Give Every St. Louis Roofer the Same Lot Sketch Before They Bid

A roof bid is only as comparable as the lot it was written for. Two roofers can stand in the same yard and still price different roofs, because one measured the drive as a parking spot, one counted the side gate as a walkway, and one never noticed the overhead line above the back corner. A lot sketch fixes that before the first number is written. It is one page you draw or mark up yourself, handed to each roofer in the same form, so every bid starts from the same facts.

Roofer comparison

The point of the sketch is comparison, so the first use is to line the bids up against it. When a bid comes back, check whether it mentions each feature on your sketch: the drive, the side yard gates, the trees that overhang the eave, the AC condenser, the gutter run that ends at a downspout. A bid that ignores a feature you marked is not necessarily cheaper. It may have assumed the feature does not exist, and that assumption belongs in writing where you can see it.

Keep the sketch simple. A hand drawing on graph paper is enough. Mark the street side, the house outline, the attached garage if any, the front walk, the driveway with its width and surface, and each gate with its width. Note the side yard that a crew would cross, the back yard fence, and any patio or deck that sits under an eave. Draw in the overhead utility lines you can see, the meter, and the main electric service. Mark where a dumpster could sit if the street allows one, and where a truck could stop without blocking a driveway. This is not a survey. It is the set of facts a roofer has to answer to, and it is the same set for every bidder.

Ask each roofer to mark their own plan on your copy or on a copy of their own. The useful version is a second sketch made by the roofer from yours, showing their crew's ladder points, staging area and trailer position. When two roofers mark different staging areas, the difference is a real cost question, and the bid price should reflect whichever plan it uses. A roofer who will not sketch the staging area on your lot has not priced the access.

Shingle product should be compared the same way. Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only, so a roofer quoting a different line on your sketch is answering a different question. Name the product line in the bid and check it against the sample or the data sheet the roofer gives you. The sketch does not replace the product check, but it keeps the access and product questions in separate boxes so they do not get mixed up.

What it costs

A lot sketch costs you an hour on a Sunday and a pencil. The cost that matters is the one it prevents. The usual place a bid moves after signing is access: a crew reaches a side yard that was not priced, a trailer has to be moved, a ladder has to be placed on soft ground, or the dumpster cannot sit where the bid assumed. Each of those can add a line, a delay, or a second trip, and a second trip is often billed to the homeowner. The sketch makes the access question visible before the price is set.

Freeze and thaw cycles in St. Louis change access in ways a sketch can capture. Clay soil that holds water in spring can soften enough that a trailer or ladder sinks, so mark the low corners of the lot and any wet spot you have seen in past winters. Ice damming at the eave affects the start date as much as the flashing, so note the eave lines where ice has built up before. Hail season in the metro runs through the spring and early summer, and a crew that has to stop for weather still needs a plan for the staging area, so mark where the materials would sit if the day is lost.

Permit desks across St. Louis County can ask for a site plan showing the house, the lot lines and the proposed work. A sketch made early can be reused for that purpose, but it is not the permit document itself. Ask each roofer whether they will pull the permit and whose name goes on it. That is a cost question because the permit fee and any inspection trips may be billed as separate lines. Confirm that the permit line in each bid shows the same scope and the same applicant.

When two bids differ by a few hundred dollars, look first at whether the access lines match the sketch. A bid that adds a staging charge, a hauling charge or a second-trip charge is not the same roof as a bid that folds those costs into the labor. Both can be honest, but they are different numbers. The sketch lets you see which items each bid is carrying.

What to ask

Give every roofer the same sketch, the same date and the same written question list. Then ask each one to answer in writing. These questions do not need to be clever. They need to be the same for each bidder.

• Which features on this sketch does your bid price, and which does it leave out?
• Where will your crew stage materials, and where will the trailer or dumpster sit?
• Which side yard or gate will your crew cross, and who has agreed to it?
• Does your bid assume any ground condition, such as firm soil or a clear drive, that I should check first?
• Who pulls the permit, and does the permit line in your bid match the scope?
• Which shingle product line is named in your bid, and where can I see its data sheet?

Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, so the sketch is a bidding document and not an insurance one. If a roof is involved in a claim, the homeowner deals with their own insurer. What a roofer can do is document the damage, put a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, and attend as the contractor while the homeowner handles the claim. Ask each roofer to confirm that in writing if the job touches a claim.

Keep the marked sketch in the same folder as the bids and date each copy. If a roofer's answer changes between the first visit and the written bid, the sketch shows which feature moved. If you want to talk through a sketch or set a visit, the Keys office number is (314) 220-2333.