The True Cost of Cheap Roofing: An Expert Interview with John McLellan

Why Lower Price Doesn't Always Mean Lower Cost

An in-depth conversation with John McLellan of McLellan Contracting about quality roofing, industry practices, and protecting your investment

Interviewer: John, you recently worked on a project that really highlights the difference between cheap roofing and quality roofing. Can you tell us what happened?

John McLellan: Absolutely. We had an elderly homeowner-the nicest guy in the world, about 80 years old-who got a quote for $8,500 to do his entire roof on a 2,200 square foot bungalow. After the work was started, the roofer told him that all the plywood had been damaged and had to be replaced, and that it may have had to do with wildlife. The roofer had seen a squirrel while he was on the roof. Then he presented an invoice for $41,500-nearly five times the original estimate. The customer ended up paying it.

Interviewer: That's shocking. What happened?

John McLellan: Thankfully, his daughter got involved, called the police, and the bank cancelled the cheques. He got 100% of his money back. But not every senior is as fortunate. Many don't have family nearby to intervene, or they're too embarrassed to tell anyone they've been taken advantage of. And here's the thing-this wasn't just price gouging. The work that was done was absolutely terrible. We're talking about a brand new roof that was already failing after just ten days.

How Do Cheap Roofing Companies Keep Their Prices Down?

Interviewer: So, let's talk about pricing. A lot of homeowners look at three quotes and one of them is thousands of dollars cheaper than the others. On the surface that sounds great. How are those roofers actually getting their prices that low?

John McLellan: There are a bunch of ways they shave the price down. The first one is the shingles themselves. About twelve years ago, I was approached by a company that was importing shingles from China for three dollars and eighty three cents a bundle, any colour you want, wrapped in any manufacturer’s packaging. At the time, I was paying thirty dollars a bundle. I picked one of those Chinese shingles up and it tore like thin cardboard or paper. On this job I am telling you about, the shingles were already failing after just ten days. Surface blistering had started and they were not even sealed yet – they just lifted right up.

Then there is what they do at the edges. Instead of using proper starter shingles underneath, they just cut little six inch pieces to cover the seams in the first row. When I lifted one shingle, the whole thing came up. The cheap ice and water shield stopped short of the edge, so any water that gets under the shingles runs behind the eavestrough and into the fascia and soffit.

Nailing is another one. Every shingle should have four to six nails placed correctly. On this job, all the nails were only on about sixty percent of the shingle. They did not want to reach to nail the rest properly, so the other two nails on each shingle were just missing. They were barely attached. And they didn’t use any sealant. This contractor did not even own a caulking gun. There was not a single drop of caulking on the entire roof. So anywhere that needed to be sealed, around vents or flashings, was just left open.

On top of that, they often save money on the labour side. Maybe they are paying people in cash, not paying taxes, not paying WSIB, they might not even have business insurance. And when they haul away your old shingles, some of them are dumping illegally instead of paying proper dump fees.

So, when people ask me, “How can that roofer be so cheap?” this is the kind of thing I show them. It is not magic. They are just taking shortcuts at every step: putting cheaper products on your roof, eliminating necessary components, and putting you at risk using untrained, ‘high speed’ labour.

Interviewer: But if someone's getting a roof for thousands less, why is that necessarily bad?

John McLellan: If you pay eight or ten grand for a bad shingle job because your roofer took shortcuts, you're not just risking eight or ten grand. You're risking everything that roof is supposed to protect.

When water gets in, it doesn't send you an email. It quietly gets behind the eaves, into the fascia, into the attic. It can rot your sheathing, affect your insulation, even damage your drywall and flooring if it travels far enough. By the time you see a stain on the ceiling, that problem has probably been going on for a while.

So now you're not just redoing the roof. You're paying for interior repairs, maybe mould remediation, maybe damaged furniture or electronics. That cheap price can easily become the most expensive option.

On this particular job, they didn't even hook up the bathroom vents properly-they're just regular vents being used for bathroom vents. The range hood vent? They just left the ducting in the attic not hooked up to anything. So, you turn that on in winter and all that steam from cooking goes right into your attic. Now you've got black mold.

