Out-of-Town Crews Need Beds and Meals, and Each Bid Should Say Who Pays

Storm season in the St. Louis area brings roofing trucks in from other states and from other parts of Missouri, and the crews riding in those trucks need somewhere to sleep, eat and park while the work runs. Many homeowners do not think about this until a bid is in hand and a start date is close. A bid can look complete on the first page and still say nothing about who pays for a motel room, a week of meals, or the fuel for a crew that drives several hours to reach your curb. That silence changes the total you are comparing, and it changes whether the crew you were shown is the crew that stands on your roof.

This page is about that one line in the bid. It does not argue that out-of-town crews are better or worse than local ones. A crew from another county can be well run, and a crew from across the river can be careless. What matters for your comparison is whether each roofer tells you where the crew sleeps, who books the rooms, and how that cost reaches your invoice. A roofer who answers those questions in writing is giving you a number you can check. A roofer who answers them with a shrug is leaving the cost in a place you cannot see.

Roofer comparison

Put the lodging question in the same comparison table as your other rows, next to the tear-off, the disposal and the permit. Write each answer in the roofer's own words, with the date you heard it. Then sort the answers into three groups. The first group says the crew is local and goes home each night, with the drive time stated. The second group says the crew travels and the cost sits inside a named line of the bid. The third group says the crew travels and gives no clear answer about who pays.

The third group is the one to press. Ask the roofer to show where the lodging sits in the bid, or to add it as a line item if it is missing. If the answer is still vague after one follow-up question, record that as a blank cell, not as a yes. A blank is information too. It tells you the roofer has not priced a part of the job that is already on the calendar.

Compare the travel plan against the schedule as well. A crew that sleeps forty minutes away can start at seven and be on the roof before the afternoon heat builds in July. A crew that drives in from farther away may spend the first hour of each morning loading materials, checking the route and waiting for a motel checkout. Ask each roofer what time the crew expects to reach your address on day one and on the last day, and note whether those times depend on a check-in or a long drive. A specific answer is easier to hold a roofer to than a general promise that the crew will be there on time.

One more comparison point is the crew size. A bid that lists four workers but houses eight, or the reverse, is telling you something about how the job is staffed. Ask how many people will sleep in each room or vehicle, and whether the bid counts the same crew you will see on the roof. A mismatch between the lodging plan and the named crew is a question to write down before you sign.

What it costs

Lodging, meals and travel cost money, and the roofer has to recover that money somewhere. The honest places it can appear are a separate line for travel or per diem, a labor rate that states travel is included, or a mobilization charge that names what it covers. Each of those is acceptable as long as you can see it. What you should not accept is a bid where the labor rate looks low and the travel cost is folded into it with no note at all.

When you compare totals, rebuild each bid into the same parts before you decide which one costs less. Take the material price, the labor price, the tear-off and disposal, the permit fee, and any mobilization or travel line. If one bid has a travel line and another does not, the second bid is not cheaper until you know where its travel cost went. Ask for the number in writing, even if the answer is that it is absorbed in the labor rate. A stated absorption is a claim you can hold the roofer to. An unstated one is not.

Ask whether the lodging cost changes if the job runs long. A roof that was planned for four days can stretch into six when a weather day or a soft deck area adds work. Some roofers price lodging by the night, some by the week, and some as a flat sum for the whole job. A per-night rate on a job that slips into a second week can add a meaningful amount without anyone deciding to add it. Ask which method applies, whether the bid states a cap, and who approves an extra night before it is billed.

Also ask whether any travel cost reaches you if the job is cancelled after the crew has already left its home base. This is a fair question, and it belongs with the rest of your cancellation terms. The answer should sit in the same written line as the lodging rate, so that you are not reading two separate documents to find out what a cancelled day costs.

Finally, check whether the bid lists fuel or mileage separately from the trip itself. A crew driving a loaded truck from another region burns more fuel than a crew working from a yard ten miles away. Some roofers fold that into a trip charge, and some hide it in the rate. Either can be fair. The thing to compare is whether the number is visible, because a number you can see is one you can question.

What to ask

Before you choose between bids, put the following questions to every roofer on your list, in the same order and the same words. Write each answer down with the date. If a roofer answers one question and skips another, note the skip as a blank cell.

• Where does the crew sleep on each night of the job, and which company or person books those rooms or vehicles?
• Is lodging, per diem, mileage or fuel a named line in the bid, or is it inside the labor rate? Show me where it sits.
• If the job runs an extra night or an extra week, what is the rate, and who approves it before it is charged to me?
• What time does the crew expect to reach my address on day one, and does that depend on a check-in or a long drive?
• If a storm pulls the crew to another job during my roof, who covers the extra nights and the cost of getting the crew back to my address?
• If I cancel after the crew has traveled, is any part of the travel cost billed to me, and where is that written?
• Will you put the travel and lodging answer in writing, with today's date, so I can compare it side by side with the other bids?

A good written answer names the place the crew stays, the party that books it, the number of nights assumed, and the dollar line where the cost appears. An answer that names only a town or only a promise is not yet an answer you can compare. Ask for the missing piece before you move on to the next row of your table.

You can put these questions to Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333, or to any other roofer on your list, using the same wording each time. Keep the answers in the same file as the bids and the contracts, so that when you read the totals you can see what each total includes and what it leaves to chance.