Ask Each Roofer What the Other Bid Gets Wrong, and Write Down the Answer

You have two or three written bids on the kitchen table, and one of them is a few thousand dollars higher with no obvious reason. Before you pick a winner, ask each roofer about the other bid. The answer tells you less about the competitor than about what each roofer chose to put in writing, and whether that writing will hold up on the day the crew shows up.

Why a rival bid is a fair question

A roofer who has seen a competing bid knows which lines are missing from it. Ask plainly what the other quote includes that yours does not, and what yours includes that theirs does not. A useful answer names specific items: underlayment type, drip edge metal, pipe boot material, starter course, one layer or two on tear-off, dumpster and magnet sweep, and who hauls the old material away. A vague answer, such as they are cutting corners, with no line item attached, gives you nothing you can check.

You are not asking for a verdict on another company's character. You are asking for a list of differences you can read against the paper. Keep the question on the scope, not on the people who wrote the other bid.

Three answers to listen for

Most answers fall into one of three groups.

• A line-by-line answer that points to where the two documents differ, with the quantity or the product name. This is what you want.
• An answer that says the other bid is probably fine but cheaper for a reason the roofer cannot name. Ask what would have to be true for the lower number to hold.
• An answer that criticizes the competitor without naming a single line. Note it, and ask for the same comparison in writing before you weigh it at all.

Write each answer in your notes with the date and the name of the person who gave it. If a roofer's explanation changes between the site visit and the written proposal, the proposal controls, and the change is worth a question of its own.

Turn the answers into a written difference list

Take the spoken differences and put them on one page. Use three columns: the item, what the first roofer writes, and what the second roofer writes. Leave a cell blank when a bid is silent on something. Silence is a finding too. A bid that says nothing about pipe boots, ice and water shield width, or ridge vent is leaving you to guess at the work it covers.

Ask each roofer to initial the list, or to send it back by email with their own corrections marked. Keys Roofing will work from a list like this in writing, and so will any roofer who takes the question seriously. If a roofer refuses to put a comparison on paper, that refusal belongs in your decision as well.

What a rival bid can and cannot tell you

A competitor's bid is a snapshot taken from one visit. The measurements may be off, the roofer may have missed a chimney or a second layer, and the scope may describe a roof that is not the one you have. Ask each roofer whether they walked the roof themselves, when they did it, and how they measured it. A bid built from a satellite image and a quick photo is a different document from one built on a walk with a tape and a pitch gauge.

Do not treat a rival bid as a price you must match. Use it to find the lines you do not understand yet. The gap may be real, it may come from a smaller scope, or it may be a missing line that shows up later as a change order. The only way to tell which is to read both documents against each other, slowly, one line at a time.

What the comparison costs you in time

An hour spent building a difference list is cheap compared with a change order written after the tear-off has started. The hour also tends to reveal what each roofer is willing to commit to. A roofer who answers every question with a number and a product name is showing you how the job will be run. A roofer who answers with a sales line is showing you something else. Neither answer is a price, but both belong in the comparison.

The list also makes the lower bid easier to judge honestly. A bid with a lower total can still carry a higher true cost if it leaves out flashing, underlayment, or haul-away, and those items tend to return as extra charges once the old roof is open. Lay the items side by side and the total stops being the only number on the page.

Questions to ask each roofer

• Which line in the other bid would you change if you were the homeowner, and why?
• What is one item you include that the other bid leaves out, and where does it appear in your scope?
• Does your bid measure the same roof the other bid measures, slope by slope?
• If I accept your bid, which items should I expect to see as a change order later, and which should already be fixed in the price?
• Will you put this comparison in writing, with your name and the date on it?

When a second bid makes the choice easier

Sometimes the differences are small, and the choice comes down to who answered the questions most clearly. Sometimes one bid is missing a layer, a flashing, or a dumpster line that the other includes, and the price gap is simply the cost of that work. Either way, the decision gets easier once both roofers have answered the same questions on paper.

Keep every answer and every revised page. If you need to ask about a change later, the earlier comparison is your reference, and it shows what each roofer agreed to before the first nail went in. For a St. Louis home, where freeze and thaw cycles, hail season, and ice at the eave can all change what a roof needs, that record is worth more than the first number you saw. If you want to talk through a difference list before you decide, call Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333.