Wednesday, April 10, 2024
HomeNewsHow To Make A Roofing Estimate

How To Make A Roofing Estimate

Offer Unparalleled Customer Service

How to do a roofing estimate for asphalt shingles

Customer service isnt something that takes talent it takes effort. If you actually put in the effort to offer superb customer service, your clients will recognize that. Just like with over-delivering and giving clients fun surprises, the people whose homes you work on will be more likely to refer you to their friends and neighbors.

One example of actually putting in the effort is when you receive a lead from someone who you cant actually help out. For example, if youre a roofer who doesnt do siding, but someone fills out a contact form asking for help with their siding. Instead of not bothering to respond to them, at least give them the common courtesy of telling them that youre not the right team for them. Better yet, give them some names of some reliable siding companies that you know provide quality services. Theyll appreciate it, and when they do need a new roof, youll be at the top of their list.

Enter The Cost Of Roofing Materials

As a roofer, you will inevitably incur material costs, from shingles to asphalt. Skynova roofing proposal templates let you specify the type, quantity, and cost of materials. Simply select “Product” under the “Item” tab and provide a description of the materials you’ll be using. Then, provide the unit price of the materials and the quantity of materials in the respective fields.

Say you are quoting a job to install asphalt roofing shingles. You have to cover a roof area of 448 square feet based on your measurements. This will require about 15 bundles of three-tab shingles at $31 per bundle. You enter “15” under quantity and “31” under unit price, which will automatically be calculated to a total of $465. In the description, explain to your customer that the shingles needed come in bundles of 15, so they understand what these numbers mean.

How To Create A Roofing Estimate

A detailed roofing cost estimate lets customers know just what they are paying for when they book your services, from labor to materials costs. Customers understand the financial obligation of hiring your services in advance and can make an informed decision as to whether to accept your bid. Providing an estimate is a best business practice among roofing contractors and ensures that your business comes across as professional, credible, and trustworthy.

Every estimate will have unique details, such as the customer’s name and the type of roof services provided. There are a few critical pieces of information that all estimates should include, however. Skynova’s roofing estimate template covers the most important points. All you have to do is enter the relevant details into the quote template, and you will have a contractor estimate ready to send to customers.

Recommended Reading: What Are The Best Roofing Shoes

Tips For Estimating Underlayment

Now that youve got a handle on your shingles, theres one more major roofing material youll want to account for. Underlayment is a waterproof material installed under your shingles to act as a second line of defense against water damage to your roof. Once you know how many squares your roof is, its pretty easy to estimate the amount of underlayment your job will require.

A roll of underlayment will usually cover 4 squares. So, just divide your total number of squares by 4.

The result will tell you how many rolls of underlayment youll need. Look into the cost of a roll of underlayment in your neck of the woods to ballpark how much you can expect to pay.

Big Or Small Asphalt Metal Or Slate

9 Best Roofing Estimate Templates Printable

Affordable Pricing

Looking for roof replacement cost near you? Compare different roof replacement and repair estimates in your area. Our site will show you the average cost of material plus labor in your area.

Find Roof Replacement

Leaks coming through your roof? Are you nervous about the next storm thatll come through? Use our search feature to find high-quality roof replacement estimates in your area.

Find Roof Repair

Whether youre experiencing damage to your homes roof such as a leak or other problem, we have you covered. Check out our search to find roof repair in your area today.

Its a good idea to get an estimate from a few different roofers in your area before you get started. This will help you narrow down and select which is the best option for your needs.

You also need to think about shingles as well. Some shingle examples are architectural, solar, plastic, fiberglass, rubber, and metal.

Read Also: What Can I Use To Seal A Tpo Roof

Roof Estimates And Quotes

With social distancing guidelines or other restrictions in place due to the coronavirus , some roofing contractors use various technologies to help complete no-contact roofing estimates, among their other services.

Some roofing contractors can provide the entire process of a roof repair or replacement without the need to meet you in person or enter your home*. Learn more about getting a new roof or roof repair during COVID-19 restrictions.

# 8 Roofing Proposal Template

Template Source: PandaDoc

Do you want a blatantly clear template that lists what your client can expect to pay front and center?

If so, then you might appreciate this barebone proposal template from PandaDoc. You can fill out this contract in record time, and your client will quickly and easily understand the gist of your plans without second-guessing or stress.

You May Like: How Much Does It Cost To Fix Leak In Roof

Everything You Need To Know About Getting A Roofing Estimate

If this is your first time getting a new roof or roof repair, then the process of getting a roofing estimate, or roofing quote, could be intimidating especially during any COVID-19 related restrictions that may be in place where you live.

