The honest fact about hiring a roofer in Montana

Montana does not license or test roofing contractors for competency. There is no state roofing exam and no state board reviewing anyone's work. Anyone can print cards and call themselves a roofer here.

We're putting that on our website because it's true, and because the word "licensed" on a roofing site in this state doesn't mean what a lot of homeowners assume it means. It doesn't tell you the person has been tested. It doesn't tell you the state has reviewed their work. It doesn't tell you they're competent. It tells you almost nothing — and a contractor who leans on it without explaining what it actually is isn't being straight with you.

So if you can't rely on the word "licensed," what do you rely on? You ask better questions. Here are the ones that actually matter.

Ask what state registration the contractor holds, and what it means. A Montana Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate is a registration relating to workers' compensation status, not a qualification in roofing. It tells you something about how the contractor is set up for insurance and employment purposes. It does not tell you the state has examined or approved their roofing work.

Ask for the certificate number and verify it with the state rather than taking a website's word for it. A contractor who has a real registration will hand you the number without hesitating. One who hedges or changes the subject is telling you something too.

Ask how long the person doing the work has been in the trade, as distinct from how long the company name has existed. These are often very different numbers. A business may have been formed last year while the roofer on your house has decades behind them. Or the company name may go back a generation while the crew on your roof this week started in the spring.

The number that matters is the years the person actually on the roof has been roofing. Ask for that number specifically, and notice if the answer slides from "the company" to "the owner" to "the crew" without ever landing on a person.

Ask to see photographs of completed local work and read the Google reviews. Not stock photography — photographs of roofs this contractor actually finished, on homes you could drive past. A roofer who does good work in the valley has pictures of it. Read the reviews, and read the ones that aren't five stars too. How a contractor responds to a problem tells you more than a wall of perfect ratings.

Ask whether the estimate is in writing and what it includes. A real estimate lays out the scope of work, the materials, the tear-off and disposal if it's a replacement, any decking repair, underlayment and ice barrier at the eaves where they apply, flashing, ventilation, and cleanup — with a price for all of it. You should be able to read it, understand it, and sit with it on your own time. A number scribbled on the back of a card isn't an estimate. Estimates are free, and a contractor who won't put one in writing is one to walk away from.

Ask who is actually on the roof — the owner, employees, or subcontracted crews. There isn't one right answer, but you deserve to know which it is. A roofer who puts their own crew on the roof and stands behind the work is a different proposition from one who hands the job to a crew you've never met and won't see again. Ask the question and listen to how clearly it gets answered.

Be wary of anyone who appears after a storm, pressures for a signature that day, or asks for large payment up front. Storm chasers move through an area, take deposits, and disappear. The pressure to sign now, today, before you've had time to think, is not a favor to you — it's a tactic. A local contractor who lives and works in the valley has a reputation to protect and isn't going anywhere. They can wait for you to think it over.

Montana does not license or test roofing contractors for competency. Joseph holds an active Montana Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate for Construction and Roofing, ICP-ICEC-REG-0089619, valid through December 2027. That is a state registration, not a skills qualification — and we'd rather tell you what it is than let it sound like more than it is.

Joseph Stremel has 25 years of roofing experience and started in the trade at seventeen. Flathead Valley Roofing was established in 2021. Those are two separate facts, and we won't blur them into a number that sounds bigger than either one. The experience is Joseph's. The company is the Stremels'. We live and work in the Flathead Valley, and our work is right here if you want to see it.

If any of this is the conversation you want to have before you hire a roofer, we welcome it. Ask us what registration we hold and for the number. Ask how long Joseph has been roofing and when the company was established. Ask to see photographs of our completed local work and read our Google reviews. Ask whether the estimate is in writing and what it includes. Ask who goes up on your roof. We'll answer every one of them plainly, because a homeowner who asks good questions is exactly the kind of customer we want to work for.

Call us, or send a few details through the form below. Free estimates, no obligation, and no pressure to sign anything today.