When Your Electrician or Painter Shares the Roof Week

Most St. Louis roof jobs do not run alone on the lot. The electrician may be moving a service mast, a painter may be finishing trim, a gutter crew may be booked for the week after, and a fence company may need the side yard. When the roof crew and another trade share the same few days at the same house, the bid stops being the only schedule that matters. This page covers the question to put to each roofer before you choose: how they coordinate with the other people working on your house during the same window.

The point is comparison, not suspicion. Other trades are normal. What differs from one roofer to the next is whether the coordination was written down before anyone arrived, or whether it gets worked out in the driveway at seven in the morning while the trucks idle.

Roofer comparison

Start with a simple sheet. Put each roofer in a column and write one row for each outside trade you already know about. Common rows in greater St. Louis include an electrician for a meter or mast move, a painter for fascia or trim, a gutter installer, a chimney mason, an HVAC tech for a condenser or line set, and a fence or landscape crew. Leave the cells blank at first. Then ask each roofer to fill them in, using the same questions in the same words.

The answers will sort into three kinds. Some roofers will say they have no problem with other trades and will name the ones they usually work beside. Some will say the other trade's date is the homeowner's to manage. Some will name a person at the company who calls the other trade, and will say when. Those three answers are not equal. A roofer who names a coordinating person and a call time has given you something you can check. A roofer who says it is up to you has told you that coordination will be your job, and you should count that effort as a cost, even if the bid says nothing about it.

Pay attention to order too. Other trades usually finish before the roof crew starts, or wait until the roof is closed in. A painter working on fascia cannot start until the gutters are off. An electrician moving a service mast may need the roof crew to stay clear of one corner of the house for a full day. Ask each roofer which trade goes first in their plan and who decides if that trade slips. If one roofer's answer depends on a trade you have not booked yet, note it. That is a hidden dependency, and it can move your roof date without the bid changing at all.

Ask who holds the access

Other trades need the same parts of the house. Electricians need the meter and the panel. Painters need ladders against the same wall. Gutter crews need the eave line the roof crew is tearing off. Ask each roofer who holds the access path while the trades overlap, and whether that person is named in writing. Many St. Louis houses have one side gate and a narrow drive, and when two crews need that gate at the same hour, the gate becomes the schedule. A roofer who has thought about this can tell you which gate, which hours, and who opens it.

What it costs

Coordination costs money even when it is not on the bid. A roof crew that stops to wait for an electrician to finish a meter job is paying for idle labor, and that cost lands somewhere. It may appear in the bid as a standby line. It may show up later as a change order. It may be absorbed by the roofer and recovered in a future estimate. Ask each roofer how a wait caused by another trade is billed, and get the answer in the same words from each company.

The clearest comparison comes from the standby rule. Some roofers will say a wait caused by an outside trade is billed by the hour at a stated rate. Others will say the wait is already included. A few will say it has not come up and will decide case by case. If you want to compare the real cost of two bids, ask each roofer for the hourly standby rate, and ask how many standby hours the schedule assumes. Those two numbers together tell you more than the headline total.

Also ask who pays for protection another trade needs. A painter may need the roofer's drop cloths left in place. An electrician may need a tarp kept over a panel. A board may need to stay on a window until a second trade is finished. These are small lines, and they tend to appear only when someone asks for them. A bid that names them is easier to compare than one that says protection is included.

What to ask

Ask each roofer these questions in the same order, and write each answer down beside its question:

1. Which outside trades have you worked alongside on a St. Louis job in the past year, and which ones will be on this job?
2. Who at your company calls the other trade, and when do they make that call?
3. Which trade goes first, and what happens to the roof date if that trade slips by a day or three?
4. Who holds the gate, the drive and the side yard access while two crews overlap, and is that written down?
5. What is your hourly standby rate when a wait is caused by another trade, and is that rate in the bid?
6. Who covers the other trade's protection, such as a tarp over a panel or a board over a window, and who removes it?
7. When a second trade damages something the roof crew left in place, who writes the note and who receives it?

Two of these matter more than the rest. The first shows whether the roofer has done this work or is guessing. The third shows whether the schedule hides a dependency. A roofer who answers both with names and days has given you a sheet you can keep. A roofer who answers with a general statement about being easy to work with has given you a sentence that cannot be checked.

When you have the answers, put the other trades on your own calendar with the roofer's dates beside them. Do not rely on a verbal promise that someone will coordinate. Ask for the schedule in writing. If a roofer will not put the other trade's window on paper, mark that as a gap in your comparison. Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 if you want to put these questions by phone before you decide, and the answers are worth getting in writing whichever company you choose.

One limit belongs in the comparison too. A roofer can coordinate the roof crew and the work it controls. A roofer cannot coordinate the other trades' own permits, insurance or pricing, and should not be asked to. Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing a homeowner in an insurance claim, and that representation is forbidden to the contractor. If an outside trade is tied to an insurance repair, that conversation belongs between you, your insurer and the other trade. The roofer's role is to attend as the contractor and to put a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands.