Part K · the work

How Keys works in Kirkwood, and what it will not do

A short and unglamorous account of what happens between the phone call and the finished roof, including the things Keys declines, which is usually the more useful half of the answer.

What Keys does

Trades

Roofing, gutters, downspouts

Shingles installed

Atlas and Malarkey

Area

Greater St. Louis

Status

Licensed and insured

Siding, windows, commercial

Declined

Representing you on a claim

Not permitted

Direct line

(314) 220-2333

The sequence

One. The call

You describe what the roof is doing. Keys asks where the house is, roughly how old it is, and whether anything is actively coming inside. If it is actively coming inside that changes the order of everything that follows. If the job is outside what Keys does, you get told on that call rather than after a visit.

Two. Getting on the roof

Somebody goes up. Not a walk round the garden with binoculars. On an older Kirkwood house the things that matter are at the penetrations and the transitions, and those cannot be assessed from the ground. Where a roof is genuinely unsafe to walk, a camera goes up instead and you are told which it was.

Three. Photographs and measurements

The roof gets photographed properly: the field, every penetration, the flashing at the chimneys and walls, the valleys, the ventilation, the gutters, and any decking visible from a soffit or an attic. Measurements are taken. This is the raw material for the scope and it belongs to you whether or not you hire anybody.

Four. The written scope

A document that says what is wrong, what is proposed, in what sequence, with what materials, and at what price, with the decking rate stated as a number before anyone starts. If a permit is likely, it says so and it says who files it. If Keys thinks the roof does not need replacing yet, it says that instead, which happens more often than the marketing in this industry would suggest.

Five. The permit

If the work triggers a permit at your address, that is filed with the City of Kirkwood, because Kirkwood is its own building authority. Confirm at the counter what your address requires. A roofing contractor is a party with an interest, and the counter is not.

Six. The work

Strip to the deck. Replace what will not hold a fastener, counted and documented. Underlayment, ice and water protection, new flashing rather than reused flashing. Shingles. Ridge, hips and the ventilation package. Gutters if they are in scope. Then the debris, the magnet sweep and a walk round with you.

What Keys will not do

• Siding, windows or commercial work. Three trades Keys does not carry. You will be told on the phone.
• Shingles other than Atlas and Malarkey. Those are the two lines Keys installs. If you want a different manufacturer, hire somebody who carries it.
• Keys will not represent or negotiate on your insurance claim, because RSMo 407.725 provides that no roofing contractor in Missouri may. It documents the roof and attends as the contractor. The claim is yours.
• Anything at all about your deductible. The same statute bars a roofing contractor from advertising to rebate, absorb or discount any part of it, and an offer of that kind from anyone is a reason to stop the conversation.
• Claim a credential it does not hold. No founding year, no licence number, no accreditation rating, no certification tier, no warranty term and no star rating appears anywhere on this site, because Keys publishes none of those.
• Lay over an existing roof to win a price. A layover hides the deck, and on an older house with plank decking the deck is the whole question.

The list of things a contractor declines tells you more about them than the list of things they sell.

If the roof is open right now

Call rather than write. (314) 220-2333. Say the word emergency and describe where the water is coming in and how fast. A temporary dry in is a different job from a replacement and it happens on a different timescale. Do not wait for a proposal to stop water entering a house.

What that written scope should contain · Why the permit goes to the city