Your Handwritten Call Notes Are Evidence, So Check Them Against Each Bid

If you took notes on a phone call with a roofer, or jotted down what someone said at the curb, those notes are the closest thing you have to a record of the conversation before any paper was signed. A roof bid is a document the roofer wrote and controls. Your notes are a document you wrote, usually with the date beside them. When the two disagree, that gap is worth a question before you compare totals or sign anything.

What a call note should record

Keep one line per fact, not a paragraph. Write the date, the time, who was on the call, the number they gave, and the exact words they used for anything that matters, such as when the crew would start, what the shingle is called, whether tear-off is included, and what happens if weather stops work for a day. A line like they said tear-off is included is a note you can check. A line like seemed fine on price is not.

Write the roofer's name and company as they gave it, and note whether the person was the owner, the estimator, or a sales contact. If you spoke with two people at the same company, log both and mark who said what. Homeowners often find that the person who measured the roof and the person who sold the job give slightly different answers, and the notes are where that difference first shows up.

Set up the page before the bids arrive

Use one page per roofer, or one page with a column for each. Put the questions you asked at the top in the order you asked them, then leave space below each question for the answer. Do not rewrite an answer later to make it tidier. If you need to add a clarification, add it on a new line with the date it was written. The original answer stays where it was.

Keep the page in the same folder as the bid, the contract drafts, and the e-mails. If your notes live on a phone and the bid lives in an inbox, you will have trouble finding the matching line when it matters. A single folder, even a paper one, lets you place a note beside the bid line it should match.

Check each bid line against what was said

Once a written bid arrives, read it with your notes open beside it. Go line by line through the items you asked about. For each one, ask three things. Does the bid say the same thing the roofer said on the call? If the roofer promised something the bid leaves out, is the omission covered somewhere else in the packet? And if the bid includes something you do not remember discussing, when did it first come into the conversation?

The last question matters most in practice. Some bids add a line for a second layer of underlayment, a drip edge replacement, or a plywood allowance that never came up on the call. That is not automatically a problem, since a roofer may have measured something after the first visit. But it should be marked as new, and you should be able to see the date it appeared.

St. Louis timing that changes what the notes mean

Dates carry more weight in this area than they might elsewhere. A freeze-thaw cycle in January can change what a roofer said about starting before spring, because a crew that promised a March start may find the deck still frozen or wet when that date arrives. A roofer who said on a November call that the job could go ahead before the first hard freeze made a timing promise that the weather can break. Your note from that call records what was promised before the cold was in the forecast.

Hail season matters too. If you called a roofer in late spring after a storm and they gave you a range for the job, that range reflected conditions at the time. If the bid arrives in midsummer, check whether the crew's calendar, the shingle supply, or the permit timing has moved. Permit desks in St. Louis County and in the City of St. Louis do not all process applications at the same pace, so a note saying the roofer would pull the permit should be checked against the date the bid was written.

When the notes and the bid disagree

A disagreement does not mean anyone is lying. Phone calls are quick, people speak from memory, and bids are often written by someone who was not on the call. The useful response is to ask the roofer to confirm the point in writing and to name the person responsible for the answer. Send a short message that gives the date of the call and quotes your note back in a sentence. For example: On the call on the 3rd you said tear-off is included, but the bid lists disposal as a separate line. Can you confirm which is correct, in writing?

Keep the reply. A reply that changes the bid should come with a revised page and a new date. A reply that says the bid is right and the call was mistaken should also be kept, because it shows how that roofer handles a difference between what was said and what was written. Compare how each roofer responds. Some will correct the bid quickly. Others will answer a different question. That difference belongs in the comparison.

What to confirm on each bid

After you have checked the bid against your notes, send each roofer a short list of confirmations and ask for them in writing before you choose. Ask each one to confirm:

• the start window, and whether it depends on weather or permit timing
• the shingle product name and color as they will appear on the order
• whether tear-off, disposal, and underlayment are included or listed separately
• who pulls the permit and who will call for the inspection
• any line on the bid that did not come up during your calls, with the date it was added

A roofer who answers each point in one written reply, with the date and the name of the person who wrote it, has given you something you can file. A roofer who answers only by phone has given you another round of notes. Both can be useful, but only one leaves a paper trail that matches the bid.

Keep the notes after you choose

The notes stay useful after you sign. They are the record you will reach for if the crew arrives on a different day than promised, if a line on the final invoice differs from the bid, or if you need to show what was said before the contract was written. Keep them with the contract and the closeout papers.

If you have questions about how a bid compares with what you were told, Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333. Bring your notes and the bid to the call, and check each line against the page you wrote on the day it was said.