The Problem with "Stack Joints" and Other Shortcuts

Interviewer: You mentioned something called "stack joints" when reviewing this failed roof. What's that?

John McLellan: Instead of offsetting the shingles the way they're supposed to be installed, they stacked them, so the joints are six inches apart all the way up the roof. This makes them incredibly vulnerable to water penetration. And they were using what we call a "California cheat" on the valleys-instead of bringing the shingles and cutting them back properly, they just put a sideways shingle all the way up there. It's just cheap work.

What Happens When a Cheap Roof Leaks?

Interviewer: If someone does end up with a leaking roof, what should they do immediately?

John McLellan: This is really important. When water comes through your ceiling, take a screwdriver and poke holes in the drywall to let the water come out. If you don't poke the drywall, it gets saturated and starts to sag, and you're replacing a full sheet minimum. A hole is way easier to fix than pulling down an entire sheet. Poke six holes if you need to-let the water pressure out, put down a big towel and a bucket, and call your roofer. It helps dry it out as well because now you're letting the pressure escape.

I remember being out at 10 o'clock at night with one of my guys, wind was killing us, shingles were blowing right off the roof around us as we worked. All we did was face nail until every nail in our truck was gone, because these cheaper shingles had been installed by a roofer using minimum standards.

Understanding Roofing Warranties

Interviewer: Let's talk about warranties, because this seems to be where a lot of confusion happens.

John McLellan: Absolutely. The warranties can be incredibly confusing. When you buy a 30-year shingle with a high wind warranty, you think you're covered for 30 years, right? Wrong. A 30-year shingle typically comes with a 10-year manufacturing warranty, then it prorates-material only, no labour. The wind warranty? Usually just five years if installed properly, material only, no labour, no workmanship. The workmanship is between you and the taillights on that roofer as he drives away.

A manufacturer came out with a shingle called the Mystique 42. How long do you think the warranty is? Most people would say 42 years. Nope-it's 30 years. It's called the Mystique 42 because it's 42 inches wide. But roofers were selling it as a 42-year warranty because they didn't even read about the product they were installing.

Interviewer: So how did you address this with your business?

John McLellan: When I started roofing, it took about two years before I actually read the warranty and went, "What the heck is this?" So, I interviewed different manufacturers trying to find one who would back me up properly. A warranty should be seamless and simple-like Sears used to be: take your broken screwdriver in, here's a new one, sign here.

The GAF System and Master Elite Certification

Interviewer: You chose to work with GAF. Why?

John McLellan: By using all the same manufacturer products and becoming a GAF Master Elite installer, I take all the variables out of the equation. If you're that one in a thousand roofs that fails, we want the warranty to be seamless.

Here's how it works: We install all GAF components the way they designed them. Because we're Master Elite certified-that's the top 2% of roofing contractors-we can offer 50 years of 100% material and 100% labour coverage on any manufacturing defects, and 25 years on my workmanship against misapplication. Nobody can touch that. Only Master Elite contractors can provide this level of warranty coverage.

Interviewer: How does the workmanship warranty actually work?

John McLellan: I carry the warranty for the first two years-that's what I bring to the table. If anything goes wrong in those first two years, I deal with it myself out of my own pocket. The next 23 years, GAF pays for 100%. So even if I retire or win the lottery and move up north, GAF owns that warranty. They're not going to do that for just anybody. And these warranties are fully transferable to the next owner.

The Training Gap in the Roofing Industry

Interviewer: You've mentioned that most roofers have never had formal training. Can you explain that?

John McLellan: There's no school for roofing residential properties. The union deals with flat roofing, but for pitched roofs, roofers are taught by whoever hires them-their uncle, their brother, the guy down the street. Those bad habits get passed down generation to generation. I think the number is 94% of roofers have never had formal training in their trade, because you don't need it. Nobody cares. There's no oversight.

