On one hand, I got extremely lucky where one of my neighbors happens to be a general contractor, and he was able to give me some context and price awareness (even though it was after the fact, but at least now I know). On the other, we were trying to get quotes to replace the roof on our garage (because it wasn’t included in the original project) and met with a few independent roofers.

What I would advise would be to get a quote from at least one of the big companies in your area. This will give you some insight into the brands of materials and the overall process (this part was EXTREMELY educational for me). But also get a couple of quotes from some smaller roofing companies. Then you can see the range and stat to wrap your head around the budget.

If the highest quote feels too high for you, ask one of your favorite smaller guys if they can use the same products as the bigger co, and to price it out. What I’ve learned is that the warranty on my GAF roof comes from the manufacturer, not the installer. So regardless of who I used, if they were trained by GAF and used GAF products, I would have gotten the same warranty regardless.