The short version: verify licence, WCB, and liability insurance before anything else; never sign at the door; get three written, itemized quotes; confirm the company has a Calgary address and history; and put warranty, timeline, and payment schedule in the contract. Every ✓ Verified company on TrueTrades has already passed the first three checks — here's how.
Start with the Hail Damage Repair category and request quotes from companies as verification records come online.
View Hail Damage Repair →Within days of every major Calgary hailstorm, two things flood the city: insurance claims and storm chasers — out-of-province crews that follow hail across North America, knock doors hard, do fast work of uneven quality, and are gone before the first winter reveals it. After the 2024 storm, with 130,000+ claims competing for repair capacity, homeowners who didn't know how to vet a contractor were exactly who these outfits were built to find.
The fix isn't cynicism — Calgary has plenty of excellent exterior contractors. The fix is a 20-minute verification routine. Here it is.
☐ 1. Active City of Calgary business licence.
Look the company up in the City of Calgary's licensed-trade contractor registry (dbaservices.calgary.ca). No licence, no shortlist — it's the baseline of accountability, and it's public.
☐ 2. WCB Alberta coverage in good standing.
Ask for their WCB account number and request a clearance letter (free to obtain). This one protects you: if a worker without coverage is hurt on your property, the liability can land on the homeowner.
☐ 3. Commercial general liability insurance — see the certificate.
Ask for a current certificate of insurance ($2M liability is standard for roofing) and check the expiry date. A legitimate company produces this without friction; hesitation is your answer.
☐ 4. A real, local footprint.
A Calgary (or metro) physical address, a local phone number that isn't brand-new, and a history you can trace — years in business, a Google/BBB record older than this storm season. Warranty from a company with no local footprint is a warranty from nobody: when the workmanship problem shows up in February, you want a company that's still in the same city.
☐ 5. If they knocked on your door and want a deposit: prepaid contracting licence.
Under Alberta's Consumer Protection Act, contractors selling door-to-door and taking prepayment generally require a prepaid contracting licence. Ask to see it. And regardless: never sign anything at the door — some "inspection authorizations" are disguised exclusive-repair agreements or assignments of your insurance claim. A legitimate company gives you days, not minutes.
Companies carrying the TrueTrades ✓ badge have already been checked against items 1–3 on the date shown on their badge.
☐ 6. Get three written, itemized quotes.
Itemized means materials (brand, product line, class rating), scope by component (roof, eavestrough, siding, fascia), tear-off and disposal, labour, and taxes. A one-line "$14,500 — roof" quote can't be compared or enforced.
☐ 7. Make sure all three quote the same scope.
The cheapest quote is often quoting less work. Give each contractor the adjuster's scope sheet so everyone bids the same job — differences then reveal judgment and honesty, not scope games.
☐ 8. Treat the outlier with suspicion — in both directions.
Thousands under the pack usually means missing insurance, WCB, or corners. Far above may be storm-market gouging. See our cost guide for current Calgary ranges.
☐ 9. "We'll cover your deductible" = walk away.
It's either an inflated scope (insurance fraud that you become party to) or corner-cutting. Reputable Alberta contractors don't offer it, and insurers increasingly audit for it.
☐ 10. Ask about crew and subcontracting.
Who actually installs — their crews, or subs? If subs, do the WCB/insurance checks cover them? Post-storm surges are when unfamiliar subs appear; it's a fair question and pros answer it plainly.
☐ 11. Warranty, in writing, split in two.
You want both: the manufacturer's material warranty (and confirmation the installer is certified to register it — some shingle warranties are void if the installer isn't) and the contractor's workmanship warranty (2–10 years in the Calgary market; get the number, not "we stand behind our work").
☐ 12. A payment schedule you'd design yourself.
Reasonable: modest deposit (10–25%), balance on completion — or staged payments tied to milestones on bigger exterior jobs. Red flag: large cash deposits, full payment up front, or urgency around paying today. Never pay in full before the final walkthrough.
☐ 13. Timeline and weather terms in the contract.
Start window, expected duration, and what happens on weather delay. Post-storm, honest contractors quote realistic (longer) timelines; the one promising next week either has no work for a reason or won't show.
☐ 14. Insurance-claim fluency.
For hail work specifically, ask how they handle the two-cheque process (ACV + holdback), whether they invoice in the format your insurer needs, and whether they'll do a scope comparison against the adjuster's sheet. Calgary's good exterior companies do this weekly; blank looks are diagnostic.
☐ 15. References from the last full year — not the last month.
Two or three past clients, ideally from before this storm season, and at least one you can see (most homeowners are happy to let you look at a roof from the street). Recent-only references are how pop-up outfits pass this test.
If you do nothing else: licence lookup (5 min) → WCB clearance (5 min) → insurance certificate (2 min) → Google/BBB history check (5 min) → sleep on it before signing (free). That routine alone filters out nearly every bad outcome Calgary homeowners report after a storm.
Or start from a shortlist where that work is already done: every ✓ Verified company on TrueTrades hail damage repair has had its licence, WCB, and insurance checked and dated. Our methodology →
Are out-of-town contractors always bad?
No — after mass events, extra capacity helps the city recover. The checks are the same regardless of postal code; local companies just pass the footprint-and-warranty test more easily. What matters is verification, not geography.
My insurer suggested a preferred contractor. Do I have to use them?
No. In Alberta the choice is yours. Preferred vendors can be perfectly good (and their work is often insurer-guaranteed — ask), but run them through the same checklist; "preferred" reflects the insurer's network agreements, not a quality ranking.
How many quotes is too many?
Three well-matched quotes beat six sloppy ones. Past three, you're burning contractor goodwill in a market where the good ones are choosing which jobs to take.
Should I wait for prices to come down after the storm rush?
Sometimes — but weigh it against your policy's repair-completion deadline (typically 180–365 days for the depreciation holdback) and against damage compounding over winter. If you wait, get the extension from your insurer in writing.
What if the work fails after the company disappears?
This is why the checklist front-loads footprint and warranty. Your recourse ladder: workmanship warranty → manufacturer warranty (if registered) → Alberta consumer protection complaint → small claims. All four are stronger with a local, licensed, insured company — which is the whole point.
This guide reflects common Alberta practice and consumer-protection rules; it isn't legal advice. Sources: City of Calgary licensed-trade registry; WCB Alberta clearance process; Service Alberta prepaid contracting requirements; IBC hail-claim guidance; TrueTrades market research.