How to get more roofing work

A roofer’s phone tends to ring in bursts. A windy night and it doesn’t stop. A dry fortnight and it barely rings. Word of mouth keeps a good roofer going, but it can’t be turned up when the diary goes quiet, and it doesn’t reach the homeowner who’s never needed a roofer before.

That homeowner goes to Google. Getting more roofing work means being the roofer they find, trust and can actually get hold of, whether it’s a slipped tile dripping into the loft or a full re-roof they’ve been saving for.

Where roofing work comes from

Roofing is really several kinds of job, and customers choose differently for each.

	How it starts	What to get right	How you lose it
Leaks and storm damage	Water in the loft, tiles in the garden after a storm	Answering, and looking legitimate	A missed call
Re-roofs	An old roof, a survey on a house sale, a bad winter	Reviews, photos of real jobs, a clear quote	A slow quote, or one nobody chases
Flat roofs	A leaking garage or extension roof	Photos, a clear price, what material and how long it lasts	A vague quote
Guttering, fascias and soffits	Rotten boards, overflowing gutters	Price, tidiness, being easy to book	Never getting back to them
Insurance work	Storm or accident damage the customer is claiming for	Putting the damage in writing, with photos	Not giving them what they need to send on

We don’t work with a roofing firm yet. But we see the same split between urgent and planned work in trades we do work with:

What we have seen

In the 60 days to 1 October 2026, 84 people got in touch with Junk Busters, a rubbish removal firm in Swindon: 64 rang, and 15 more texted and rang. In the same 60 days, 29 people got in touch with A.P. Berrystone, a building firm in Swindon (a family firm: Adrian Berrystone is Tyler’s dad): 24 through the website forms and 4 by phone. Junk Busters’ case study, Berrystone’s case study.

Our read of that: urgent work tends to arrive on the phone, and big planned jobs in writing, after the customer has read about you. A roofer gets both, so be ready for both.

1. Answer the leak, or text back straight away

Someone with water coming through the bedroom ceiling may not leave a voicemail. They can just ring the next roofer on the list. You can’t pick up from a scaffold, but you can make sure a text goes back to every missed call:

“Hi, it’s Chris at Hilltop Roofing. Sorry I missed you, I’m up on a job. Is water getting in now? Reply with your postcode and a photo if you can, and I’ll ring you back as soon as I’m down.”

The photo tells you how big the job is, and the text tells them their call was noticed and a roofer will ring back. How to set it up is in missed call text back.

After a storm, the calls can all come at once. Be honest about when you can come: “I can get a tarp on it Thursday and quote for the repair then” beats silence.

2. Be on the map in your own town

Leak calls can start on Google Maps: “roofer” plus the town, and a look at the firms with stars. To be one of them:

• Your real trading name, nothing added. Google says “including unnecessary information in your business name isn’t permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile”. “Smith Roofing Emergency Leak Repairs 24/7” is the kind of name that could get a profile suspended.
• Hide your address if customers don’t come to you, and set the towns you cover. Google allows up to 20 service areas and says the boundaries of your overall area “shouldn’t be more than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based”. Our guide to showing on Google Maps without a shop address walks through it.
• Roofing as your primary category: type “roofing” into the category box and pick the closest match. Only add extra categories for work you actually want.
• Every service listed in the customer’s words: roof repairs, re-roofing, flat roofs, chimney repairs, guttering, fascias and soffits.
• Photos of real roofs, regularly. Before and after, from the ground and from the scaffold.

Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google”. Distance means you’re likely to do best in the town you’re based in. The full method is in how to rank higher on Google Maps.

3. Show you’re safe and do it properly

A customer can’t easily judge a roof from the ground, so they look for things they can check.

Building regulations and CompetentRoofer

Customers often don’t know about this until you tell them. GOV.UK lists replacing roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs among the jobs that might need building regulations approval. The Planning Portal says that when an existing roof is replaced, “in most situations, this work will need Building Regulations approval”, and that because a roof counts as a “thermal element”, re-covering it “should also include for improving the thermal insulation properties of the roof”.

The customer doesn’t have to sort that out themselves if you’re in a competent person scheme. GOV.UK says: “You do not need to get approval yourself if you use someone registered with a competent person scheme.” For replacing roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs, it lists two authorised schemes: NAPIT and CompetentRoofer, which is run by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) and which the NFRC now calls the NFRC Competent Person Scheme. The NFRC says the scheme “allows registered roofers to self-certify that their roof refurbishment work meets the latest building regulations”.

