I nearly got caught out today, so I thought I'd put a warning up, in case they are going around different areas. Got a door bell after lunch, a young guy in what looked like typical work site clothes. Said he is a roofer and he was going around to give notice of impending repairs to one of the houses on my block. Typical apologies for the noise and work trucks etc.
Red flag: no business card.
Well, that's fine, go do your thing. As he is walking away he turns back and says 'oh have you had your roof checked recently? Because you know, I'm a roofer and I noticed your roof capping is starting to lift."
This should have been red flag #2 but I didn't spot it. It's an older house, so it is quite possible. He took a pic and zoomed in to show a Ridge and said this usually means the nails are lifting and you just need to hammer it down. I was still thinking he was just a roofer noticing an issue on my house.
He reinforced that by telling me "if you have a regular repair place, tell them to fix it asap." so not trying to sell me on it. I told him "sure I have a guy, I'll give him a call, thanks for pointing it out.
Red flag #2 (or 3?) sense of urgency. 'you better do this straight away you don't want your roof falling on the neighbours house" waaait a second, my capping is lifting and now my roof is going to fall off?
"in fact if you let me onto your balcony I can climb up and hammer it down for you", no need to pay, maybe just get me a juice or something…
Oh that's nice of you, he won't even ask me for money, maybe he is just being nice.
He asked for my number and gave me his (no meishi….) and said he'd call in the morning before he starts his main work to go do my roof. And off he went.
I get upstairs and explained to my wife, she immediately said call him and say no. It's a well known scam here that they go on your roof, and then break something and then tell you it has to be repaired right away, and will cost a lot more money.
I got my drone out, flew over the roof, and sure enough, my roof capping is fine, as is the rest of the roof (shhh something about flying drones in high density areas, I don't know).
I called him and said not to bother, I've gone and fixed if myself. Lucky I didn't let him onto my roof… Hopefully nobody else here gets done…
by Tokyo_Dom