Write Down Each Roofer's Exact Words on the Terms That Matter

A roofer's price is only one line in a bid. The sentences around it decide what you actually get: when the crew starts, who hauls the old shingles, what happens if rain stops work on a Tuesday, and which paper governs if the bid and the contract disagree. Those sentences tend to change shape as they move from a phone call to a text to a printed page. A roofer who said on the first call that the crew would leave the yard clean may write 'site left broom clean' on the bid and 'debris removed per daily standard' in the contract. Both may mean the same thing to the roofer. They may not mean the same thing to you.

This page is for the stage where you have two or three roofers and you are deciding which one to hire. The point is simple: record the exact words each roofer uses on the terms that will decide the job, and compare those words, not your memory of them.

Roofer comparison

Start with a short list of terms that matter for your house. For most St. Louis homeowners that list includes the start date and how the crew counts weather days, the payment schedule, what the bid includes for tear-off and disposal, who replaces a damaged sheet of plywood, how a change is priced and approved, and which document controls when two documents disagree. Keep the list to eight or ten items. A longer list is hard to fill in and easy to skip.

For each roofer, open a page with the term at the top and the roofer's name beside it. Under each term, copy the roofer's words exactly. If the answer came by phone, write what you heard and say so, for example by phone, Tuesday, salesperson said the crew would start the week of the 14th. If it came by text or email, paste the line. If it appears in the bid, quote the page and line number. A summary like 'they said yes to the start date' loses the detail that matters, such as 'week of the 14th, weather days not counted' versus 'week of the 14th, flexible for weather.'

Once the pages are filled in, read across each row. Look for three things. First, terms the roofer answered in a way that cannot be checked, such as we take care of it or standard practice. Second, terms that appear in one roofer's bid and are missing from another's, because a missing line is a question, not a zero. Third, words that changed between the first call and the written bid. None of these prove a roofer is a bad choice. They tell you where to ask again before you sign.

Keep the pages in date order. If a roofer changes an answer, add a new dated line rather than overwriting the old one. The changed answer is information, and so is the fact that it changed.

A note on what a roofer may not do for you. In Missouri, a roofing contractor may not represent or negotiate a homeowner's insurance claim, and may not say anything about paying, waiving or covering the deductible, because state law (RSMo 407.725) forbids it. Your comparison pages should therefore cover what the roofer will document and deliver, such as a written scope with photos and measurements, and attendance at the site as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

What it costs

Writing down exact wording costs you an afternoon, not money. The cost of skipping it shows up later as a dispute over a line that was never written. Think about the terms that carry the largest dollar amounts and the most days. A start date that slips by three weeks can push the job into a fall stretch with fewer dry days. A payment schedule that front-loads deposits leaves you with less leverage if a crew stops working halfway through. A change-order rule that says changes are priced at time of work leaves the number open until the invoice arrives.

Ask each roofer to state the price for each likely change in writing, either as a unit price or as a plain statement that changes are billed at time and materials. Your page should show the roofer's exact words for how a change is approved, who signs it, and whether the approval has to happen before the work starts. This is where small wording differences turn into large amounts of money.

Pay attention to terms that look free. A roofer may say the bid includes disposal of old shingles. Ask whether that covers the dumpster, the haul, the landfill fee and the magnet sweep of the yard afterward. If the answer is in a sentence rather than a line item, copy the sentence. If the bid says disposal included and the contract says debris removed per standard, you have two definitions to reconcile before the crew arrives.

What to ask

Ask each roofer to put the terms you chose into one written sheet, in their own words, and to sign or date it. This request does more than most to turn a pile of phone calls and texts into one document you can compare against the others. A roofer who is comfortable with their terms will usually agree. A roofer who resists putting the terms in one place is giving you a comparison fact too.

Ask which document governs if the bid and the contract disagree, and get the answer in writing. Many homeowners assume the contract wins, and some bids are written to say otherwise. Either can be the right arrangement, but you should know which one applies before you pay a deposit.

Ask how each roofer prefers to receive your questions and how they answer them. Some respond fastest by phone, some by email, and some only through a single office line. Whatever they say, copy the answer into your page with the date. If the Keys Roofing office number, (314) 220-2333, is your route for questions, note it beside the terms it answers so the next question goes to the same place.

Finally, ask each roofer what they will do if a term you wrote down turns out to be wrong after you sign. This question shows you how they handle disagreement. The answer does not need to be perfect. It needs to be specific, and it should match what you would hear from the person who actually signs the contract.