Test Each Roofer With One Fact You Already Know About Your House

Most homeowners compare roofers by asking questions and listening to the answers. A sharper test is to give each roofer one fact you already know for certain about your house, then see whether the number or description that comes back matches. A roofer who gets a known fact right has probably measured the house. A roofer who gets it wrong, or who avoids giving a figure at all, has told you something about how the bid was built.

This page is for the stage where you have two or three bids in hand and are deciding whether to call back, ask for a site visit, or stop. The test needs no special tool. It needs a few facts you can confirm with a tape, a photo, an old permit card, or a closing packet.

Pick facts you can confirm yourself

Choose two or three facts that move the price and that you can check without climbing the roof. Good choices on a St. Louis house include:

• The year the house was built, which often tells a roofer what the decking and framing are likely to be.
• The number of layers on the current roof, which you may find on an old invoice or a note from a previous inspection.
• The number of chimneys, and whether each one is brick, stone or metal-capped.
• Whether the attic has a finished room, a knee wall or a pull-down stair, since each changes how the crew reaches the work.
• The length of the street-side eave, measured with a tape from the gutter edge.

Write each fact on a card before the calls begin, and keep the card in the same folder as the bids. Do not read the card to the roofer first. Let the roofer state what they believe the fact is, and log the answer in the same words they used.

Why a known fact works better than a trick question

A trick question tests memory. A known fact tests whether the bid rests on a real visit. Roofers who walked your roof usually carry measurements, photos and a sketch, and they can speak to them without hesitation. Roofers who worked from an aerial image or a phone photo can still be right, but they tend to qualify their answers, and the qualification is useful information in its own right.

The point is not to catch anyone. Measurement methods differ, and a roofer may count a feature in a way you did not expect. If a number is off by a small amount, ask how the roofer arrived at it. If the difference is large, or if the roofer cannot say where the figure came from, you have a question that belongs on paper before you sign.

Roofer comparison: how to log the replies

Set up a simple table with one row per fact and one column per roofer. Record each answer exactly, then mark whether it matches your card, is close, is far off, or is missing. A blank cell is an answer too, and it should be scored as one. The table shows patterns that a stack of bid pages hides. One roofer may be right on the chimney count and wrong on the layers. Another may get every fact right and still leave out the ice and water membrane at the eave.

When two roofers both get the facts right, the comparison moves to the scope. Read each bid line by line and check whether the lines describe the house you actually have. When one roofer gets a fact wrong, do not assume the price is wrong too. Ask for a corrected page. A corrected page with a date and a revised total is a stronger document than a verbal promise that the number will be fixed later.

What it costs to check, and what it saves

Running this test costs time, not money. Each call takes about ten minutes if the card is ready. The real cost is the return visit you may need to resolve a discrepancy. That visit is usually worth it when the gap between bids is large enough that one wrong fact could explain it. If the bids sit within a few percent of each other and every fact matches, the test has done its job, and you can move on to the other comparison questions.

Do not treat a wrong fact as proof that a roofer is dishonest. Older houses in St. Louis County often have changes that never reached the county record. A bungalow may have a rear addition from the 1960s. A brick house may have a chimney that was rebuilt without updated plans. A roofer who finds these items on the visit and corrects the number has done better work than one who repeats the first guess.

What to ask after the test

Once each roofer has answered the fact questions, ask the following in writing:

1. Which measurement method produced each number on the bid.
2. Who on the crew took the measurements, and on what date.
3. What would change the total if one of your confirmed facts differs from what the bid assumed.
4. Whether the bid commits to a corrected page if a fact turns out to be wrong after the crew arrives.

The fourth question is the one most homeowners forget. A bid that promises a corrected page on a stated date is easier to hold a roofer to than one that says the price is firm and says nothing else. Keep every version, and make sure each revised page carries its own date.

When the test points to a second visit

If two roofers disagree on a fact, and the disagreement could move the price, schedule a second visit and walk the same spot with each roofer on separate days. Take a photo of each measurement with the tape in view. The second visit is also the time to confirm the shingle line the bid names, because the wrapper, the bid and the contract should agree. Keys installs Atlas and Malarkey shingles only, so a bid that names a different line should say why.

Missouri does not license roofers at the state level, so the bid itself carries more of the comparison than a license number would. Use this test as one way to see whether the bid was built from your house or from a template.

Keep the test short

Three facts are enough for most homes. More than five and the test turns into a quiz that tires both you and the roofer. Choose the facts that move money, record the answers, and stop once the pattern is clear. A roofer who answers three known facts correctly, in writing, with a source for each figure, has given you the kind of information a comparison needs. A roofer who cannot do that has given you information too.