Ask Each Roofer How Many Estimates They Wrote on Your Street

A roofer who has written estimates on your street has already seen your roof type, your pitch range, the way the houses on your block were built, and where the trucks have trouble turning. A roofer who has written none has not. The count is a plain number, and you can ask for it before you sign anything. Put the same question to every roofer on your list: how many estimates did you write on my street, or on the streets that border mine, in the last twelve months? Write each answer down with the date you heard it.

This page is for the homeowner who has two or three bids in hand and needs one more fact before choosing. The count will not tell you whether a roof will last. It will tell you how much local experience sits behind the number on the page, and it gives you a way to check whether the crew that measured your house has seen houses like yours.

Roofer comparison

Start by asking the question in the same words to each roofer. If one roofer answers with a number and another answers with a general statement about working all over St. Louis, log both replies as they were given. A general statement is an answer too. It means the roofer could not or would not give you a count for your area, and that is worth recording next to the others.

Ask for a time window and a set of streets. A roofer may have written forty estimates in the county last year and three on your street. Those are different facts. Ask how many of those street estimates became signed jobs, and how many were declined. A high count with few signed jobs can mean the roofer quoted often and was not chosen, which is useful to know. It can also mean the roofer was quoting a neighborhood that was being hit by storms and was not a good fit for a standard reroof. The count does not settle which story is true, but it tells you which question to ask next.

Local experience matters in St. Louis for specific reasons. Freeze and thaw cycles lift shingles along the eave and open the starter strip in a cold snap. Hail season arrives in spring and again in late summer, and it leaves different damage on different slopes. Ice damming at the eave shows up on north and shaded faces first. Older streets in St. Louis County carry plank decking, mixed pitches from additions, and dormers that were framed by hand. A roofer who has written estimates on your street has probably measured some of these conditions already, and can say which ones your house is likely to have before the crew climbs up.

Compare the answers in one place. A simple sheet with one row per roofer and three columns works: the count, the window of time, and the streets named. Leave a cell blank only if you asked and got no reply. Blank cells are answers too, and a roofer who skips the question is telling you something about how they handle a direct request.

Keep the sheet with the rest of your bid papers. If one roofer later says they have worked on your block many times, you can check the sheet and ask them to name the addresses. Most roofers will not name a neighbor's house without that neighbor's permission, but they can describe the roof type, the year range, and the slope they worked on, which is enough to test the claim.

What it costs

Asking the question costs nothing. Getting a useful answer takes a few minutes on the phone or one line in an email. The count itself does not change the price on the page. A roofer with many local estimates may still quote higher or lower than a roofer with few, because price depends on materials, crew size, tear-off method, and the scope written into the bid. Do not read the count as a discount or a premium.

Where local experience does affect money is in the rework. A roof measured by someone who has not seen houses like yours can miss a valley, a dormer cheek, or a step in the deck that shows up after tear-off. Those misses often come back as change orders. Ask each roofer how they handle a condition they did not see at the first visit. Ask whether a return visit to re-measure carries a charge, and whether that charge is written into the bid or added later. A roofer who can answer that question in one sentence has usually handled it before.

Ask each roofer whether the crew that will do the work is the same crew that measured the roof, and whether the estimator who wrote the number has been on a job like yours in the last year. The answers affect what you pay later as much as the bid does. A number written by someone who has seen the street is less likely to need a supplement once the tear-off begins.

Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 if you want to ask these questions directly before you choose. Write down the answer you get, the date, and the name of the person who gave it.

What to ask

Put these questions to every roofer on your list, in this order, and log each reply beside its question:

1. How many estimates did you write on my street, or the streets next to mine, in the last twelve months?

2. Of those, how many became signed jobs, and how many were declined?

3. What roof types and pitch ranges were on those estimates?

4. What did you find on those roofs that the bid did not show at first?

5. Who will measure my roof, and has that person written estimates on houses like mine?

6. If you find a condition at tear-off that you did not see at the walk, how do you price it, and is that rate in writing now?

7. Will you send the photo log and measurement notes from the walk before I sign?

Keep the replies in one folder. If a roofer says they have not written any estimates on your street, that is a usable answer. It tells you to ask how they would learn the street before the crew arrives, and what they would walk first. A roofer who has not written on your block can still do good work, but the homeowner should know it before the trucks turn in.

When two roofers give you counts that differ widely, ask each one to name the streets they had in mind. You do not need the addresses. You need to know whether the roofer counted houses on your block or houses in a wider area. The gap between those two answers is often where the trouble starts, so write it down and ask about it before you narrow the list.