What questions should I ask a Nashville solar contractor before I sign anything?

Before you sign a solar contract in Nashville, you should be able to ask direct questions and get specific, local answers that make sense for NES, Middle Tennessee Electric, or your co-op and for the roof on your house. If a contractor cannot answer the questions below in clear, concrete terms, they are selling a generic package, not a Nashville system.

Ask how they will evaluate the condition and remaining life of your roof

Solar will sit on your roof for 20 to 25 plus years. A serious contractor has to talk about the roof first, not just the panels.

Ask how they will inspect your roof and decide whether it is ready. A good answer for a house in Donelson, East Nashville, Madison, or Bellevue includes things like shingle age, granule loss, past leak history, soft spots in the deck, ventilation, and any patchwork repairs. For metal roofs in Franklin, Brentwood, Nolensville, or Mt Juliet, they should talk about panel condition, seams, fasteners, underlayment, and how the roof was originally detailed.

If all you hear is “it looks fine from the street” or “solar does not really affect the roof,” they are not treating roof and solar as one system. The Solar Roofers and The Metal Roofers start with the shell because the quality of your roof sets the ceiling on how long your solar investment can really last.

Ask how they size and design systems for NES, MTE, and TVA, not just for net metering

Nashville is in TVA territory. NES, Middle Tennessee Electric, and local co-ops do not offer classic one to one net metering. Design and payback are different here than in states where export credits match retail rates.

Ask how they take NES or MTE rules into account. The contractor should talk about pulling your last 12 months of bills, sizing around your annual usage, and focusing on self consumption first, using your own solar directly in the house, rather than oversizing for export. They should be able to explain in simple terms how your bill will look afterward, what portion is likely to shift, and which fixed charges remain.

If they cannot talk about NES and MTE specifically and keep drifting back to generic “the meter spins backward and your bill disappears” language, they are not designing for Nashville.

Ask how they attach to your roof and how they keep roofing warranties intact

Solar can either respect your roofing system or ruin it. The difference is in attachment and flashing details.

Ask exactly how they will attach to your roof type and what that means for your roof warranty. On shingles, you want to hear about flashed mounts into structure, not just screws with sealant. On standing seam metal, you want to hear about tested seam clamps that avoid drilling through the metal panels. On metal shingles or classic panel roofs, you want to hear about hardware that matches the profile and is flashed into the system the way a good roofer would handle any other penetration.

Then ask how they put this in writing. A competent contractor spells out their workmanship warranty on penetrations and can show that their details line up with roofing manufacturer guidance. As The Metal Roofers and The Solar Roofers, we design mounts and flashings we are willing to stand behind in the same way we stand behind a full metal roof.

Ask who will be on your roof and how those crews are managed

In Middle Tennessee, a lot of good work is done by dedicated subcontractor crews, especially in roofing and electrical. The real question is not “employees or subs,” it is whether the company uses trained crews consistently and supervises them properly.

Ask who will be running your job day to day. You want to know:

• Who the lead person on site is and how to reach them
• How long the company has worked with the same roofing and electrical crews
• Whether those crews are licensed, insured, and trained for both roofing and solar work

At The Solar Roofers, we use regular subcontractor crews that follow our details and standards, and we assign a project lead who is accountable for the whole system, roof and electrical. You should expect the same level of ownership from anyone who touches your house in East Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood, Bellevue, Mt Juliet, Gallatin, or surrounding areas.

Ask what equipment they are specifying and why it fits your home

Panels, inverters, and batteries each have a job. A good contractor can explain why they chose a particular product line for your roof, not just quote a brand name.

Ask which panel family they plan to use, what the wattage and warranty are, and how the panel will look on your roof. Ask whether they are using string inverters or microinverters and why that choice makes sense for your roof geometry and shade in a place like Sylvan Park, Inglewood, or Green Hills.

If you are considering batteries, ask how they size them, how Tesla, Enphase, EG, or other options would behave on your backup panel, and which rooms and systems each configuration would keep running during outages. You want practical comparisons, not buzzwords.

Ask what will actually stay on during an NES or MTE outage

Backup is one of the main reasons homeowners in Middle Tennessee consider batteries. The crucial question is not the model name, it is what happens on your street when the power fails.

Ask the contractor to walk you through a real outage scenario. They should show you which circuits they plan to put on a backed up loads panel, how quickly the system switches when the grid drops, what will stay powered, and for how long under typical conditions. They should also explain how solar, if you have it, will or will not recharge the battery during daytime outages.

By the end of that conversation, you should know whether your fridge, key lights, outlets, Wi-Fi, and a furnace blower or mini split will run, how long they are expected to run, and what you would need to shut off to stretch runtime during a multi day storm. If the answers stay vague, the backup design is not finished.

Ask what their workmanship warranty covers and who you call if something goes wrong

Product warranties come from manufacturers. Workmanship warranties come from the company that installed the system. Both matter.

Ask how long they stand behind their work on the roof, on attachments, and on electrical connections. Ask what happens if you see a stain on the ceiling five years from now, or if monitoring shows part of the array has dropped out. The answer should be straightforward: one company, one phone number, one clear warranty document.

The Solar Roofers and The Metal Roofers issue a workmanship warranty that covers the way we installed both the roof and the solar system. You should expect a similar level of clarity from any contractor who wants to alter your roof in Nashville weather.

Ask how you will monitor the system and understand your NES or MTE bill

A finished system is not just hardware, it is something you need to be able to read and manage. Ask what monitoring platform you will use, what it will show, and how you will know if something is wrong.

You should see daily, monthly, and yearly production, and, when possible, some view of your home’s consumption. A good contractor will also explain how to read your NES or MTE bill after solar is turned on, what has changed, and what has not.

If they cannot show you a live or sample monitoring screen or cannot explain how their past customers track performance, you will be flying blind.

Ask what is included in the price and what could change later

Before you sign, ask for a clear breakdown of the scope and the price. That includes roof work if needed, solar equipment and installation, battery equipment and installation, and any electrical upgrades or panel changes that are part of doing the job correctly.

In older homes around East Nashville, Sylvan Park, Madison, or Donelson, it is common to discover that panels or services need to be updated to meet current code. You want to know whether the contractor has already included that work in the number you are signing, or whether they are planning to change order it later.

The contract should read like a detailed project description, not like a flyer. If you cannot tell what is being done for the price, you should not sign it.

When you ask these questions and insist on clear answers, it becomes obvious which companies are building systems for Nashville roofs and Nashville utilities and which are relying on a generic national pitch. The Solar Roofers and The Metal Roofers welcome this kind of scrutiny, because a system that makes sense for your roof, your NES or MTE bill, and your outage reality is the only system worth signing for in Middle Tennessee.

‍