Malarkey shingles, installed / File 11
How the work actually runs
From the phone call to the magnet sweep, in the order it happens, including the parts nobody warns you about.
Before the work
Four steps that happen before a bundle arrives
- The call. You describe what the roof is doing. Nobody is dispatched to your address unless you ask for that. Most conversations at this stage end with a time, not a sale.
- The inspection. Somebody walks the roof where it is safe to do so, and photographs the field, the ridge, the valleys, every penetration, the flashings, the gutter line and the attic where it can be reached. Measurements are taken. This is the part that makes everything afterwards honest.
- The written scope. You get a document. It names the manufacturer, the product line and the colour, the underlayment, the membrane locations, the flashing work, the ventilation plan, the decking rate per sheet and the exclusions. It is yours to keep and to show to anybody you like, including another contractor.
- Selection and scheduling. Colour is chosen against the house and not against a warm office. The permit, if the work needs one, is dealt with. A date is set, and then weather moves it, because weather always moves it.
The day
What happens on your property
Material and a dumpster arrive first, usually early. Landscaping, air conditioning units and anything fragile against the house get covered or moved. Then the roof comes off, which is loud, and which produces more debris than most homeowners expect. Everything inside the house that is hanging on a wall shared with the roof structure should come down the night before, because it will move.
With the deck exposed, it gets inspected and any bad sheathing is replaced. You should be shown a photograph of anything being charged as an extra, and asked, before it happens. The dry in follows: drip edge, ice and water membrane at the eaves, valleys and penetrations, then underlayment across the field. From that point the roof is weather tight even if the shingles are not on yet, which matters in a metro where an afternoon storm is a normal event.
Then the roof goes on, in order: starter, field courses, flashings cut in as the courses reach them, penetrations sealed, valleys finished, ridge vent set, cap last. A well run job on an ordinary house is a day or two. A complicated roof with several planes, dormers and masonry takes longer, and anybody promising you a fixed hour on a roof they have not opened is guessing.
The end
Clean up, and the walk round
Clean up is not a courtesy, it is part of the job. Debris out, gutters cleared of the granules and nails that came off the old roof, and a rolling magnet over the lawn, the beds, the driveway and the street. Twice, in different directions, because the first pass never gets all of them. Nails in a lawn are the single most common complaint homeowners have about roofing work anywhere, and it is entirely preventable.
Then a walk round with you. Look at the ridge line from the street. Look at the valleys. Look at where the roof meets the masonry. Ask for the photographs of the deck and the finished details. Ask for the invoice to name the manufacturer, the product line and the colour, because that is the document your insurer may ask for later and the one that tells the next owner of the house what is up there.
What Keys does not do
The list, stated plainly
Roofing, gutters and downspouts. There is no siding, no windows and no commercial work, and there is no interest in adding any. Shingles are Atlas and Malarkey.
Keys does not represent or negotiate on your insurance claim, because RSMo 407.725 bars a roofing contractor from doing that. Keys makes no offer of any kind in relation to the sum you are responsible for under your own policy, because the same statute bars that too. Keys claims no manufacturer certification, tier or authorised dealer status, because it holds none. And Keys does not price a roof before somebody has been on it, because a number produced from a satellite image and a postcode is not a price, it is a bid to get in the door.
Independent installer notice
Keys Roofing is an independent roofing contractor and installs Malarkey products. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or authorised to speak for Malarkey Roofing Products, and holds no certification, tier or dealer status from that manufacturer or any other. Product statements on this site are attributed to the manufacturer's own published specifications.
If that is the sort of company you want on the roof, the form below reaches the office. So does (314) 220-2333.