After youve narrowed down your list of potential roofing contractors to hire, getting a roofing estimate is the next logical step in your roof project.

Roofing estimates can help you choose between two or three equally qualified roofing contractors or provide options regarding materials and the scope of work, such as .

Find out what information should be included in a roofing estimate, what it all means, and how to compare your choices.

Determine The Roof Pitch

Roofing Estimate How To Video

The roof pitch, or how steep it is, is expressed as a ratio.

A ratio of 4:13, for instance, means the roof rises 4 feet for every 13 feet of horizontal length. The roof pitch can either be low, medium, or high.

A low roof pitch has a ratio of 5:12 or lower, a medium roof pitches 6:12 to 9:12, and a high roof pitches 10:12 to 12:12.

For our example, lets assume the roof pitch is 5:12.

Recommended Reading: How To Prevent Ice Dams On Roof

# 9 Roofing Invoice Template

Template Source: FreshBooks

If you want to share a beautiful and elegant roofing invoice, then FreshBooks has you covered and then some.

These templates are easy on the eye and will showcase your roofing companys professionalism with colorful style.

Whether you want to launch a complex roofing work order or a simple work order sheet, then these free templates are fantastic and can easily wow your prospects.

These templates from FreshBooks come in Excel and Word format. So you can quickly edit and customize them using the app that you prefer.

What Should You Do In A High

Very often a homeowner may end up in a situation where the roofer or the sales person representing the company will use very aggressive techniques to get them to sign the contract on the spot. If he sees a woman, or especially an elderly woman, he may exert even more pressure. Some even offer incentives, such as a discount on the job, for signing the contract and not looking for other bids.

If someone employs these sales techniques, it does not necessarily mean that he is a scammer, or that he will do a poor job on your roof. Often, the reason he wants you to sign right away is that he knows that once he walks out the door, the chances of getting your business are significantly smaller. Many companies also donât want to spend the time and effort to follow up with you after the initial estimate.

However, we strongly recommend waiting on signing the contract, and telling the roofer/sales person that you will need to think about this. There are a number of reasons to do this:

1. Ideally you should call the rooferâs references to find out if they do good work. Its a really important step in the process, to make sure you will be getting a quality job.

2. You may end up getting a better price from another contractor, if you spend some more time getting additional roof quotes.

If you are in a position where you would prefer to sign immediately, still make sure of the following:

You May Like: How To Generate Roofing Leads

Pay Attention To Payment Details

Whether you choose to settle project costs in full or staggered payments, always be aware of payment deadlines indicated on the estimate. This is important, especially when youre working on a tight budget. Ensure you have the funds to pay due amounts if you dont want unnecessary delays and expenses.

Understanding The Roofing Calculator Inputs

Roof Estimate Sample â emmamcintyrephotography.com

House Base Area – This is the surface area of the house, the parallel plan with the ground. You can simply calculate the base area of your house if it has a rectangular shape. However, for more complex shapes, you would either have to calculate each part of the shape individually or know what the area is priorly. If your house has a complex shape, the calculator would give more accurate results if you separate it into parts and calculate each part on its own.

Roof Pitch – The roof pitch is measured as a ratio of the vertical rise of the house over its horizontal run. In the U.S., this ratio is shown as the number of inches of vertical house for every 12 inches of horizontal run. For example, if the roof pitch is 5/12, this means that the roof rises 5 inches for every 12 horizontal inches.

Price – The calculator allows you to input the estimatedprice per square footof constructing the roof in order to find out how much would be needed in total to cover the whole roofs surface area.

Also Check: How To Put Gutters On A Metal Roof

Good Better Best Bid For Roofing

Knowing how to achieve a particular margin is important, but it doesnt help you decide which margin will work best for your business. Instead of picking a single margin, offer your clients three , and see what they choose. This strategy is called good, better, best pricing.

There are a few different ways to accomplish this pricing scheme. You can offer homeowners different shingle and underlayment combinations, making three discrete packages. For example, a customer who wants a premium shingle, like IKOs Crowne Slate, will pay the best prices. On the other hand, an elderly couple who have traditional tastes and are on a tight budget might prefer a good package with IKOs 3-tab shingles. So, you might present your bid with three packages that look like this:

  • Good Package: 3-tab shingles. Cost: $1,052.
  • Better Package: Architectural shingles, and superior cleanup services. Cost: $1,311.
  • Best Package: Premium Designer shingles, higher-end vents and accessories, superior cleanup services and second roof inspection. Cost: $1,876.

Youre not only adding on the price of the higher cost shingles, but youre also adding a higher margin for each package. Perhaps you can see the rationale already: Though these numbers are made up just to serve as an example, you can see that its a much lower jump to the better package than to the best. You can see the value of the higher-end packages and so can your client.

