When you receive a Roofing Proposal please be wise. A few days ago my service representative shared a story with me that left me totally baffled. His story was about a homeowner whom he had recently presented our reroof proposal to. As is typical of all of our proposals, it was quite detailed & professionally prepared. It provided a written quote for various GAF shingles, included the GAF Silver Pledge extended warranty (50-years of non-prorated warranty coverage), along with options to install ice and watershield underlayments where recommended, additional intake vents, additional exhaust vents, and specifications detailing every aspect of the work proposed. We actually take a considerable amount of time preparing all of our roofing proposal to account for the specific needs of each individual project. As it turns out, this homeowner showed my representative two other proposals they had already received. One was a printed standard form that had blanks for the contractor to simply write in the roof type & price by hand. That bid was ~$1,000 more than our quote and it did not include many things that we had included in our quotes (like the GAF Silver Pledge extended warranty, new flashings where the roof adjoins siding, etc). The other proposal he was shown was a hand written note on a plain white sheet of paper that simply indicated the roof type & the amount quoted. That was it. There were no specifications provided to indicate whether or not the contractor would be replacing flashings, what type underlayment would be installed (if any), etc, etc. Yet, the homeowner indicated they were going to hire this contractor because that contractor’s roofing proposal was a whopping $400 less (on a $12,000 job). As much as we respect a homeowner’s right to choose who they want, in this situation we believe they are making a huge mistake. Over the last 55+ years that we’ve been serving the greater Kansas City area, we’ve seen so much shoddy workmanship performed by these types of contractors that we fully expect this homeowner will end up getting a roof that is worth several thousand dollars LESS than they are paying that contractor because; they won’t be getting snow resistant vents, won’t get two plies of underlayment on roof slopes less than 4-in-12, won’t get mastic installed along the edge of valley flashings, won’t get 24-inch wide metal valley flashing, won’t get new step flashings installed where the roof adjoins the siding, won’t get new metal flashings around the chimney & skylights, won’t get an extended warranty, won’t get US citizens installing the roof, won’t get the roof installed by “employees” of the company (i.e. a sub crew will install the roof), and on, and on. It’s easy to come to this conclusion if you consider that I personally prepare around 15+ proposals per day (for over 25-years now) and usually find that at least half of these proposals are submitted to repair “faulty workmanship”, quite often amounting to several thousand dollars “per job” in needed repairs. Granted, we reap the benefits of selling 100’s of thousands of dollars worth of roof repairs each year to address the faulty workmanship performed by these “bargain priced” contractors, but we would much prefer helping homeowners make “wise” decisions by encouraging them to take the time necessary to find out what they are actually getting (by written contract) for the “price” before choosing a contractor. In virtually every instance, you will find the lower priced contractor is providing a whole lot less than the savings being offered. And more often than not, the “cheapest” contractor is NOT proposing to perform the full scope of work necessary to meet the minimum installation requirements and NOT providing a roof installation adequate to perform properly during its entire life span.