A straight answer, hired or not
What we found, where, and whether it is a repair or a replacement — including when the answer is that the roof is fine.
Take it to another roofer if you want a second number against it. That is a fine outcome.
Goderich · Stratford · Sarnia · St Thomas · Chatham · Leamington
Chatham gets 79 cm of snow. Stratford gets 218.
Same province, same trade, three times the snow load. Everything above the deck — how far the membrane runs, whether the attic breathes, how many nails go in a shingle — is an answer to a number that changes enormously depending on which of these towns you live in. Tell us yours first.
- A straight answer, hired or not
- Same-day callback on storm damage
- We say so when a repair beats a replacement
- Shingles The only layer anyone sees, and the last one to fail. Uplift rating is earned by the nailing pattern, not by the box. 5 mm
- Underlayment A secondary barrier over the field. Cheap, and the reason a lifted shingle is not immediately a leak. 1 mm
- Ice & water membrane Self-adhering, at the eaves and in the valleys. How far up it runs is the single biggest snowbelt decision. 2 mm
- Deck Plywood or planks. Nobody can assess it without a tear-off, which is why going over old shingles hides the one thing worth seeing. 11 mm
- Ventilated attic Soffit to ridge. A warm attic melts snow from below, and that is what makes an ice dam — not the weather. —
Coverage WSIB & insurance shown before work starts
Storm work Documented for your insurer
Ice dams Steam removal only
Serving Huron, Perth, Oxford, Elgin, Lambton, Essex
What are you seeing?
Start with the symptom, not the roof
Almost nobody rings a roofer about a roof. They ring about a stain on a ceiling, a noise in the night, a pile of shingles on the lawn, or a letter from an insurer asking an awkward question. Find yours below.
- Brown stain spreading on a ceiling Leak trace Call now
- Shingles on the lawn after a storm Storm damage Call now
- Ice building along the eave in winter Ice dams Call now
- Water coming in during a thaw, not during rain Ice dams Call now
- Damp patch around a bathroom vent pipe Leak trace Call now
- Granules collecting in the eavestrough Replacement Don't wait
- Shingles curling or cupping at the edges Replacement Don't wait
- Roof is over twenty years old Inspection Don't wait
- Insurer asked how old the roof is Inspection Don't wait
- Buyer or lender wants a roof report Inspection Don't wait
- Eavestrough overflowing in ordinary rain Eavestrough Don't wait
- Trough pulling away from the fascia Eavestrough Don't wait
Not sure which one you have? Send a photo from the ground of whichever side you think is the problem, and tell us the town. Between the age of the roof and how much snow your town actually gets, that is usually enough for a straight answer. (226) 778-0417
What you get before anybody is hired
Three promises, and the middle one is worth money
Every roofer within two hours offers a free inspection. It commits them to nothing and it usually ends with a number and nothing behind it. These are the parts we owe you either way.
The tarp goes on after the photographs, not before
Once a tarp goes on, your evidence is underneath it. Photograph everything first, and insist that whoever attends does the same.
This is what costs an adjuster’s argument and saves yours. A crew that tarps first and photographs later has cost you the only record of what the wind actually did.
Ice dams should come off with steam, never a hammer
Steam takes the ice and leaves the shingles. A hammer, a chisel or a salt sock takes both.
If somebody quotes you cheaper for ice removal, ask which one they use. The cheap number is usually a chisel, and the damage turns up in April when they are gone.
None of these is about the new roof. The workmanship warranty belongs on the quote and it is worth reading closely. These are what you get before you have decided anything.
What we do
Six jobs, and half of them arrive on somebody else’s deadline
An insurer, a storm or a closing date decides most of this work — which is why so much of it is urgent and so little of it is planned. Prices are the measured 2026 Ontario ranges, not numbers we made up.
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Roof replacement
Same house, same budget, different town — and genuinely a different roof. The snow load triples between the two ends of this corridor.
$8,250–$19,000 Full tear-off, deck inspection, ice-and-water membrane, new shingles -
Storm damage
Photograph it. Then tarp it. Then call your insurer. Doing those three in the wrong order is what costs people the claim.
Quoted from the damage Emergency tarp, documented assessment, repair; full replacement quoted separately -
Ice dams
It looks like a roof problem. It is a heat problem. Fix the roof and you have bought yourself exactly one thaw.
$525–$2,200 Steam removal, cause diagnosis, ventilation and insulation remediation -
Repairs & leaks
Nine times out of ten the leak is not above the stain, and it is flashing rather than shingles. Finding it costs less than replacing what was fine.
Quoted from the leak Leak trace, flashing or shingle repair -
Eavestrough
Everybody treats it as trim. It is drainage — and an undersized trough on a big roof is a wet basement waiting for the right storm.
$2,000–$4,500 Removal, fascia repair where needed, new trough, downspouts and extensions -
Inspections
Nobody books one of these out of curiosity. It is an insurer, a buyer or a storm — and there is usually a date attached.
Flat-quoted visit Inspection, photographs, written report and remaining-life estimate
Why the number matters
One corridor, two completely different roofing problems
North and east of London your roof has to survive snow that sits for weeks. That is an argument about membrane, ventilation and the eave. Down on the Erie shore it has to survive wind in the most tornado-active corner of Canada — an argument about uplift rating, nailing pattern and starter course. Neither spec is better. A quote written for one and used on the other is quietly under-built, and you will not find out for years.
