Why do three bids on the same 2,400 square foot roof land twelve thousand dollars apart? On a Puyallup split level this spring the numbers came back at fourteen thousand, nineteen thousand five hundred, and twenty six thousand. Owners comparing roofing contractors puyallup wa side by side tend to read a spread like that as padding, or as a bargain worth grabbing. It is usually neither. The three companies priced three different jobs, and only one of them wrote down which job it was. An estimate that states tear off layers, deck condition and ventilation is the only thing that makes competing numbers comparable.
Material choice alone can move a roof by five figures before labor enters the conversation. This Old House, in an August 2026 breakdown of cedar shake pricing, put a cedar shake roof on an average 3,000 square foot home at $18,000 to $25,000 installed. Architectural asphalt on that same house sits well underneath it. So a bid sheet that says nothing more than replace roof has already buried the largest single variable, leaving the reader to compare one number against another with no idea what either one bought.
Bids Diverge Because Scope Is Never Defined
Think about airfare. Two seats on the same morning flight can differ by a hundred and eighty dollars, and the gap is not the airplane, it is the checked bag, the seat assignment and the change fee that one fare quietly leaves out. Roof bids behave the same way. The items being left out are tear off of a second layer, replacement of rotten sheathing, new flashing at the chimney, ridge ventilation and disposal. Every one of those is real money that somebody eventually pays, and the only open question is whether it was named before the crew arrived or added afterward.
Tear Off And Deck Repair Drive The Spread
Two variables explain most of a gap that wide. The first is how many layers come off. Stripping one layer of asphalt from 2,400 square feet is a day of labor and a dumpster, while pulling two layers plus the original cedar underneath can double both lines. The second is what the crew finds once the deck is bare. Job after job, the sheathing that fails around here is in a north facing valley where moss held moisture against the plywood for a decade, and nobody prices that sight unseen with real confidence. Nobody tracks how often Puget Sound tear offs uncover rot either, as far as I can find, so the honest answer is that it turns up often enough that a bid ignoring it is a guess wearing a dollar sign. That fourteen thousand dollar number was quietly betting on perfect decking. A bid that instead reads sheathing replacement at ninety five dollars per sheet, quantity verified at tear off, is not dodging the question. It is the only version of the answer that still holds once the shingles are gone.
Aerial Imagery Cannot See The Decking
Measured data carries you further than most homeowners expect. Aerial capture, satellite imagery and drone based roof reports return square footage, pitch, facet count and linear feet of ridge and valley within a few percent, which is plenty to price shingles and underlayment honestly. What none of it sees is the half inch of plywood beneath the felt. Moisture content, delamination, nail holding and framing sag are contact measurements, and they happen on a ladder. Ask the roofing contractors Puyallup WA owners shortlist to state on paper how deck condition was verified, because a report generated from an image makes a strong start and a poor ending.
Where The Replacement Dollars Actually Land
Treat the middle bid as an illustration rather than a quote. Of that nineteen thousand five hundred, call it eight thousand in materials, seven thousand in labor, two thousand for tear off and disposal, twelve hundred in deck and flashing repair, and the remainder in permits, overhead and warranty registration. Move the deck line from twelve hundred to four thousand, which one bad sheet per rafter bay will do, and you have covered most of the distance to the high bid. The expensive estimate was not expensive. It had already counted the sheets.
Questions That Make Two Estimates Comparable
You do not need to know roofing to force two estimates onto the same footing. You need a short list of questions, asked of every bidder, answered in writing. What the answers say matters less than whether the contractor will commit them to the page at all.
- How many existing layers are you removing, and what happens to the price if a second layer turns up? A good answer names the layer count and a per square adder.
- What is your unit price for replacement sheathing, and how is the quantity verified? A good answer gives a dollar figure per sheet and says it is counted at tear off with the owner present.
- Which flashings are being replaced rather than reused, and is the chimney included? A good answer lists them by location instead of saying all flashing as needed.
- What ventilation is in the price, and what intake exists now? A good answer states net free area, not just a ridge vent brand.
- Which warranty am I buying, and what voids it? A good answer separates the manufacturer term from the workmanship term.
Anyone who answers all five in writing has just made their bid comparable to the next one. Anyone who will not is telling you the number is provisional. That is useful information too, and collecting it costs nothing.
Written Scope Turns A Guess Into A Number
A cheap bid is only cheap if it describes the same work as the others. On that split level the owner went back to all three companies with the questions above, and two of the numbers moved: the low bid climbed to seventeen five once the second layer was counted, and the high bid eased down after the flashing was measured rather than assumed. The spread closed from twelve thousand dollars to about four. Nothing about the roof changed. Only the description did. Get the scope written down first and the comparison turns into arithmetic instead of a coin flip.