National Federation of Roofing Contractors Member

angel00079

We are currently in the process of getting quotes for a new roof. 10K is a lot to spend so we are checking out the firms.

We noticed that one of the firms is not a member of NFRC. I am not sure if this is a reason to rule them out. To me this seems significant but not sure.

We will be checking out previous work of the shortlist. My gut instinct is not to put non NFRC roofer on the shortlist.

Has anyone had an experience of non NFRC roofer?

Davesnave

Who pays for the NFRC?

Oh yes, roofing contractors!

Membership of trade bodies can give access to useful guarantees if a firm goes bust on you, but it doesn't necessarily assure a super job.

I've had dealings with a firm that's a member of the GGF, but they still did shoddy work. To date,no one appears to have rapped their knuckles or checked that it was fixed properly. That was left to me.

As for using that particular trade body as a means of dispute resolution.....chocolate fireguard comes to mind!

PS This question really belongs in "In my Home."

phill99

Any one can get membership of the NFRC, FMB etc etc. It means very little and doesn't guarantee good work. It helps with dispute resolution, but that is it. get recommendations from other homeowners.

00ec25

as above, such bodies primarily exist as a marketing tool to make you think that a "member" is somehow better than a non member. The contractor pays money to the body and gets to use a fancy logo.

A logo only matters where its loss means the person cannot carry on in that trade, so the member makes sure they do what they need to stay a member, and the body polices its own members because the body is required to do so by legislation (eg nurses, doctors etc). As you can see, that does apply with the NFRC

select on the equal basis of price and inspection of prior work/customers

G_M

Sadly the most obvious advice has to be given (since I'm repeatedly amazed how many people fall for this):

Never pay upfront.

In some cases it may be reasonable to make a token upfront payment towards materials, especially if they are custom made (unlikely here if using common or garden roof tiles/slates), or to make 'staged' payments ie pay 50% (or better, 30%) when the job is half complete.

With a roof, I wouldn't even pay the full amount on completion. I'd hold back 10% for another 2 weeks or so to check for leaks etc. Get that written into the contract!

If I'm teaching my grandma to suck eggs: apologies, but others reading this may benefit.

Slinky

We had a quote from a NFRC member. Came with all sorts of scaffolding requirements, services of a site foreman whilst the job was being done, etc etc. Quote was for over £1K (this was 16 years ago).

Found an ad in a local magazine, Wayne with his bucket of muck shinned up his ladder and sorted the two loose ridge tiles for about £30.

angel00079

Thanks for the replies. The more I thought about it this afternoon the more I thought no reason to rule out.

I wouldn't pay all upfront but too many would. Don't think that message can be made too often. Might sound obvious but too easy to get sucked.

I intended to put this in the home section. Must have got distracted reading posts in this section.

csgohan4

Slinky wrote: »

We had a quote from a NFRC member. Came with all sorts of scaffolding requirements, services of a site foreman whilst the job was being done, etc etc. Quote was for over £1K (this was 16 years ago).

Found an ad in a local magazine, Wayne with his bucket of muck shinned up his ladder and sorted the two loose ridge tiles for about £30.

sadly health and safety has got the better of everyone. Can't even play conkers without safety glasses.

Doozergirl

csgohan4 wrote: »

sadly health and safety has got the better of everyone. Can't even play conkers without safety glasses.

Or climb around on roofs with nothing to catch you if you fall. What a shame.

kaya

I'm not a roofer but I bet if I called the NFRC this morning and paid by credit card I bet I would be a member by the end of the week, go by personal recommendations, see a few jobs they have done, if they want paying upfront I always offer to pay for the materials directly on my credit card when they provide me with all the order details and the invoice. The important part (I have just won 11k back from my builder in court) is paperwork. You want to know where their office is (you can verify addresses on google maps), you want a written quote detailing exactly what is to be done and how they are to be paid, it must contain their business address (or home address if they are a sole trader working from home) and a landline number. All and any payments must be signed for and dated. Google them adding the words cowboys, reviews etc. and get a date of completion on the paperwork. without the paperwork and signed payments I would never have been able to get the money back from our builder. , 10k is similar to what we were quoted for a retile on our 3 bed semi recently but depending on the size of tile you choose that can be 3k dearer or cheaper, smaller tiles you need more of and its more labour to fit

Davesnave

csgohan4 wrote: »

sadly health and safety has got the better of everyone. Can't even play conkers without safety glasses.

When I was in charge of these things, they were only banned if a significant number of kids had their shoe laces stolen.....

.....which meant a ban about a week after the season started. :rotfl: