Severe storms are not constant here. Ada County averages one or two a year, where severe means hail about an inch across or winds over 58 miles an hour. What is predictable is what follows: crews appear in the neighborhood within days, clipboard in hand, telling you they noticed damage from the street.
Some of them are fine. Some of them will take your deductible, sub the work to whoever is cheapest that week, and be unreachable by the time the first leak shows. You cannot tell which from the polo shirt. You can tell from the answers to five questions.
1. Which permit do you pull here, and who inspects it?
This one does most of the work. The answer is different in every valley city, and a roofer who works here knows it cold. Boise states plainly that re-roofing an existing structure needs a building permit, issued under its residential roofing permit type. Nampa lists re-roofing, including overlays and full tear-offs, among permit-required work, and warns that unpermitted work can hold up the sale of your home. Star lists re-roofing projects the same way. Meridian and Eagle both issue re-roof permits through their own building departments.
Caldwell, Kuna and Middleton do not publish a clear answer either way, which is its own useful test: an honest contractor will tell you they confirm with the city rather than pretending to certainty. Someone who waves the question off entirely is telling you they do not intend to pull one.
2. What wind speed is this roof designed for?
Another question with a local answer. Boise's criteria list 90 mph for one- and two-family dwellings. Meridian lists 100 mph for ordinary homes. Eagle, Kuna and Middleton list 115 mph. Star lists 115, rising to 120 for higher risk categories, and puts the city in wind exposure C, meaning more open ground and less shelter than a built-up street.
It matters beyond trivia. Exposure and design wind speed drive the fastener pattern, and fastening is where a rushed installation cuts corners you cannot see from the ground.
3. Is ice and water shield required on my house?
A favorite upsell, and in much of the valley it is simply not code. Meridian's design criteria say roof ice barriers are not required. Kuna, following the Ada County amendments, lists ice barrier underlayment as not required. Star says the same. Middleton is the exception on our list: its published criteria do require it.
So ask. If someone tells you it is mandatory in Kuna, they are either not reading the code or counting on you not to. It can still be worth buying on a particular roof. That is a different conversation from being told you have no choice.
4. Where does the tear-off go, and when?
A full tear-off produces three to five tons of old shingles. Plenty of crews leave that pile on your driveway over a weekend, or sub the haul-off to a third party and mark it up on your invoice. Ask where it goes and on what day. Ask who sweeps for nails, and how many times.
5. What happens if the decking is rotten?
Nobody knows the condition of your decking until the shingles come off. The honest answer is a price per sheet, agreed in writing before work starts, so the number cannot be invented on the day when you have no roof and no leverage. A vague answer here is the single most reliable predictor of a change order you will resent.
The quiet one
There is a sixth question, and it is the one people are too polite to ask: are you licensed to do this work in Idaho? Ask it. Ask for the registration number and check it. Anybody working honestly will hand it over without a flicker.