What to check before you hand over the final payment
The final payment is the last leverage you will ever have on this job. Spend twenty minutes before you release it.
Almost every complaint in the roofing record was filed by somebody who had already paid. That is the whole reason this page exists.
A roof replacement is loud, fast and finished in a day or two — which means the walkthrough tends to happen in a hurry, in fading light, with a tired crew waiting to leave. The final payment is the only leverage that survives to the end of the job. Twenty minutes before you release it is worth more than twenty phone calls after.
Did you get what you actually ordered?
Substitution complaints are more common than most homeowners expect — and the substitution is often discovered weeks later, from the street.
- “Half is shingles and the other half is roll out material of long sheets. I did not approve it.” Homeowner complaint record, MO
- “They put the wrong color roof on my house” Homeowner complaint record, MO
- “shingles were installed improperly and did not match” Homeowner complaint record, IL
- “no TPO was part of my consent to choose them” Homeowner complaint record, GA
- “shingles were not right... roof is sinking in several places and shingles are coming up” Homeowner complaint record, GA
- “entire back sides screws were driven in so hard they all dented” Homeowner complaint record, OH
- “did not replace any of the decking until I pointed it out” Homeowner complaint record, OH
Check the material, not just the look
- Ask for a wrapper or a photo of the bundle labels The shingle brand, line and colour are printed on the packaging. Compare against your contract. This takes one minute and settles the most expensive category of dispute on this page.
- Confirm the colour in daylight, from the street Colours read differently on a sample board than across a whole elevation, and a wrong-colour roof is not something anyone is going to redo cheerfully.
- Ask what decking was replaced and see the invoice for it Rotten decking is charged by the sheet. One homeowner was "billed for 38 boards at $60 a piece" — reasonable if true, worth seeing evidence of either way.
- Ask whether anything was substituted, and why Substitutions are sometimes legitimate — supply problems are real. Being told afterwards is the problem, not the substitution.
The nails and the mess
This is the most predictable complaint of all, and the most preventable. A tear-off scatters thousands of old nails across the ground around your house.
- “still finding nails in my yard” Homeowner complaint record, ME
- “destroyed my flower garden” Homeowner complaint record, ME
- “found nails and roofing materials all around my house” Homeowner complaint record, GA
- “Failed to clean up and remove all raw materials” Homeowner complaint record, MD
- “Fence damage Shingle popup Gutter leaks” Homeowner complaint record, TX
- “damaged our HVAC system...costing us nearly $3,000” Homeowner complaint record, FL
- “they were causing damage on the interior of the house... cracks are eight feet long” Homeowner complaint record, MD
The twenty-minute walk
- Watch them run a magnet — twice, in two directions Ask for it in the driveway, the lawn, the flowerbeds and the street. Nails find tyres and bare feet for months. A crew that has already done it will happily do it again in front of you.
- Look in the gutters and downspouts Shingle granules, offcuts and nails end up there and cause the next problem. Also check the gutters were reattached properly, and that none are now sagging or leaking at the joints.
- Check every ground-level thing near the eaves AC condenser, fence panels, deck boards, planting, exterior lights, siding. Complaint records name HVAC units, fences and gardens repeatedly.
- Walk the interior — ceilings, top-floor walls, and the attic Cracks, popped nails, and in the attic: daylight where there should not be any, and any staining.
- Look at the ridge, valleys and every penetration from the ground with a zoom lens Straight ridge line, flashing at each pipe and the chimney, no exposed nail heads. Exposed nails are a specific complaint in the record — they rust and then they leak.
- Count the layers at a rake edge If you paid for a full tear-off, you should not see the old roof still under the new one at the edges.
Who was actually on your roof?
Subcontracting is normal in roofing and is not a problem by itself — most established companies use crews. What the complaint record shows is what happens when nobody owns the result.