How To Use Roofing Estimate Templates

One of the tools that help the roofing estimate process are templates. Why so? Not all contractors are people who have been in this field for a long time. For beginners, they really need help with roofing estimate templates in order to compete with their senior contractors. How to use it the same as other templates, namely download the template file provided on the internet, if possible, you can customize a little to make it more personal branding, then go ahead. After that, you can distribute it to your prospective clients.

More printable images tagged with:

Also Check: Do Roofing Warranties Transfer To New Owners

Building Markups Into Your Materials

Lastly, if youre trying to reach a certain profit margin with your estimates, its a best practice to mark up your inventory to meet that margin on every job. This may seem like a no-brainer, but too often sales teams are given a lot of freedom in the final price of a job and room to negotiate with homeowners. And while RoofSnap does provide your team with tools for offering discounts and deals to customers, using these features or negotiating tactics shouldnt get in the way of your profit goals.

RoofSnap has a robust estimation platform that not only lets you customize your product list and pricing, but allows you to configure both the labor and material cost of every item. You can also apply a markup factor to hit your desired profit margin on every item. If you build your estimates from a profitable product-list, your estimates will always be in line with your profit needs.

RoofSnaps Material Manager lets you configure your pricing for profitability.

We hope this short list has given you some strategies to help make your roofing estimates more profitable. And while you can accomplish any of them on your own, RoofSnaps software makes it easy to apply all three to your business. If youd like to see our software in action, you can today!

Thanks for reading and as always,

Happy Snapping!

Know What To Look For In A Roofing Estimate1 Check The Materials

How to Estimate Roofing Materials for Gable Roofs Construction Math

The biggest expense of roofing repairs and replacement is the materials. Go through the materials list attached, and compare the inclusions and specifications of each. If you notice significant pricing differences, look at the brandshigh-quality brands often cost more than mid- or low-tier options.

Recommended Reading: Does First American Home Warranty Cover Roof

Watch For The Attic Inspection

An experienced contractor will want to do a very thorough inspection to make sure he doesnât miss anything and will not need to add anything on later. This includes an inspection of the attic, if there is access available. Inspecting the attic lets the roofer asses any damage or rotting to the roof deck itself, which will impact the total price. It should be a red flag if the roofer just goes up on the roof for a few minutes and doesnât come inside the house.

Another red flag is if the estimator does not go up on the roof at all. This shows that this person is simply a sales man. He will not thoroughly assess your roof and will not discover all items that require attention. This means that down the road you will have extra charges added on, because the sales man missed it during the estimate.

How Roofing Contractors Can Provide No

The process varies among roofing contractors, but in general, providing a no-contact roof estimate starts with capturing pictures or video of a roof, or roof damage, as well as information about the square footage or dimensions of the roof via:

  • Drones
  • Satellite images, and/or
  • Aerial maps

The homeowner may also be asked to include a detailed description of the overall problem or reasons for a roof repair.

Remember, safety first. If youre asked to provide photos or videos of your roof or roof damage, please keep safety in mind. If you cannot safely get good photos of your roof from the ground or a window, then ask the roofing contractor to come out to your home for a roof inspection.

Once an estimate has been provided and approved, and the project start day set, the homeowner and roofing contractor should discuss accessibility needs.

*The roofing team will remain outside as much as possible. However, there may be times when team members need to enter your home to inspect attic ventilation or other interior issues. A frank discussion of these needs can help prevent any interaction between the homes residents and the roofers by setting entry times or creating a direct pathway to the affected area.

Invoices can be paid online or over the phone as well, which further eliminates the need for person-to-person contact.

Recommended Reading: How Much Are Roof Replacements

Explain The Type Of Job

To start with, know what the type of job you will be doing. This should outline the clients requirements for you. Here, create a checklist then list the materials and resources where you can begin your proposals. List the roofing standards too. Dont leave the customer hanging. But make sure it contains a complete project report that the client can check before everything is taken into action.

Ways To Make Your Roofing Estimates More Profitable

What to Be Included in Roofing Invoice Template with Example

Roofing can be a slim-margin business. If youre just starting out and attempting to build a reputation in your market, you may be tempted to lower your prices to stay under the competition. While thats an understandable strategy, its likely going to hinder the growth of your business. Think about it: one job with unforeseen costs going over-budget and youre suddenly underwater! Its better for you and your business to offer estimates that are profitable and fair to the homeowner and your business.

You can make your roofing estimates more profitable with 3 simple strategies:

  • Offering Multiple Options
  • Building Markups into Your Materials

Well dig deeper into each of these topics in this weeks blog.

Also Check: How To Remove Beehive From Roof

RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular