About Insurance Payments

Your roof is the only thing between your house and the elements, a small leak in your roof can go undetected for years while your insulation molds, your ceiling rots and eventually you see the tell tale ugly brown stain on your ceiling. Then the damage has been done. When replacing your roof you must take care to use quality products and an experienced, honest roofer. Insurance companies know this, that is why they do not require you to accept the low bid.

Keep in mind, the most expensive is not always the best, and the cheapest is not always the worst. However, if a bid is over 15% below other bids, use caution. (See other sections of our home page.) A bid on a roof replacement includes four basic Items; 1. Cost of materials, ie shingles, felt, ice shield, nails, metal etc. 2. Labor and other disposal costs to remove existing material and install new roof membrane. 3. A margin of error for unexpected difficulties, (usually 10%). and 4. Profit and overhead. (Overhead is the cost of obtaining and maintaining equipment and other expenses necessary to operate a business.) - (Normally about 15 - 20 % of the bid.)

Your insurance (assuming you have replacement cost insurance) will pay based on the actual replacement cost for your roof, not a flat amount. There is a good reason for this! They know that there are many ways a contractor can reduce the cost of the roof replacement , most of which will set you up for a future leak, and the insurance will end up paying not only for a repair on the roof, but also for damage inside the house. Therefor they withhold part of your replacement payment (in the form of depreciation) until after the roof is completed, then they pay your the the amount you actually spent, less your deductible. They do not pay the total on their adjuster's statement and allow you to get a "cheap" roof and keep the difference.

Therefor it costs you the same 'out of pocket' to have locally provided quality shingles put on your roof by an reputable roofer at $3,500.00 as it does to get "wholesale" (a fancy name for seconds.) put on by a traveling roofer for $2,500.00.