Ask Each Roofer Which Bid Line Cost Them Money Last Year

A bid is a promise about money, and every promise has a line where it gets tested. Ask a roofer which line lost them money on recent jobs and you learn where they will look for savings when your job runs long. A roofer who lost money on flashing will be careful with flashing. A roofer who lost money on tear-off debris may push that cost back to you through a change order. The question is not a trap. Most roofers know the answer, and a plain one usually sounds like a fact, not a sales line.

Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333, and the same question can go to every roofer on your list. The aim is to compare what each one says, line by line, against the bid in your folder.

Why a lost line tells you more than a won one

A line that made money is easy to talk about. Roofers tend to describe the jobs where the numbers worked. A line that lost money is harder to describe, and the way a roofer describes it shows how they priced the rest of the bid. Some will name the line, give the cause, and say what changed in their estimate afterward. Others will say the job was fine overall. That second answer is not necessarily false, but it does not tell you where the risk sits.

Your bid has a dozen lines that carry real risk on a St. Louis roof: decking that is soft under the old shingles, a chimney that needs its counterflashing redone, valleys wider than the measurement shows, and the drip edge and starter course at the eave, where a freeze can lift a poorly nailed row. If a roofer lost money on one of those lines, they probably price it higher now or write a condition into the bid. If a roofer lost money on something you never see, like the time spent hauling old shingles down a narrow side yard, you should know that before you sign.

What a loss looks like on paper

When you ask this question, listen for three parts. The first is the line itself, named the same way the bid names it. If the bid says "tear-off and disposal" and the roofer says "the dumpster," they are describing a different line, and you should write down both names. The second part is the cause: unexpected rot under the old deck, a permit reinspection, weather that stopped work for two days, or a crew that had to come back. The third part is what changed. A good answer says whether the bid now carries an allowance, a unit price, or a condition.

A weak answer skips the cause or gives one that could describe any job. "Things happen" tells you nothing. Ask the roofer what the line cost in crew days and materials, and whether that cost came out of the margin or was passed to the customer. You are not asking the roofer to open their books. You are asking how the bid was built.

How to ask it without turning the call into a fight

Ask every roofer in the same words. Something like: "Think of the last job where one line on the bid cost you more than you expected. Which line was it, what caused it, and how did you price it after that?" Keep the question open, then write the answer down while the roofer is still talking. Mark each part of the answer as named, caused, or changed. If a phone call is the easiest way to start, send the same question in writing afterward and ask the roofer to reply with the line name and the change.

Do not ask a roofer which competitor lost money. That question is not useful, and it puts the roofer in a bad spot. Ask about their own work. If a roofer declines to answer any version of the question, note that, because a refusal is also an answer.

Check the answer against the bid in your folder

After the call, open each bid and find the line the roofer named. Does it appear in the bid? Is it priced as a fixed number, a unit price, or folded into labor? Is there an allowance or a condition that matches what they described? A roofer who says they changed the decking line after a loss should show that change in the bid. If the bid still prices decking the same way it did before, the answer and the paper disagree, and that gap is worth a follow-up in writing.

This check also helps with the lines nobody mentioned. A roofer who admits a loss on flashing and then leaves flashing out of your bid has given you a reason to ask where it went. Put the same question in writing to each roofer. A short email that quotes the roofer's own words from the call gives you a dated record to compare with the bid when you need it.

What a clean answer sounds like

A clean answer names one line, gives a plain cause, and points to a change you can find on paper. It might sound like this: "Last spring we had soft decking on a north slope that was not visible until tear-off. We now price a sheet allowance at a stated rate, and it is written into our bid as a unit price." That answer can be checked. The homeowner can ask to see the unit price, ask what the allowance covers, and confirm it appears in the contract.

A clean answer also admits that some lines still carry risk. No bid is free of it. The useful question is whether that risk is written down and priced, or left for the crew to absorb and later raise as a change order. Your comparison should favor the bid that names its risk clearly, even when that bid looks higher on the first page.

Keep the answers beside the bids they belong to

Store each roofer's answer in the same folder as their bid. Note the date, the person who answered, and the exact line they named. When you compare totals, you will see which bid carries an allowance, which carries a unit price, and which carries neither. That view matters more than the total on the front page, because the line that lost money for one roofer is often the line that costs extra on your roof.