Both Westfall Roofing and Gladiator Exteriors are licensed Tampa Bay roofing contractors. Here's an honest, factual comparison so you can decide which one fits your project — without the marketing fluff.
By Tyler Wisdom | Roofing | 2025-11-12 | 7 min read
roofing comparison · tampa roofers · westfall roofing · gladiator exteriors · choose roofer
If you're shopping for a Tampa Bay roofer, Westfall Roofing is one of the names that comes up. They're a long-established local company with a solid reputation. Gladiator Exteriors is also a Tampa Bay roofer — veteran-owned, licensed, and growing fast. Both can do the job.
This isn't a hit piece — Westfall is a legitimate company doing legitimate work. The point of this article is to lay out the real differences between the two so you can pick the contractor that actually matches what you're looking for. Different homeowners want different things, and the right answer depends on you.
Westfall has been around longer, so they have a deep portfolio of completed projects you can reference. For homeowners who value a long, established track record above all else, that history matters. They run a larger operation with multiple crews, which means they can handle high-volume periods (like the rush after a major storm) without the scheduling pressure smaller shops face.
If you want a big established name with extensive marketing and a long Florida history, Westfall fits that profile.
Gladiator is veteran-owned, which matters to homeowners who want their dollars going to a small business with that ownership story. We're licensed Florida roofing contractor CCC1337377, fully insured, and we operate as one team rather than a crew rotation — meaning the people who show up to estimate are the same people who show up to install.
We also handle gutters and fascia/soffit in-house. If your project involves a roof replacement plus new gutters, plus rotted fascia replacement, you get one crew, one warranty, and one phone number to call — instead of coordinating multiple subs. For homeowners replacing more than just the roof, that simplification is meaningful.
Smaller operations also mean we typically respond faster to estimate requests and have more flexibility on scheduling. We're big enough to handle complex projects and small enough to actually answer the phone.
Roofing pricing in Tampa Bay is more competitive than most homeowners realize. Both Westfall and Gladiator are working with the same shingle suppliers (GAF, Owens Corning, CertainTeed), the same labor market, and the same Florida Building Code requirements. Material costs and labor costs are roughly the same across legitimate contractors.
Where prices actually differ is in overhead structure. Larger companies have larger marketing budgets, larger office staff, and larger administrative costs to recover — those overhead dollars get baked into every quote. Smaller, leaner shops generally come in 5–15% lower on similar work because they have less overhead to absorb.
Always get at least three quotes from licensed Florida contractors. The honest variance between bids tells you who's pricing for the job vs. pricing for their overhead. Just make sure all three are quoting the same scope, materials, and warranty terms.
Pick Westfall if: you specifically want a company with the longest local history, you prefer working with larger contractors, or you're already a previous customer.
Pick Gladiator Exteriors if: supporting a veteran-owned business matters to you, you want a single contractor for roof + gutters + fascia, you want direct access to the people doing the work, you value faster response times on estimates, or you want to compare a competitive bid against the larger established operations.
The real risk in Tampa Bay roofing isn't choosing between two legitimate licensed contractors — it's hiring an unlicensed door-knocker, a storm chaser from out of state, or a fly-by-night operator who disappears after collecting your deposit. Both Westfall and Gladiator are licensed, established Florida companies with verifiable credentials. That puts both of us in a different category than the contractors you should actually be wary of.
Best move: get quotes from both. Get one from Westfall, get one from Gladiator (and ideally a third from another reputable local contractor). Compare scope, materials, warranty, and price line by line. The right contractor for your project will be obvious once you see the bids next to each other.
To get a free, no-pressure Gladiator Exteriors quote on your Tampa Bay roof — including a full wind mitigation savings projection — call (813) 419-2656. Veteran-owned, licensed Florida contractor (CCC1337377), serving Tampa, Brandon, Wesley Chapel, Trinity, Lutz, and the entire Tampa Bay area.
Call (813) 419-2656 for your free estimate.