Choose a specialty roofer by training, by credential, and by work you can go stand in front of. Ask who certified them — for Ludowici tile, the answer should be an Elite Crown Roofer with factory training, whose installations carry a 75-year material warranty. Ask how their metal seams are made. Ask how long they have been at the trade, and for roofs you can visit. A specialist answers all of it without blinking.
1. Hire a specialist, not a dabbler
Slate, tile, cedar, and copper are career crafts. A shingle company that takes a slate job between asphalt roofs is learning on your building — and specialty materials punish learning curves: cedar installed wrong lasts half as long, and tile done wrong leaks from day one. Hire the company whose whole practice is these materials. Ours has been, since 1994. No asphalt shingles — not as a sideline, not at all.
2. Ask for the manufacturer's credential
For clay tile, the credential has a name: Ludowici Crown Roofer — and its top tier, Elite Crown Roofer. It means factory F.I.T. training across the full terra cotta system: measuring and layout, cutting, notching, and detailing every trim piece. It means the manufacturer's 75-year material warranty stands behind the installation. We have held the Elite tier since the program began in 2012. Whatever material you are buying, ask what certifies the installer — and check the answer with the manufacturer. Our tile page shows the badge and what sits behind it.
3. Ask how the seams are made
On metal work, the joint is the roof. Ask whether the seams are double-lock standing seams — folded together twice, by hand, with no exposed fasteners — or a faster mechanical or snap-together joint. Double-lock seaming is hundreds of years old, and we are the only installer in the Southeast who still does it. An installer who can't explain his seam can't defend it, either.
4. Ask for work you can visit, and letters you can read
Specialty roofing is a small world with long memories. Ask for landmark projects — courthouses, churches, estates — and go look at them. Ask for reference letters from architects, builders, and owners, and read what they actually say. Ours are published, from the team architects and builders we have worked beside for decades, and our work index puts the roofs themselves on the record.
5. Ask how the job will run
A real process has steps you can name: a consultation, a written proposal, a build with full site protection and photo documentation as the work goes, and a final walkthrough together. Ours is published, start to finish. If a roofer can't describe his process, he doesn't have one — and your roof becomes the place he invents it.
— Gary Shank