Compare How Each Roof Bid Protects Your Cars and Plants

On most Chesterfield lots the cars sit close to the house, the shrub bed runs up to the foundation, and the patio furniture stays under the eave all summer. A tear-off puts shingle tabs, nail heads and granules onto all of it within the first hour. Two roofers can quote the same roof and still leave very different results on the driveway and the beds, because protection of the property is usually a few lines in the proposal rather than one promise. This page is for the point where you hold two bids and want to compare those lines.

Roofer comparison

Put the two proposals side by side and read for the words that describe what happens outside the roofline. Some bids name a magnet sweep at the end of each day. Some say the crew will clean up. Some say nothing. Clean up on its own does not tell you whether the driveway gets walked for nails on the first day, the last day, or both, and it does not tell you whether the lawn and the street edge are included.

Cars are the item most often left out. A bid can say the crew will move vehicles, that the homeowner moves them, or that the roofer will work around them. Those are three different jobs with three different owners. If the bid says the homeowner moves the cars, the proposal should give a start window so you know when to move them. A bid with no window has not answered the question.

Plants and the bed under the eave need their own line. Ask whether the crew will tarp the beds, how the tarps are held down when wind comes up, and whether the bid includes a rake pass through the mulch for nails and granules afterward. Granules in mulch are hard to see, and a rake misses some of what is there.

Patio furniture, grills, planters and hose reels under the eave should move before the first shingle comes off. Compare whether the bid has the crew move them or whether that is your job, and get the answer in writing. Some homeowners learn on the first morning that a chair pushed against the wall has been sitting under the debris path all along.

Before the first day, photograph the driveway, the beds, the patio and any cars that will stay parked. The photos cost nothing and give you a dated record of the ground before anything lands on it. Ask each roofer whether they take their own before photos of the same areas, and whether you can have a copy.

Debris drifts. A tear-off on a close lot can put nail heads and tab pieces over a fence line and into the next yard. Ask whether the bid covers the adjoining lot or only your own property, and where the crew will set the debris chute so the fall line stays on your side. If a truck will park on the street during the job, ask whether the bid accounts for that and whether your subdivision has rules about it before the crew arrives.

What it costs

Protection work seldom shows up as its own price. It appears as a line for tarps, a line for a magnet sweep, a line for labor to move equipment, or it sits inside a general cleanup figure. Ask each roofer whether the sweep and the bed covering are priced separately. A bid that folds them into the roof price is not cheaper, it only hides the number, and you cannot compare it line for line with a bid that lists them.

When one total is well below the other, check the scope before you assume the lower bid is the better value. Lower totals often leave out the sweep, the tarps, or the mulch rake. Add those items to the cheaper bid at the prices the other roofer listed and see where the gap lands. The gap is usually smaller once the lines match, and you are then comparing the same work instead of two different lists of promises.

Ask also what happens to the sweep if the job runs a second day. Some bids price the sweep per day, and others price it once. If the schedule slips because of weather, a once-priced sweep may leave the second day uncovered, so get the daily treatment written into the scope before you sign.

What to ask

• Which surfaces get a magnet sweep, and on which days? Ask about the driveway, walks, lawn and street edge separately.
• Who moves the vehicles, and what time do they need to be clear on each work day?
• Will the beds under the eave be tarped, and how is the tarp held down when wind comes up?
• Does the cleanup include a rake pass through the mulch and lawn after the last shingle is down?
• Who moves the patio furniture, grills and planters, and is that written in the scope?
• Is the sweep priced as its own line, and does it repeat on any extra day the job needs?
• Does the bid cover the adjoining lot, or only your own property, when debris drifts?