Your Insurer's Price Book Is Not Your Roofer's Price List

A roofer's bid and your insurer's estimate can describe the same roof and still come out far apart. Usually the reason is not that one side measured wrong. Each side prices the same lines from a different source, and the totals hide that difference until you look at the lines themselves.

Why the two totals start from different places

An insurer's estimate is built from a line-item pricing database that assigns a unit cost to each task, such as tearing off one square of shingles, installing one roll of ice and water shield, or hauling away debris. Regional labor and material rates are loaded into that database and adjusted for the area. A roofer's bid comes from different inputs: what the supplier charged for shingles that week, what the crew costs per hour or per square on that particular job, what the dump fee is at the landfill the crew actually uses, and how much margin the company carries. Neither source is a wrong number. They are two different ways of pricing the same work.

That is why a line-by-line comparison works better than comparing the two bottom figures. A bottom figure can be lower on one side because a single line was left out, not because the unit prices were lower. Start with the lines that appear on both documents, then sort out the lines that appear on only one.

Match the quantities first

Before any unit price is compared, check that both documents are counting the same roof. Put the square count from the insurer's estimate beside the square count in your roofer's bid. If they disagree, the gap is a measurement question, and it will flow into every line that depends on area, including shingles, underlayment, nails and tear-off labor. Ask for the measurement report or roof diagram that each side used. Pitch matters too, because a steep slope can add labor even when the square count matches exactly.

Quantities that match can still hide differences in what gets counted. Ask whether the estimate counts the valleys, pipe boots, step flashing at each wall and ridge length as separate items, and whether your bid does the same. A roof with three valleys and a roof with two cannot be compared on area alone.

Compare unit prices line by line

Once the quantities agree, lay the two documents side by side and go line by line. Tear-off, underlayment, ice and water shield, starter course, drip edge, ridge cap, pipe boots and haul-off are the lines that often differ. For each one, write down the unit (per square, per linear foot, per roll, or per each), the unit price on each side, and the total. A difference in unit price is a pricing question. A line that exists on one side and not the other is a scope question, and it is more likely to change the final bill.

Ice and water shield deserves its own look in St. Louis. Freeze and thaw cycles push meltwater up under the eave, and ice damming is common enough on older houses here that estimates often carry eave membrane as a separate line. If one document lists it and the other folds it into a general underlayment price, the totals will not tell you whether the membrane runs the same height and width on both sides. Ask how far up the deck it goes in each version.

Drip edge is another line that changes between documents. Some estimates price drip edge at the eave only, others include the rake, and the metal gauge is not always stated. Ask which edges are included and what metal is named.

Insurance claim

Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and from saying anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. That rule is the reason the comparison belongs in your hands. Keys documents the damage, puts a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands, and attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer. A roofer who offers to handle the insurer's pricing for you is offering something Missouri law forbids.

When the comparison shows a line your insurer left out, the question goes to the insurer in writing, from you. Give the insurer the roofer's written line with its unit, quantity and price, and ask the insurer to state in writing whether that line is included in its estimate and, if not, why. Keep the reply with the file. The same approach applies when the insurer's estimate uses a different unit cost than your roofer uses. You are asking the insurer to explain its own number, and the roofer's bid is one document in your file that supports the question.

If the comparison raises a matching question, such as whether new shingles can match an older roof, know that Missouri has no matching statute and that the answer turns on the policy wording.

What it costs

The cost question here is not a single number. It is the gap between a price you can see now and one that shows up after the tear-off starts. A line that is missing from the insurer's estimate but needed on the roof becomes a supplement later, and a supplement is raised on the day the crew finds the problem, which can be in the middle of a job with the deck already open. A comparison that leaves out the eave membrane, the valley metal or the haul-off can look lower than it really is. Measure cost against the finished roof, not the first page.

Unit prices also move over time. Asphalt and fuel costs change, and a bid written in one month may carry a different supplier cost than a bid written in another. Check each document's date and any expiration date. A bid that lapses before your insurer finishes its review will need to be repriced, and the new figure may not match the first one.

This page gives no dollar figure to use. What a roof costs in St. Louis depends on its size, pitch, layers, valleys and the access on the lot. The comparison tells you which lines are priced and which are not, and that is the part you can act on before anyone signs.

What to ask

Ask your insurer and your roofer these questions, and keep the answers in writing:

• Which pricing source produced each unit cost on the insurer's estimate, and is it the same source your roofer's bid uses?
• Do both documents count the same squares, valleys, pipe boots and ridge length?
• Is a steep-slope charge, if any, a separate line on each document?
• Is eave ice and water shield priced as its own line, and how far up the deck does it run on each?
• Is drip edge priced at the eave only or at the rake too, and what metal gauge is named?
• Are tear-off and haul-off labor included on each side, and is the dump fee a separate line?
• Does either document include the permit fee, and which municipal permit desk issues the permit?
• Does the insurer's estimate state an expiration or review date for its figures?
• Is the roofer's bid valid through the date your insurer is expected to respond?