Solar and the roof: what a roofer's page answers before panels go on

Should the roof be replaced before the panels go on?

This is the question to answer first, because the answer changes the price, the schedule and who is on the roof when. The page does not settle it for any one house. It says how your company settles it: [who inspects, and what they look at, in your words], what the homeowner receives in writing afterward, and the outcomes you meet in practice.

• [The roof is replaced first. We quote it with the panel work in mind and schedule it (how long) before the install.]
• [The roof is repaired first. We list the repairs, and the solar install waits until they are done.]
• [The roof goes ahead as it is. We say so in writing, with the date of the inspection and what we saw.]

Leave out a rule of thumb about roof age. A sentence such as "any roof over [a number of] years old should be replaced" is a claim about every roof in town, and it is the sentence a homeowner holds against you when their own roof does not fit it. State your practice for the roof in front of you instead. In our audit of 9,483 small business websites (40 trades, 90 metros, late August to early September 2026), half the sites (50.7%) had a heading phrased as a question with no answer under it that a machine could isolate (across all 40 trades; we publish no roofing cut). A heading asking whether to replace the roof first, followed by "call us", is that pattern.

Who does which part of the job

A roofer that installs panels itself says so. One that works with a solar or electrical contractor names that contractor, with its agreement, and says who does what, because a homeowner signing for solar can be signing with two companies at once and needs to know whom to call about each part. The table is a template to fill from your own jobs.

Then say whether the homeowner signs one contract or two, and who is the single contact while the work is underway. Link the partner's own site, so its license and its terms can be read in its words. In the markup, a company that holds an electrical license and does the wiring itself can type its node as both trades: Google's local business documentation says to give multiple types as an array (its own example is an electrician that is also a plumber and a locksmith), so a roofer that also wires the system gives ["RoofingContractor", "Electrician"], both of them LocalBusiness types under HomeAndConstructionBusiness on schema.org. A partner that does the wiring is its own business, with its own node on its own site.

The mounts, and whose warranty covers a leak at one

The page describes the mounts in the terms their maker uses and leaves the method to the crew. Say which mounting and flashing system you use, named the way its manufacturer names it, and on which roof materials you will mount it: [the materials you mount on, and any you will not]. Say who installs the mounts, and whether your company inspects the roof again once the array is on.

Then answer the question a homeowner asks in the second winter: if water comes in at a mount, whom do I call? The answer is whoever installed that mount, under the warranty that company gave on it, and the page says who that is and for how long: "[Mounts and flashing installed by us are covered by our workmanship warranty for (term). Mounts installed by (partner) are covered by (partner)'s warranty; we (what you do to help).]" A sentence like that is what makes the page an answer page rather than a brochure, and it is one an answer can repeat without inventing the rest.

What adding panels does to the roof warranty

Three documents can bear on it, and the page quotes each in its issuer's words rather than summarizing them:

• The roofing manufacturer's warranty: [quote what the document says about roof-mounted equipment, if it says anything, and link it]. If it says nothing, the page says that too, and sends the homeowner to the manufacturer.
• Your workmanship warranty: [whether it continues when another contractor installs mounts, whether it covers the roof under the array, and what happens to it if someone else removes and reinstalls the panels].
• The solar installer's warranty on the mounts and the system: [its term and what it covers, in the installer's words, or a link to its terms].

Answer only for the warranty you wrote. A homeowner told by a roofer that panels "won't affect" a manufacturer's warranty the roofer never read has been given a promise nobody made. Quoting each document, with a link as the source citation, keeps the page to facts someone can check; what the two warranties on a new roof cover when there are no panels is in the article on the pages a roofer's listings cannot hold.

Taking the panels off for a roof repair, and putting them back

A roof with an array on it may one day need work under the array, and the page says what happens then, before the homeowner signs for solar rather than after. State who removes and reinstalls the panels, [your crew, the solar contractor, or both, with who disconnects the system]; how long the system is off, [your range]; whether the installer's terms require its own crew for removal, [as those terms state]; and what the work costs, as a range in the table below.

If you do removal and reinstall for systems other companies installed, say so, and say what you check before you take one on: [the documents or photos you ask for]. A homeowner whose solar company has closed needs exactly that sentence, and a roofer's page may be the only one that gives it.

The prices to publish, as ranges you already quote

Publish the ranges your estimator already gives on the phone, dated, with what moves each one. Every figure here is a bracket for yours.

A range with its conditions is a sentence a homeowner can plan around and an answer can quote, which is what citability means for a price. Leave the panels' own price to whoever sells them, unless that is you.

Incentives: only the programs you or your partner have filed for

Who qualifies for a solar incentive, and for how much, is for each program to say, and those rules move. So the page names a program only when your company or your partner has filed its paperwork, and states no amount and no eligibility rule. A table keeps it to what you can vouch for:

End the section with the line every such table needs: "[Whether your home qualifies, and for how much, is for the program to decide. Check with them before you count on it.]" Take a program off the page on the day you or your partner stop filing for it. The overview for roofing contractors covers what the rest of the site states, and the solar lines for your panel are written the way AI visibility for roofers describes.