Compare the Signed Copy Each Roofer Leaves in Your Hands

The signed contract is the only paper that will still matter in six months, when a shingle lifts or an invoice shows up with a line you do not remember agreeing to. Most homeowners sign at a kitchen table, get a stack of pages, and put them in a drawer without reading what they received. Before you compare roofers on price, compare what each one leaves in your hands when the signing ends. Two bids can carry the same total and still give you very different paper to work from.

Roofer comparison

Put the copy from each roofer side by side and count the pages. A complete copy of a St. Louis roofing contract should include the signature page with dates, the written scope, the material specification, the payment schedule, the start and completion terms, and any photos or measurement sheets the bid refers to. If one roofer hands you a single page with a total and a signature line, and the other hands you eight pages with the scope attached, you are not comparing the same paperwork, even if the numbers match.

Check whether both parties have signed the copy you keep. A copy with only your signature, or one where the company name is typed but not signed, leaves an unclear record of who agreed to what. Ask the roofer to sign and date the copy you take home, not only the original they keep in the office. It is a plain request. A roofer who resists it is telling you how the rest of the job will be documented.

What it costs

A paper copy costs nothing to hand over, so the real cost sits in what gets left out. The expensive mistake is rarely a missing page. It is a price line with no matching sentence in the scope, such as a decking allowance, a ridge vent, or a note about the old flashing. When that happens, the number you are holding is the one on the front page, while the work on the roof is described somewhere else or not at all. Count the lines in the price table and match each one to a line in the scope. Any price line without a scope sentence behind it is a line you cannot check after the crew leaves.

Read the payment schedule against the same copy. If the total is split into a deposit, a midpoint payment and a final payment, the amounts and the events that trigger each one should appear on the page you keep. A schedule that says the final payment is due at completion, without defining completion, is one more reason to read the completion section before you sign. The copy should let you find every number without calling anyone.

Ask whether the attachments are part of the contract or only part of the packet. Some bids list a photo set or a measurement sheet as a reference. If the contract points to a scope that is not attached, you may have trouble showing later what was agreed. Ask the roofer to confirm in writing which attachments the contract includes, then store them in the same file as the signed pages.

What to ask

Before the signing, ask each roofer these questions and write the answers beside the copy you receive:

• Will you give me a fully signed and dated copy, with every attachment the contract mentions, before I leave the table?
• If the bid and the contract disagree on a material, a price or a date, which document controls?
• Where is the cancellation section, and what does it say about the deposit and the notice period?
• Who keeps the original, and how do I request a replacement copy if mine is damaged or lost?
• Which person is the job contact, and does the copy show that person's name and phone number?

Each answer is a fact you can compare. A roofer who says the bid and the contract match, without showing you where the match is written, has given you a sentence rather than a document. Ask the roofer to point to the page and the line. If the page does not say it, the statement does not belong in your comparison.

Read the cancellation section of each copy in the same sitting. Compare the notice period, the way the deposit is treated, and whether the section requires written notice or allows notice by phone. Those differences matter more than a few hundred dollars in the quote, because they decide what you can do if your plans change after you sign. Keys Roofing is the contractor behind this site, and the office line is (314) 220-2333 if you want to ask about the signed copy before you sit down. Put the answers from every roofer, including us, into the same file as the copy.

Keeping the file after the signature

Keep the signed copy in one place with the photo set, the payment receipts and any written change orders. If the roof develops a problem later, that file answers the first questions: what was promised, what was paid, when the payments were made, and when the work was marked finished. Each change order should be signed by both sides and dated, and it should replace or add to a specific line in the original scope rather than standing alone.

Some municipal permit desks across St. Louis County ask for contractor details when a permit is pulled, so keep the copy where you can reach it quickly. A phone photo of each page is a useful backup in case the paper is lost or damaged, but the signed original is the record that anyone will rely on. If a page is unclear in the photo, ask the roofer for a clean scan on the day it is requested rather than the week after the problem appears. The copy you take home is the only part of the paperwork that is entirely yours, so treat it that way from the first page.