Compare Each Roofer's Night-Before Text Before Roof Day

Many roofers send a text the evening before the crew arrives. Some send an email at breakfast. Some send nothing and expect the crew to knock on the door at seven. A message the night before looks like a small courtesy, but it is one of the few places where a roofer puts a specific promise in writing a day ahead of the work. When you have two or three bids open on the kitchen table, the message each company sends tells you whether anyone is tracking the job or whether the schedule is only a hope.

The useful comparison is not whether a company sends a message. It is whether the message carries the same facts from one roofer to the next.

Read the message for facts, not tone

A friendly message can still say nothing. "We will see you tomorrow morning" is warm, but it gives you no arrival time, no crew lead's name, and no number to call if the crew is late. Before you compare two messages, sort what they say into a short list of fields. A message that fills the fields is doing its job. A message that leaves them blank is asking you to take the schedule on faith.

Look for these items in each roofer's sample message:

• A start window with an hour on each end, not a word like morning.
• The name of the crew lead who will be on the roof, and the phone number that person answers on the job day.
• What the crew does first, such as setting the dumpster, staging shingle bundles, or running the magnetic sweep when the job ends.
• Whether the start is confirmed or depends on weather, and what the message says will happen if rain or a freeze is forecast.
• What you should move before the crew arrives, such as cars in the drive, outdoor furniture, or a gate that has to stay open.
• Who to call if the crew has not arrived by the end of the window, and whether the company will call you first.

Put the bids side by side

Take the sample message from each roofer and write the six fields as column headings on one sheet. Fill each cell with what the message says, using the exact words where you can. One roofer may give a window from 7:00 to 9:00 and a crew lead's name. Another may write "early." A third may name the crew lead but give no arrival time at all. The sheet will show the gaps faster than your memory of a phone call will.

Do not score a roofer for a long message. Length can hide a gap, and a short text can carry all six fields. Count what is there.

Weather is the field most messages skip

St. Louis roof days are often shaped by weather before they are shaped by the crew. A morning fog that sits on the slopes, a line of storms moving in from the west, or a hard freeze that leaves the deck too cold for sealant can each move a start. Shingle sealant strips need warm days to bond, and a roof that stays wet after an overnight rain is not one a careful crew will walk on. A message that says "weather permitting" without saying who decides and by what time is leaving that decision to chance.

Ask each roofer to put their weather rule in writing. What time of day do they check the forecast? Do they call you, text you, or simply show up? If they reschedule, does the message say how the next date is chosen and how much notice you will get? A company that answers these questions in its sample has thought through the day. A company that answers with "we'll let you know" has not written the rule down yet.

Permits and the message

Permit desks in St. Louis County and the municipalities around it keep their own inspection schedules, and a roof start can wait on a desk that has not yet signed off. A night-before message should say whether the permit is in hand and whether an inspection is booked for a day that could hold up the crew. If the message says nothing about the permit, ask in writing which document it refers to. Missouri does not license roofers, so a clean message is not a substitute for checking the company's own paperwork, including its insurance certificate and its written scope.

What a missing message tells you

Some companies will not send a night-before message at all. That is a fact to record, not an automatic reason to rule them out. Some small crews work from a calendar that the crew lead updates in the morning. Ask whether the company sends any confirmation before the crew arrives, and if the answer is no, ask who you should call to confirm. Write the answer down with the date and the name of the person who gave it.

Record the reply on your comparison sheet the same way you would record any other answer. If a roofer tells you the crew will simply arrive, the sheet should say so in those words, so you can read it back if the start slips.

Testing the message before you sign

Ask each roofer for a sample of the message they send before a job, with names and numbers removed. Read the samples against the six fields above. A roofer who works from a template can usually send it the same day. A roofer who writes a new message each time may be working from memory, and that is worth knowing before you sign.

If Keys is one of the bids on your sheet, call the office at (314) 220-2333 and ask the same question: what the night-before message says, who the crew lead is, and what happens when the forecast turns. Compare that answer with the others the same way you would compare any other field.