Consumer Protection Act's prepaid contracting rules. In broad terms, contractors taking deposits are expected to be licensed for prepaid contracting and to either post security or limit the deposit they take. The details change, so confirm current requirements with Service Alberta at https://www.alberta.ca before you pay anything. The point is that a company asking for half up front in cash is not following the usual model.

A reasonable payment structure for a residential reroof looks like a modest deposit to secure materials and a date, a possible progress payment on a multi-day or multi-trade job, and the balance on completion after you have walked the roof edge and yard with the crew lead. Payment by cheque, e-transfer or card gives you a record; cash discounts are a red flag for a company that may not be around to honour a warranty.

The contract should also state the total price, whether GST is included, what is excluded, and how extras are priced. On the last point, decking replacement priced per sheet and disclosed before installation continues is the norm. A vague "additional charges may apply" with no rate is not.

A roofing contract should state an expected start window and an expected duration, and it should be honest that both are subject to weather. Roofing in Alberta is a weather business. Rain, wind over about 40 km/h, and temperatures below the shingle manufacturer's sealing threshold all stop work, and a contract that promises a firm date with no weather clause is either naive or written to be broken.

What you want is a clause that says the contractor will notify you of delays, that a partially stripped roof will be dried in with underlayment and tarped at the end of every day, and that the job will not be left open over a weekend. Read our guide to how long a roof replacement takes for realistic timelines by roof size. In peak hail-repair season after a storm like the one on August 8, 2026, start windows can stretch to weeks; a written date protects you from being bumped by a bigger job.

The most common mid-job surprise on an Airdrie reroof is soft or rotted decking found after tear-off, usually along the eaves where ice dams sat for years, or around a chimney or skylight that leaked slowly. The second most common is a ventilation problem that has to be fixed for the manufacturer warranty to apply. Both are legitimate; both should be handled by a written change order.

• The contract states the per-unit price for decking replacement before the job starts.
• The crew shows you the damaged area, or photographs it, before covering it.
• You approve the extra in writing (text or email is fine) before the work proceeds.
• The change order shows the quantity, the rate and the new total.
• No other scope changes are made without the same process.

A contractor who finds rot and simply shingles over it is doing you no favours, and one who finds rot and adds $2,000 without showing you is doing something worse. The change-order clause is how you avoid both.

Every reroof carries two warranties and the roofing contract must keep them separate. The manufacturer's warranty covers the shingle product against defects, and its length, coverage and the conditions that void it are set by IKO, BP, GAF, Owens Corning, Malarkey or CertainTeed, not by your roofer. The workmanship warranty covers the installation, which is where most leaks actually come from, and it is only as good as the company behind it.

The contract should state the workmanship warranty term in years, what it covers (leaks from installation defects, flashing failures, blow-offs in normal wind), what it excludes (storm damage, foot traffic, other trades), and how to make a claim. It should also say whether the manufacturer's extended or system warranty is being registered, by whom, and confirm that the products used qualify. Many extended warranties require a full system of matching starter, underlayment, ridge cap and ventilation, which is another reason the itemised list matters. Our guide to roof warranties explained goes through the fine print.

At Apex Roofing Airdrie, we put a written workmanship guarantee on top of the manufacturer warranty on every reroof, and it is on the contract, not on a handshake.

Two documents protect you if something goes wrong during the job. The first is a certificate of commercial general liability insurance, which covers damage to your property and injuries to third parties. The second is a Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) Alberta clearance letter, which shows the contractor's account is in good standing, so an injured worker on your roof does not become your problem. Ask for both, dated within the last 30 days, and confirm the named company matches the one on your contract.

Alberta's Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act allows subcontractors and suppliers who go unpaid by your contractor to register a lien against your property. The Act provides for a holdback, commonly 10 percent, that the owner retains for a set period after completion. Whether that applies to your job and how to handle it is worth a question to a lawyer or Service Alberta; at minimum, know that using a company with an in-house crew and direct supplier accounts, rather than layers of subcontractors, sharply reduces the risk.

Alberta consumer protection rules give you cancellation rights on certain contracts signed at your home, typically a cooling-off period of ten days for direct sales. The specifics depend on how and where the contract was signed; confirm the current rules with Service Alberta. A legitimate contractor will tell you about them without being asked. A storm chaser will try to get you to sign and pay on the doorstep before you have read anything.

Watch for contracts that assign your insurance claim to the contractor, authorise them to negotiate with your insurer on your behalf, or make the contract contingent on the insurer's approval with a cancellation fee if you back out. In Alberta you choose your own contractor on a hail claim, and you do not need to sign anything to get an insurer's estimate. Our guide to roofing scams and storm chasers in Alberta covers the patterns that appear after every major hail event.

Print this and go through your roofing contract line by line. Anything you cannot tick is a question for the contractor before you sign, not after.

• Scope: full tear-off stated; number of layers; disposal included.
• Materials: shingle manufacturer, product line, grade and colour; underlayment product; ice-and-water product and coverage; starter and ridge cap; flashing (new, not reused); drip edge; vent type and count.
• Decking: per-sheet price and included quantity.
• Price: total, GST status, exclusions, and how extras are calculated.
• Deposit and payments: amount, timing, method; consistent with Alberta prepaid contracting rules.
• Dates: start window, expected duration, weather clause, daily dry-in commitment.
• Change orders: written approval required before extra work proceeds.
• Warranty: workmanship term, coverage and exclusions; manufacturer warranty registered and by whom.
• Insurance and WCB: liability certificate and WCB clearance letter attached, company names match.
• Permit: who applies, cost included or not.
• Cleanup: magnetic sweep, debris removal, property protection.
• Cancellation: your rights stated; no insurance assignment clauses.
• Signatures: legal business name, address, GST number, signed by someone with authority.

Notice that "lowest price" is not on the list. The cheapest quote is often the one missing the most rows.

A few questions asked in the driveway save a lot of contract negotiation later. Who exactly will be on my roof, employees or subcontractors? Which shingle product, and can I see the wrapper on install day? What is your decking price per sheet? What happens if it rains mid-job? Who registers the manufacturer warranty? Can I have your insurance certificate and WCB letter? How do you handle extras? When was the last Airdrie roof you did that I can drive past?

The answers matter less than how easily they come. A company that quotes hundreds of roofs a year has the paperwork ready and answers without flinching.

Every estimate from Apex Roofing Airdrie is a free, no-obligation, itemised written quote from an on-site visit, with the product names, the decking rate, the dates and the warranties on the page. Our crew is local and in-house, and we carry the insurance and WCB paperwork you should be asking every roofer for. If you have a quote from someone else and want to know what it leaves out, bring it along; we are happy to walk through it line by line. Book a same-week estimate and put the contract to the test.