Interviewer: But you can't just wake up one day and be a licensed plumber or electrician, right?

John McLellan: Exactly! I have friends who are licensed plumbers, licensed electricians, licensed gas fitters. These guys go to school for three to five years. They've got to do up to 5,000 hours of apprenticeship before they become a journeyman. But roofing? Some guy puts a ladder on his truck and a magnet on his door-boom, he's a roofer. And you don't need permits for most roofing work, so no one's checking the quality.

Interviewer: So how does someone verify a roofer is actually qualified?

John McLellan: You have to do your research. Check Google reviews. Check their certification—have they ever been formally trained? Are they certified with any manufacturer? At McLellan Contracting, we send our staff for training every year. I pay my staff for five days of training per year when it comes to safety and certification.

To maintain our Master Elite certification, I have to reapply every year. I have to sell a certain number of warranties, install a certain amount of shingles, and complete 50 training credits annually. It's not just something you get once and forget about.

Building the Right Roof

Interviewer: What advice would you give someone shopping for a new roof?

John McLellan: First, build the roof based on what you need-forget who the contractor is for a moment. Design the roof the way it's supposed to be installed according to the manufacturer. The cool thing is, with the internet, it's easy to find out what's right. Should they be using starter shingles? Are they supposed to put six nails in each shingle for the wind warranty? Are they supposed to use a special cap shingle? Make sure they're doing what you need, then get quotes on that specific scope of work.

When you get a quote that just says, "supply and install ice and water shield, supply and install tar paper, supply and install shingles," what does that even mean? What brand? What quality? Ice and water shield is like Kleenex-it's become a generic term, but there are huge quality differences. And if it just says, "ice and water shield," there's a good chance you're going to get the cheapest option that was on sale that week so the roofer can boost his margin.

Interviewer: And then how do you help customers understand the value difference?

John McLellan: Here's what I do: I show clients my quote broken down by component. Then I walk them through what would happen if we removed things: "If we took this off, you'd save $600-but here's what you'd lose in terms of warranty and protection. If we took this out, you'd save $400-but here's the risk you'd be taking." I'm not offering to actually do that; I'm showing them why every component matters and what those cheaper quotes are likely leaving out.

That's why I break the roof up into components. You can have a roof with a five-year warranty and no workmanship coverage, or you can have a roof with a 50-year warranty and 25-year workmanship coverage. By the time you balance things out, the difference is usually only about 10% more.

Interviewer: Do you actually let customers remove components to save money?

John McLellan: I'll explain what the cost is, but I almost never actually do it. Maybe once a year, if a roof is super steep, I might agree to remove deck protection. But here's the thing: if you think about your roof like your car, what would you take out to reduce the price? Would you say, "Let's only put three sets of brake pads on it-that fourth set isn't really needed"? Would you use four different manufactured tires that you got on sale to save $500? Use the cheapest battery they make?

A roof isn't something you buy at a store and put on your house. It's something that's manufactured on your house. All of the components have to work together, and they have to be installed by somebody trained to do it right.

The Real Cost Difference

Interviewer: So, what's the bottom line for homeowners?

John McLellan: I'm often double the price of the cheapest guys. But if a roof is done right, it'll last 40 to 50 years. If it's not done right, you'll be calling me back the first winter to rip the whole thing up again. That cheap $8,500 roof? It cannot be fixed. It needs to be completely torn off and redone-properly this time. That homeowner will end up spending more than if he'd hired a qualified contractor from the start, plus he's dealing with potential water damage and the stress of the whole ordeal.

What really bothers me is that this isn't an isolated incident. I've gotten multiple calls about this same roofing company trying to con elderly homeowners. They're not just cheap roofers doing cheap work-they're con artists.

Interviewer: That's why choosing the right contractor matters so much.

John McLellan: Exactly. Your roof is protecting your biggest investment. It's protecting your family. It's worth doing right the first time.

Thinking about replacing your roof? Get an expert inspection from John McLellan Contracting Inc and know exactly what your home needs-before costly mistakes happen. Call: 905-767-1240