- “Roof put in...by a SUBCONTRACTOR...did half the work AFTER DARK” Homeowner complaint record, FL
- “people with no ID of any kind and admitted to being unskilled labour” Homeowner complaint record, FL
- “roofers came an hour and a half early before 7:00 a.m.” Homeowner complaint record, GA
- “I feel they are responsible for holding the company accountable” Homeowner complaint record, TX
Two things to establish before the job, not during it: is the crew employed or subcontracted, and who is the single named person responsible if something goes wrong. And treat roofing done after dark as a red flag on its own — flashing detail and nail placement are precision work, and nobody does precision work on a roof by phone torch.
Paperwork to collect at the same time
Before the cheque leaves your hand
- Final invoice matching the contract Line by line. Note anything added and confirm you approved it at the time.
- Workmanship warranty in writing, with a start date The term, the start date, what it covers, and the callback process. Verbal warranties are the single most common regret in the record.
- Manufacturer warranty registration Many require registration within a window after installation, sometimes by the contractor. Ask whether it has been done and get the confirmation.
- Permit and passed final inspection If a permit was pulled, the job is not finished until it passes. One homeowner "never received the final permit inspection for the roof."
- Lien waiver and paid-in-full receipt Confirms the contractor and ideally the material supplier have been paid and waive lien rights on your property.
- Photos of the finished roof, including the flashing details Ask the crew — they are already up there. It is the baseline you will want if anything is disputed in year three.
Getting it looked at independently
If something looks wrong and you are being told it is fine, an independent roofer will inspect for a modest fee. That is far cheaper before the final payment than after — which is the theme of this entire page.
Roofing contractors by city
Trades that clean up after roofing goes wrong
Own a roofing company?
If your crews run the magnet twice and hand over the warranty in writing, this page is describing you. Claim your listing free and say so where homeowners are reading.
Claim your free listing See listing plansQuestions homeowners actually ask
What should I inspect before making the final roof payment?
Six things, and it takes about twenty minutes: the shingle wrapper or bundle labels against your contract, the gutters and downspouts for debris and reattachment, everything at ground level near the eaves (AC unit, fence, planting, siding), the interior ceilings and top-floor walls for cracking, the ridge and every penetration through a phone zoom, and a magnet sweep run in front of you.
Then collect the paperwork: final invoice, written workmanship warranty with a start date, manufacturer warranty registration, permit and passed inspection, and a lien waiver.
How do I know the roofer used the shingles I paid for?
Ask for a wrapper from a bundle, or a photo of the bundle labels taken on site. Brand, product line and colour are printed on the packaging — compare it against your contract.
It takes a minute and it settles the most expensive category of dispute here. Complaint records include wrong colours, mismatched shingles and a roof finished half in shingles and half in rolled material without the homeowner's approval.
Are roofers supposed to clean up all the nails?
Yes — a magnet sweep of the driveway, lawn, beds and street is standard practice on any professional tear-off, and it is reasonable to ask for it to be run twice, in two directions, while you watch.
It is the most predictable complaint in the whole corpus: homeowners "still finding nails in my yard" and "nails and roofing materials all around my house" weeks later. Nails find tyres, paws and bare feet for months.
Can roof replacement crack the walls inside my house?
It can. Tear-off is percussive work transmitted through the whole structure, and drywall cracks, popped nail heads and rattled fixtures are a real and under-anticipated consequence — one complaint describes interior "cracks are eight feet long".
Walk your ceilings and upper-floor walls before the final payment, not after. If you have particularly fragile plaster, raise it before work starts so expectations are set on both sides.
Is it normal for a roofing company to use subcontractors?
Yes, it is common and not a problem in itself — most established companies run crews rather than salaried staff for the physical work.
What matters is accountability. Before the job, establish whether the crew is employed or subcontracted and get one named person who owns the result. Complaint records show the failure mode clearly: work done "AFTER DARK" by a subcontractor, and a homeowner unable to get the main contractor to take responsibility for the damage.
Should I withhold final payment if something is not finished?
Withhold a proportionate amount, not the entire balance — holding thousands over a missing bracket makes you the unreasonable party and weakens your position.
Put in writing exactly what completes the job, hold back a sum that reflects it, and pay immediately once done. The final payment is the only leverage that survives to the end of a job, and the record is full of punch-list items that were never revisited after the account was settled.