If You Do Not Sign, Ask Each Roofer What Happens to Your Photos

A roofer who walks your roof leaves with a file on your house. It holds slope photos, close looks at the chimney flashing, pictures of the gutter runs, the gate, the side yard, and often a set of measurements. Most of that never shows up on the bid sheet. If you decide not to sign, the file does not disappear just because the contract does not exist. Before you pick a roofer, ask what happens to that file after you say no.

Roofer comparison

Roofers handle the file in different ways, and the bid rarely says which way. Some keep their roof photos in a job folder that only the office can open. Some use the photos for estimating and then keep them with the lead record for years. Some send the photos to an outside measurement service, and that service may keep its own copy under its own terms. A few roofers reuse images from walks in their advertising, which is a separate question from storage but comes from the same visit.

Ask each roofer the same three things in the same words. Where do my photos and measurements go after the walk? How long do you keep them if I do not sign? Do you or any outside service use images of my house, yard or address in advertising or share them with anyone else? The answers do not need to be long. They need to be written, and they need to match across the bids you are comparing.

Keys Roofing can answer these questions through its office at (314) 220-2333. Ask for the answer in writing before the walk ends, not after the crew has gone back to the shop.

Check the file itself, too. A usable file lists each slope, the pitch read, the ridge, the valleys, each vent and each roof penetration, with dated photos and a measurement sheet you can read at the kitchen table. If the whole set is three pictures taken from the driveway, the file is thin. That tells you something about the bid, whether you hire that roofer or not.

What it costs

The walk itself should not cost you anything to keep the file. What can cost money is a measurement report bought from an outside service, a drone flight, or a second visit to photograph something the first walk missed. Ask whether any of these is included in the bid, billed separately, or charged only if you sign. A bid that lists no measurement charge and then adds one near the end of the job has moved a cost out of the comparison.

Ask for the measurement sheet in writing. If a roofer will not send it unless you sign, you are paying for the sheet with your decision. Some homeowners accept that. If you are comparing three roofers, the sheet from each one is the quickest way to check whether the square counts agree before you look at prices.

Missouri has no state license for roofers, so no state rule forces a roofer to hand over a copy of what it wrote about your house. The written bid, the contract and your own written questions are the rules you can hold a roofer to. If it is not written down, do not count on it.

What to ask

1. Where are the photos from my walk stored, and who inside the company can open them?
2. If I do not sign, how long do you keep my photos, measurements and notes, and will you delete them when I ask?
3. Do you send any of my images to an outside measurement service, a supplier or a lead company? If so, which one, and under whose terms?
4. Are my house, yard or address used in advertising, a portfolio or a social post? If so, can I say no in writing?
5. Will you email me the measurement sheet and the slope photos today, whether or not I sign?
6. Is there a charge for any of that, and is it in the bid total or added later?

Write each answer next to the roofer's name on your comparison sheet. A roofer who answers quickly and in the same words as the others has made the comparison easy. A roofer who says the photos are 'internal' and cannot say where they sit has told you something too.

Where the file sits after you decide

If you sign, the file gets a second life. It becomes part of the job record, and that is where the photos of the old roof, the decking and the finished work go. If you pick a different roofer, the first file still exists on the first roofer's system. Ask for a copy of your own file before you close out the other bids. Some roofers will delete on request and some will not, and a copy is easier to get while the office still has the walk on record.

A few habits help. Save every photo the roofer sends in its original file, not a screenshot, and note the date it arrived. Keep the email that carries the measurement sheet. Write down the date of your walk. If a roofer tells you the file was deleted, ask for that confirmation in writing too, with the date on it.

Make the request in one sentence: 'Please send me a copy of the photos and measurement sheet from my walk, and tell me how long you keep them if I do not sign.' Then wait for the reply. That reply is one more line on the comparison sheet, and it costs you only the time it takes to ask.