GOV.UK also warns that without approval homeowners “will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home”. If you’re registered, say so on your website, your listing, your quotes and your van.

Trade bodies and TrustMark

If you belong to the NFRC, say so: its “Find a roofer” directory of members is another place customers can find you. TrustMark calls itself “the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme that covers work a consumer chooses to have carried out in or around their home”, and tells homeowners to “make sure the tradesperson is registered with TrustMark for the specific trade you need”. If you’re registered, show it.

Safety on the roof

Customers see the scaffold before they see the work. The HSE says “almost one in five deaths in construction work involve roof work”, that “sloping roofs require scaffolding to prevent people or materials falling from the edge”, and that “all roofs should be treated as fragile until a competent person has confirmed they are not”. Putting proper access in your quote, and saying why, shows the careful customer you do it properly, and explains why you aren’t the cheapest.

Planning permission

The Planning Portal (England) says work to the roof of a house, such as re-roofing, “that does not materially affect its external appearance will usually not require planning permission”. If the look of the roof will change, the customer should check with their council. A short page on your website answering this is worth having: “do I need planning permission for a new roof” is one of Google’s own suggested searches.

4. A website that wins the re-roof

A customer spending thousands on a roof may compare two or three websites before ringing. Yours should:

• Say what you do and where on the first screen, with your number one tap away on a phone.
• Show real roofs, labelled with the job and the town: “Re-roof, slate to slate, Marlborough”.
• Have a page for each main service and each town you cover, so someone searching “flat roof repair” plus a town you cover lands on a page about exactly that.
• Show your scheme registration and insurance near the top, not hidden in the footer.
• Show your reviews.
• Have a short form that asks for photos and a postcode. Some re-roof customers would rather write than ring.

More on this in what should be on a trade website.

5. Insurance work: give them what they need to send on

When a customer tells you they’re claiming on their home insurance, the job often turns on paperwork as much as the repair. Make it easy for them:

• Photograph the damage before you touch anything, with the date.
• Write a short report: what’s damaged, what caused it if you can tell, and what needs doing.
• Itemise the quote, so the customer can send it straight on.

Don’t promise the claim will be paid; that isn’t yours to promise. Just be the roofer whose paperwork made it easy.

6. Quote fast, and chase every quote

Customers often get more than one price for re-roofs, flat roofs and fascias. The job often goes to the roofer who quoted clearly and followed up, not the cheapest.

1. Survey within a day or two, or price small jobs from photos.
2. Send a written quote within a day of the survey, saying what’s included: scaffold, materials, how old materials are taken away, any building regulations certificate, and any guarantee.
3. Follow up two days later: “Hi Mrs Patel, just checking the roof quote came through and whether you had any questions. Chris, Hilltop Roofing.”
4. Again after a week, and a friendly “shall I close this off?” after two weeks.

A quote that’s gone quiet often hasn’t been turned down; the customer just hasn’t decided. Word-for-word texts are in how to follow up a quote.

Then ask for the review

Ask every customer the day the scaffold comes down, with your review link. For leak repairs, ask once the first rain has been and the ceiling’s dry. Google says “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”. The exact texts are in how to get more Google reviews without begging.

How we do it, and why it works

We don’t have a roofing case study yet. What we’d do for you is what we do for every trade:

• Found. Your Google listing set up and worked every week, a review asked for after every job, and a website built to be called, with your scheme registration and real roofs where customers look for them.
• Answered. Calls ring you as they always have; we never answer your phone or book your diary. A missed call from a mobile gets a text back in your name, every form and message gets a reply in your name, anyone who goes quiet is followed up, and every quote is chased to a yes or a no.
• Counted. After each enquiry, a text asks whether you won it and for how much. Once a month, one page: what came in, what you won, and what it was worth.

Why it works: leak jobs are lost on the missed call, and re-roofs are lost on the quote nobody chased. We cover both, so you can stay on the roof. We can’t promise you a position on Google, and nobody honest can. We show where you stand and change what can be changed.

We do the Google work for one roofing firm per town. You pay nothing until you’ve won £500 of work through us; after that it’s from £500 a month, any month the work you win through us comes to less than £500 is free, and there’s no contract, just 30 days’ notice. The free check shows the firms Google lists for your trade in your town, where you sit, and whether your town is still free.