Compare roofing quotes on a house that is not standard

Older brick houses here may carry two layers of shingle, and some carry shingle over the original slate or tile. Stripping two is close to twice the labor and twice the disposal of stripping one, and stripping slate is heavier and slower still. A quote priced for a single layer on a roof that has more will not stay at that price.

Under a built-in gutter the deck is board, and the board along the gutter line has been wet for a century. Nobody sees it until the roof is off. A price per sheet and the count the estimate assumes turns that into a bounded figure instead of a negotiation on the roof.

Felt and synthetic are different products at different prices, and only one of them holds up if a muggy St. Louis afternoon turns to rain between tear-off and shingle. "Underlayment included" is not a specification. Ask for the product by name.

Winters here swing hard between freeze and thaw, and ice builds in the built-in gutters and the low-slope rear additions. Whether the membrane covers the eaves only, the gutter trough, the valleys, or the whole of the back roof is a different roll count and a different day of labor.

Where a dormer meets the slope or a rear addition meets the main house, the step flashing can be replaced or it can be sealed and left. Sealing is faster and it is the usual reason a roof only a few years old is staining a ceiling.

A brick chimney on a brick house needs counterflashing cut into the mortar joint, not caulked to the face, and a crown that sheds water instead of holding it. That is masonry work as much as roofing, and it tends to be missing from the first number.

A summer attic here runs far hotter than the air outside and ages the shingle from underneath. Reinstalling the vents that were there changes nothing. Adding intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge is real work, and on a hip roof with a short ridge it takes some thought. The quote should say which it is doing.

On a house with hung gutters, the edge metal and starter course are where ice sits and where meltwater backs up first. On a house with built-in gutters the equivalent is the gutter apron, and it is even easier to leave off a quote.

A built-in gutter is lined, and relining it in metal or membrane is its own trade. Some crews will not price it; some will price it without having seen it. Hung gutters come down and go back, get replaced, or get dented. The quote should say which kind you have and what happens to it.

The city and each of the county municipalities issue their own permits with their own fees and inspections. Whether the contractor pulls it, bills it separately, or leaves it to you are three different deals, and a closed permit is what a buyer's inspector will ask to see when the house sells.

The manufacturer stands behind the shingle. Somebody has to stand behind the installation, and on a roof with built-in gutters and cut flashing it is the installation that decides. A quote with only a material warranty has covered the cheaper half.

A dumpster on a driveway shared with a neighbor, old slate or three layers of shingle coming down past the windows, a magnet sweep of a yard full of tree roots. Small lines, and most of what people complain about after the crew is gone.