How to check out any roofer in Pennsylvania

Start with the registration number

Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act requires most contractors doing residential home improvement work in the state to register with the Office of the Attorney General. Registered contractors get a number beginning PA, and they are required to display it.

You can look up any registration number, free, on the Attorney General's contractor search. It takes under a minute and it tells you whether the business you are talking to is actually on the register.

J. Parker Contracting's number is PA113030. It is at the bottom of every page on this site, and you are encouraged to go and check it rather than take our word for it.

Get it in writing — the law is specific about what goes in it

Roofs are named explicitly in the Act. Section 517.7(a) says a home improvement contract is not valid or enforceable against the owner unless it contains a specific list of things. The useful ones to check for:

• The contractor's registration number.
• The contractor's name, address and telephone number — and the Act says a post office box alone does not count as an address.
• The approximate start and completion dates.
• A description of the work, the materials, and a set of specifications that cannot be changed without a written change order signed by both of you.
• The total price. If it is priced time-and-materials instead, you must get a written estimate first, and the cost may not exceed that estimate by more than 10% without a signed change order.
• The down payment, listed separately from any special-order materials.
• The names, addresses and phone numbers of all subcontractors known at signing.
• A commitment to carry at least $50,000 of personal injury and $50,000 of property damage liability cover — and the actual amount carried at the time of signing, not just a promise to meet the minimum.
• A notice of your right to cancel.

There is also a cap on deposits. On a contract over $5,000, a contractor may not take more than a third of the price up front, plus the cost of any special-order materials named in the contract. And demanding any payment at all before the contract is signed is itself prohibited.

Three business days to change your mind — by phone if you like

The Act lets you rescind a home improvement contract without penalty, within three business days of signing, regardless of where it was signed. That last part matters: unlike the older door-to-door sales rule, this right is not limited to contracts signed at your kitchen table.

In April 2026 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court went further. In Office of Attorney General v. Gillece Services, it held that a consumer can exercise that right by giving actual notice in any form — a phone call, in person, or in writing. The Court declined to read a written-notice requirement into the Act.

So if you signed something under pressure on Tuesday, you can pick up the phone on Wednesday. Do it promptly, and make a note of when you called and who you spoke to.

Ask for the insurance certificate — and ask to be named on it

Ask any contractor for a current certificate of insurance, direct from the insurer or agent rather than as a photocopy. The $50,000 / $50,000 figures above are the statutory minimum every registered Pennsylvania contractor must carry. They are the floor, not a distinction, and nobody should present them as one.

The sharper request, and the one experienced homeowners make: ask for a certificate naming you and your property as additional insured. It costs the contractor nothing and takes a few minutes.

Nobody should be filing your insurance claim for you

The standard door-knock pitch is some version of “we will inspect it, file the claim with your insurer, and all you pay is your deductible.” Be careful with that one.

In Pennsylvania, reading a policy to determine coverage and negotiating a settlement with an insurer is the work of a public adjuster, and public adjusters must be licensed by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Someone who does both roles has to hold two separate contracts with you and cannot begin repair work until the insurer has decided the claim. You always get to choose your own contractor.

What a roofer can properly do is document the damage and give you an itemized scope to hand to your adjuster. That is what we will do. We will not negotiate your claim, because that takes a license we do not hold — and neither, in all likelihood, does the person at your door.

Permits are not optional, and they are a useful test

State registration does not replace a local permit. Springfield Township lists replacement of roof covering among the work requiring a permit under the Uniform Construction Code, and neighboring townships are similar.

This is a good screening question. A contractor who tells you no permit is needed for a full tear-off is either mistaken or would rather not go through the process — and in some cases cannot, because pulling a permit requires insurance they do not carry.

Then check the things the law does not cover

• Reviews with dates and detail on them. Not a wall of five-star ratings with no text — reviews that describe an actual job.
• Whether the person quoting will be involved in the work. A commissioned salesperson who hands you off after signing is a different business model from an owner who is on the roof.
• Whether they got on the roof. A quote produced from the driveway or a satellite image is a guess with a number attached.
• Whether the scope is itemized. “Replace roof — $18,000” is not a scope. Decking replacement, flashing, underlayment and ventilation should each appear.
• How they answer an awkward question. Ask what happens if they find rotten decking, and see whether you get a straight answer about how it is priced.

Applying all of that to us

Registration PA113030, verifiable on the state register. Fully insured — ask for the certificate and you will get it. GAF Certified — the base certification tier, not one of the higher ones, and we will not tell you otherwise. An A rating with the Better Business Bureau, though the business is not BBB accredited, which is a separate paid program. 4.8 on Google across 87 reviews and 4.9 on Angi across 72, both of which you can go and read.

Thirty-plus years in the trade, though you should weigh that the way you would weigh it from anyone: it is the reviews and the registration that you can actually check.

Quotes come in writing with the scope itemized. Work is guaranteed, and the terms come with your estimate rather than as a headline number. James does the estimate himself. We pull the permit. And on decking:

That last one is deliberate. The most common complaint about roofers in this county, by a distance, is the quote that grows once the old roof is in the dumpster and the house is open to the sky. Pricing decking per sheet up front removes the mechanism.