When I sought bids to have my garage roof replaced, the one thing that separated the winning bid wasn’t price. It was clarity.

The garage is only 19×19′ but it has a big pyramidal roof that raccoons have made a few holes in. (This is the same garage roof that my FORMER homeowner’s insurance company somehow thought was not damaged by the same hail/wind storm than trashed the house’s roof, siding, and gutters. But I digress.) Estimates ranged from “$2,350 plus $80 for each sheet underlayment” all the way to a very detailed estimate $6,750+ estimate that was hand-delivered a day later in a custom-printed 4-color folder. The latter clearly didn’t want to be bothered with such a small job.

Some bids were simply a number scrawled on the back of a business card. The one that was something like $3,153.64 was handwritten while they were still in the driveway. Pretty sure that guy thought not-rounding made it look more honest. The guy with no sense of personal space wasn’t going to get hired anyway (my creep-a-zoid radar went off fast with that guy) – he showed up without noticed while I was on an interview, parked in the driveway writing out his “bid” without as much as walking down the driveway to evaluate the roof. When I finished my interview, I went out. He handed me his card with a $3,700 written on it, but asked to look inside the garage. There’s an attic so he couldn’t see much of the roof from inside. “Oh, it’s gonna need all new underlayment. That’s another grand.” Buh-bye.

The winning bid, which I’m looking at right now, clearly listed all of the work that would be done. The roof vent is optional — the unheated garage is 100 years old and has done fine all this time without a vent. Below that he broke down materials and labor. The bid even noted they’re fully insured and their employees maintain strict safety requirements the entire time, and all job-related debris is cleaned up. This company did great jobs on two neighboring homes, but the clincher was that when he presented the estimate — $2,6939 — he said, “That’s if we have to replace all of the wood, which is $30/sheet”

By giving the worst case scenario price, I didn’t have to worry about uncharges. That’s what I try to do with my clients.

Later, a roofer said some of the facia is rotted. They said it would be another couple hundred dollars. When I asked the good bidder about replacing the facia, he said it’s about $8/board, unpainted, so about $80 more in materials if it all needs replacing, he said it would be minimal labor.

Before we start, I’ll have him give a new estimate —a piece of drip edge (a beautiful detail on the garage) came loose, so I want to ask about some other repairs. Also, I was about hire them start when the pandemic hit, but one of my clients informed me they were temporarily ceasing publication, so I didn’t want to spend money I might need to live on.