About us
About Upstate KC Builders
A general contractor whose specialism is the two roofing materials most companies will not touch, working across three states.
Who we are
We came up through the roofs nobody else wanted
Metal and slate are what we are known for, and they are the two roofing materials that punish a shortcut hardest. A standing seam panel telegraphs a bad measurement down its entire length. A slate repair either matches or it looks like a patch forever. Neither one forgives a rushed detail.
Working to that standard every day sets the bar for everything else. The trim in your hallway, the deck off the back, the barn you have been meaning to put up for three years. Same crew, same tolerance for getting a joint right.
Most contractors pick a lane. They do asphalt roofs, or they do kitchens, and if you need both you hire twice and hope the two crews talk to each other. We do the roof and we do the room underneath it, which means one person is accountable when the two have to meet.
Who you will deal with
Stephen K runs the jobs, and he is the one who turns up
If you call us, you will most likely deal with Stephen K. He is the one who comes out to look at the roof, writes the estimate, and is on site while the work happens. That is not a sales structure, it is just how a company this size works, and it is the reason customers keep naming him in reviews rather than naming the company.
He started Upstate KC Builders in 2020, after roughly 10 years running a construction company before that. So the business is younger than the experience behind it, which is worth knowing when you are comparing a company founded in 2020 against one that has been trading longer.
It is a family run business, and a small crew. John handles a good share of the work alongside Stephen. The practical effect is that there is no account manager between you and the person holding the tools, and nothing gets handed to a subcontractor you have never met.
The most common thing customers say about us is not about roofing at all. It is that we turn up when we said we would, we explain what we found, and we clean up before we leave. Those are low bars. They are also the three things homeowners tell us other contractors failed at.
How we work
The four things we actually promise
Not slogans. These are the specific commitments a homeowner can hold us to.
We get on the roof
Estimates come from the roof or the room, not from the driveway with binoculars or from satellite imagery. You cannot price what you have not looked at.
Everything in writing
Scope, materials, panel gauge, coating, what is included and what is not. Verbal numbers are how disputes start.
Surprises surface same day
Open a wall or a roof deck in a hundred year old building and you find things. You hear about it that day with a price, not on the final invoice.
We will tell you not to
If your roof has years left and needs a flashing repair, that is what you get quoted. Not every call has to become a replacement.
Three states
Why the service area looks the way it does
We are based in the Saratoga area and cover 107 towns across six counties. That is a wide radius for a company our size, and it is a choice rather than an accident.
Plenty of roofing companies will not quote slate at all. The ones that will are thin on the ground once you get away from the cities, which leaves homeowners in the Rensselaer hill towns, southern Vermont and the Berkshires with century-old roofs and no honest options. We would rather drive to Bennington than tell someone to keep calling around.
Working across three states has a practical consequence: the conditions change underneath you. Snow load in Winhall is not snow load in Colonie. Frost depth is deeper in Bennington County, so footings go deeper. Massachusetts runs its own stretch code and enforces it harder than either neighbour, and several towns add historic district review on top. Specification follows the location, which is the entire point of knowing an area rather than applying one standard everywhere.
What we do
Ten services, one contractor
Metal Roofing
Standing seam and corrugated metal roofs built to shed Northeast snow and last fifty years or more.
Slate Roofing
Repair, restoration and installation of natural slate, including matching salvaged tile on historic homes.
Roof Repair & Replacement
Leak repair, storm damage, and full tear-offs on asphalt, metal and slate. We find the actual source, not the wet spot.
Home Remodeling
Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and whole-home renovations, run by the same crew from demo through punch list.
Finish Carpentry & Trim Work
Crown molding, wainscoting, built-ins and casing. The detail work that separates a renovation from a repair.
Custom Woodworking
Built to fit the room it lives in: cabinetry, shelving, mantels and furniture-grade pieces in the species you pick.
Exterior Painting
Prep-first exterior painting on clapboard, cedar and trim, using coatings that survive a Northeast freeze and thaw cycle.
Deck Building & Restoration
New decks, structural repair, and stripping and refinishing decks that still have good bones underneath.
Siding & Gutters
Vinyl, fiber cement and wood siding, plus seamless gutters and guards that move water away from the foundation.
Barns & Outbuildings
Pole barns, workshops, sheds and storage buildings for rural and residential property, permits handled.
Questions
About the company
We work across Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties in New York, Bennington County in Vermont, and Berkshire County in Massachusetts. The width is deliberate. Metal and slate roofing are specialised enough that the homeowners who need them are spread thin, and a lot of them are being told by three contractors in a row that a repairable roof needs tearing off. Covering more ground is how we get to those jobs.
Yes. We carry full insurance on every job, everywhere we work. Ask us for the certificate before you sign anything, with us or with any contractor. A contractor who hesitates on that question has told you what you need to know.
Most likely Stephen, who runs the jobs, along with the crew. It is a small family run business, so the person who looks at your roof and writes the estimate is the person on site when the work happens. There is no account manager in between and nothing gets handed to a subcontractor you have never met.
The roofing, carpentry and remodeling work is done by our own crew. The person who looks at your job and writes the estimate is on site when the work happens. We are not a sales operation that hands the lead to whoever is available.
You call us and we come back. We work in a region small enough that reputation travels, and across six counties where the same homeowners talk to each other. That is a stronger incentive than any warranty document.