Guardian Roofing vs. RoofSmart: Which Roofer Is Right for Me?

March 31st, 2025

8 min read

With so many roofing contractor options in the Greater Seattle area, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you. Trying to narrow down your options can quickly become overwhelming.

It’s no secret that having a good-quality roof on your home is important. So, you want to be sure that the roofer you’re choosing will do a good job at a fair price. It’s important to choose the right roofing company for your needs because each roof is unique and so is each customer.

This article will compare Guardian Roofing and RoofSmart. At RoofSmart, we want you to make the best decision for your home, even if that means not choosing us.

Often, when we're at someone's home we hear that they also are speaking with Guardian Roofing. In the spirit of transparency, we wrote this article as an apples-to-apples comparison so you, the homeowner, can make an informed decision.

This article is meant for residents of the Greater Seattle area to give you an in-depth look at the differences between two local roofing companies.

This article will cover these categories for each roofing company:

Roofing and Other Services
Reputation and Customer Reviews
Warranties
Pricing
Ownership

To keep things fair, we are using public information from company websites, online review sites, and other public web pages.

The goal of this article is to help you easily compare Guardian Roofing and RoofSmart so that you can make a well-informed decision on which roofing company is the right fit for you.

What criteria make a good roofing company?

Roofing and Other Services: A good roofing contractor offers a wide variety of services to best meet all of their customer’s roofing needs. This includes roof replacement, roof repair, and maintenance. They might also offer other services like gutter, siding, or framing installation.
Reputation and Customer Reviews: A good roofing contractor will have excellent customer service, which is reflected in their overall reputation and in the online reviews that people leave about them. Having high ratings and many 5-star reviews indicates that the roofing contractor and their services are valued by their customers.
Warranties: A roofing contractor that does good-quality work is willing to stand behind it with a solid workmanship warranty. The warranty shows the customer that the roofer has confidence in their roofing abilities and demonstrates their willingness to make things right if they make a mistake.
Pricing: A good roofing company is honest and transparent about their pricing. They are able to clearly explain how much your roof work will cost and give you a proposal with line items rather than just one lump sum. Some companies also provide information about pricing on their website—this can look like an automated tool for estimating replacement costs or content on the website that explains pricing for different services.

Curious how much it would cost to get a new roof? Check out our Instant Estimator to get a ballpark estimate for your home:

Guardian Roofing

Guardian Roofing was established in 2005 by Matt and Lori Swanson. Since then, they’ve grown their company from a mom-and-pop to a corporate, private equity-owned “big deal” and it's quite impressive. They are located in Auburn, WA, and offer both residential and commercial services.

Roofing and Other Services

Here are the main services Guardian Roofing offers:

Roof Replacement
- Asphalt shingles
- Metal
- Cedar shake
- Tile
- Flat roof/single-ply membrane materials
Roof Repair
Commercial roofing services (repair and replacement)
Roof cleaning
Gutter and gutter guard installation
Gutter Cleaning
Carpentry
Chimney repair
Attic cleaning, sealing, and mold removal
Insulation

Reputation and Customer Reviews

Guardian Roofing is recognized for its excellent customer service, quality of work, and comprehensive list of services. Many reviewers praised them for being professional, courteous, and informative throughout the roofing process. Their sales team was noted for clear communication and thorough explanations.

However, some customers reported that repairs were inconsistent, with temporary fixes not always leading to long-term solutions. A few customers expressed frustration with slow responses to issues, particularly when problems arose after a service.

To keep things objective and fair, we used an AI summary of our reviews to get a general overview of their reviews. In addition, we looked through their 5-star and 1-star reviews to get an idea of what people were saying on both ends of the spectrum.

Guardian was quick to respond to 1-star reviews, apologizing for the inconvenience and encouraging customers to reach out to the office to discuss solutions.

Rating and Review Information

Google Star Rating: 4.8

Total Google Reviews: 2,330

1-star reviews: 46

Warranties

Guardian Roofing is an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor. This means they can provide their customers with any level of Ownes Corning warranty coverage, from the standard warranty all the way to the Platinum Protection Warranty.

Here is an overview of the different Owens Corning warranty levels:

Guardian Roofing is also a CertainTeed Shinglemaster, meaning they can provide customers with added levels of protection through CertainTeed’s SureStart Plus Extended Warranties.

In terms of a workmanship warranty, Guardian Roofing expresses their “Guardian Guarantee” that they stand behind their work and say that their work is guaranteed not to fail. Their workmanship warranty is not available on their website, which does not aid transparency.

Pricing

Guardian Roofing has a page on its website explaining the average cost of a roof replacement based on the type of material you want. They also include factors to consider that might impact the cost of the replacement.

Here are their prices:

Asphalt shingles: $16,000 to $40,000
Metal: $31,000 to $60,000
Tile: $38,000 to $80,000
Cedar shake: $44,000 to $76,000

For a more specific price estimate, they encourage you to reach out to them for an inspection.

Ownership

Guardian Roofing was founded by Matt and Lori Swanson in 2005. From the beginning, they centered their business model around treating their customers well and continuously expanded their services to better serve each customer’s unique needs.

In 2017, Guardian Roofing was sold to private equity. Matt is still involved in the business. Selling to private equity gives companies the opportunity to continue to expand in ways they might not have been able to before. It also provides an exit strategy for the founder and allows them to transition to retirement.

This includes milestones like reaching higher rates of production or opening new locations across the country. The downside is that it can shift company culture through leadership changes or create uncertainty for employees in the event of layoffs or downsizing.

Private equity often invests in companies that they think can be made more efficient and profitable by either cutting costs or increasing prices. These are not always in the best interest of the customer, but they definitely look good to the bottom line in the short term.

RoofSmart

RoofSmart was founded in 2011 by Jim Singleterry. John Campopiano and Nestor Martinez joined as partners in 2021. We do residential and commercial roofing and a variety of other services. We’re based in Kent, WA.