Southwestern Ontario conditions
Six facts that decide what your roof has to be
Snowfall figures are Environment Canada 1981–2010 normals at the nearest reporting station to each town. None of this appears on a roofing page written for all of Ontario and swapped across forty markets.
| Condition | Where it bites | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| The snowbelt | Goderich, Listowel, Stratford, Strathroy | Snow sits for weeks rather than days, which is what an ice dam needs; 170 to 218 cm a year and more inland | Dec–Mar |
| The Erie shore | Leamington, Chatham, Simcoe | Least snow in the province at 79 to 86 cm, and almost no upwind shelter from storm wind | Year round |
| Tornado corridor | Chatham-Kent, Essex, Elgin, Norfolk | The most tornado-active region in Canada; far more common is the straight-line wind from the same storms | May–Sep |
| High annual rainfall | Tillsonburg 900 mm, St Thomas 874 mm | Volume at the eave rather than weight on the roof; trough sizing and valley detail decide the outcome | Apr–Nov |
| Freeze-thaw cycling | The whole corridor, 94 to 107 days | Works every lap and seam on a roof, and ages a shingle mat faster than cold alone does | Nov–Apr |
| Flat farmland | Lambton, Chatham-Kent, Essex, Oxford | No upwind obstruction, so a roof sees close to the full wind speed the storm is carrying | Year round |
Where we work
Twelve towns, and the snow load triples across them
Chatham 79 cm a year. Leamington 86. Sarnia 112. Woodstock 120. Tillsonburg 145. Strathroy 170. Listowel 192. Stratford 218 — and the country inland of Goderich more again. All Environment Canada normals, measured at the nearest station to each town. Pick yours and see what it means for your roof.
What customers say
No reviews yet, and we are not going to invent any
This site is new. There is nothing here yet.
Reviews will appear here once there are real ones, with the town beside each so you can weigh whether it came from somewhere like yours. Until then, judge the site on whether it tells you something a company two hours away could not — how much snow your town actually gets, which of the two failure modes applies to you, and what that changes above the deck.
FAQ
What people ask before booking roofing work
What does a roof replacement cost around here?
Roughly $8,250 to $19,000 for a full asphalt replacement in Ontario in 2026, with most houses landing somewhere in the middle. Area and pitch set the base. After that it is the junctions — every valley, dormer and chimney is flashing work, and flashing is the slow skilled part. A simple post-war roof in Sarnia and a Victorian in Stratford with five dormers are genuinely not the same job, and anyone quoting them at the same rate per square has not looked properly.
Why would my neighbour two towns over get a different roof?
Because you get different weather, and by more than people expect. Environment Canada puts Chatham at about 79 cm of snow a year and Stratford at 218 — nearly three times — with the country inland of Goderich higher again. Up in the snowbelt the money goes into membrane, ventilation and the eave detail. Down on the Erie shore it goes into uplift rating and nailing pattern instead. Same trade, different problem.
Do I need a permit?
Depends where you live and what you are doing. Swapping shingles like for like often does not need one. Touching the structure, the deck or changing material generally does. This is one of the few things that genuinely varies across the twelve municipalities we work in, so we check with yours before starting rather than guessing in either direction.
Can I just go over the old shingles?
You can, and it is usually a false economy. It is cheaper on the day. It also adds weight in the half of this corridor that already carries the most snow, and it hides the deck — the one part of your roof nobody can assess without pulling the old layer off. Sound deck, low snow load, tight budget: defensible. In the snowbelt, rarely.
Storm just went through. What do I do first?
Photograph it. Then tarp it. Then call your insurer — in that order, and the order is the whole point. A roof made watertight before anyone documented it is a roof whose damage now has to be argued from memory. Photos from the ground, several angles, the debris on the lawn counts too. And please do not climb up to look; more people are hurt inspecting storm damage than by the storm.
How do I stop the ice dams coming back every winter?
Find where the heat is getting into your attic, because that is what causes them. Snow melts on the warm part of the roof, runs down to the cold overhang and freezes there. The usual culprits are recessed light fixtures, a bathroom fan ducted into the attic instead of outside, an attic hatch with no weatherstrip, and insulation stuffed into the soffits. Take the ice off without fixing that and you have bought exactly one thaw.
Is it worth repairing a twenty-year-old roof?
Depends on the deck and on how many things are wrong at once. One split plumbing stack boot on an otherwise sound roof is a cheap fix worth doing at any age, and it is the answer far more often than people expect. But a third leak since spring, with shingles curling and granules collecting in the eavestrough, is a roof being repaired past the point where repairing is the cheaper option. We would rather say so than sell you a fourth repair.
Do you charge for a quote?
No, and you get a straight answer either way — including the times the finding is that your roof is fine and the water is coming from somewhere else entirely. If a repair sorts it for a tenth of a replacement, that is the answer you get. Not much of a sales strategy, but it is the only version worth paying for.
Talk to a Woodstock roofing contractor
Three things get us most of the way there: which town you are in, roughly when the roof was last done, and what you are actually seeing — a stain on a ceiling, granules in the eavestrough, shingles on the lawn on Sunday morning. That is usually enough to tell you whether this is a repair, a claim, or a roof that has quietly reached the end, without anybody driving anywhere.