Ask Each Roofer What a Second Storm Does to the Price

A roof job in St. Louis rarely stays on the schedule written in the first bid. Spring hail, a July storm line, or a November cold snap can stop the crew for a day or a week. Before you compare prices, ask each roofer what a second storm does to the number you were quoted, because two bids that look the same at signing can split apart once the tear-off has started.

Roofer comparison

The first storm usually costs nothing extra if the contract treats it as a weather day. The second one is where the answers diverge. Some roofers hold the price fixed and move the calendar. Others reprice materials that were already delivered, or they bill a standby fee for each day the crew sits in the driveway. Neither approach is wrong on its face, but you cannot compare the bids until you know which one each company uses.

Put the question to each roofer in the same words and write down the answer as it is given. Ask what happens if rain or wind stops work on day three of a four day job. Ask whether tarps and dried in roof sections are billed. Ask whether a storm that tears off a partly finished slope creates a new line item, and who signs for it. The answers will sound similar on a phone call. On paper they usually are not.

St. Louis weather makes this question more than theoretical. A spring front can bring hail in the afternoon after a morning of clear work, and a freeze after a wet week can keep the crew off the roof even when the sky looks dry. Ice damming at the eaves, the freeze thaw cycle on exposed decking, and gusts on an open roof all push the crew indoors or off the roof. Ask each roofer which of those conditions they treat as a stop, and whether a stop on the crew's side is treated the same as a stop caused by the weather.

Keep every answer in one file, dated the day you heard it. If a roofer later says the storm terms were different, you will have the earlier wording to compare against. A proposal that matches the phone answers is a good sign. A proposal that leaves out a term you asked about is a question to raise before you sign.

What it costs

A second storm can change the total in four places. The first is standby time, where the crew is paid for a day it could not work. The second is material handling, where shingles that were delivered, staged, or partly loaded may need to be moved, covered, or reordered. The third is the tarp and temporary dry-in, which can be billed by the day, by the sheet, or as part of a fixed line. The fourth is rework, where wet underlayment or a loose nail line has to be redone before the next layer goes on.

Each of these can be written as a unit price or as a flat allowance. A flat allowance is easy to read and hard to check, because it does not tell you what the allowance covers. A unit price tells you how much a tarp or a standby day costs, so you can multiply it by the days you actually lose. Ask each roofer to put these in the proposal as unit prices, with the unit named, so you can compare the same thing across bids.

Ask also whether any storm allowance is taken off the final invoice if the crew finishes early. Some companies carry an allowance and return what is not spent. Others carry no allowance at all and bill the day when it happens. Both can be fair, but they produce very different final numbers, and the difference shows up at the closeout, not the bid.

Keys Roofing can explain its own approach on the phone at (314) 220-2333. The point of asking is not to find the cheapest answer. It is to know what the number will do if the weather turns, so the total you sign for is the total you pay.

What to ask

Use these questions with every roofer on your list, in the same order, and write the answers into the same columns:

• If rain or wind stops work mid-day, is that day billed, and at what rate?
• If a second storm hits after the tear-off has started, which materials are reordered at your cost, and which are not?
• Is the temporary tarp priced by the sheet, by the day, or in a flat line?
• Who decides when the roof is dried in again, and what do you sign to confirm it?
• If the work runs past the scheduled finish date because of weather, what changes in the price?
• Does an early finish return any allowance, and how is that shown on the final invoice?

Ask for each answer in writing. A phone answer is useful, but the written proposal is what you will hold when the second storm arrives. If an answer is missing from the proposal, ask the roofer to add it before you sign, not after the tear-off starts.

One more check helps. Ask the roofer to show, on the proposal, which lines would change if the job lost three working days. A roofer who can point to those lines has thought through a second storm. A roofer who says it will be handled as it comes is telling you the price will be settled on the day, which is when you have the least room to compare.