My roof needs to be reshingled. It's one of those necessary things in the life of a house. I've never had to have a roof reshingled before so you can imagine my shock when I discover the process of reshingling.
What shocked me was that I expected to call up a roofer, have them come by for an estimate, and then schedule my roof at my convenience. I am, after all, the customer. What I discovered was a grim lesson in the law of supply and demand.
It's summer and since I have never had to deal with shingling before, I really had no idea just how much in demand roofers are. I picked up the phone and called 3 places, assuming I'd get 3 estimates and choose the one that suited me. I left messages at all three places and heard back from one 24 hours later. He couldn't even give me an ESTIMATE for 5 days. No problem, I scheduled the appointment. Not really wanting to wait that long, I called 4 more places. I left messages at 3 places and at the 4th got hold of someone who couldn't do an estimate for 7 days.
In all, I called 7 roofers and actually spoke to two of them. The other 5 have not returned my calls. When the one roofer came for the estimate, he said he's booking his roof repairs 3 weeks into the future. What's more he couldn't give me an exact date, since his business is so dependent on weather.
I couldn't imagine running a business like this but I suppose when you're in that much demand, you can do what you want. All I know is, if I ever decide to start a business in the trades, I'll be roofing!
