Roofing and Homeowners Insurance

[Ta Town Shocker]

I replaced a roof at my first home about 10 years ago as a condition of the sale before purchasing our current home. I had an ex-coworker who had started a contracting business and he was perhaps semi-qualified to put on a roof. He charged just shy of 2k which I figured was a decent deal at the time.

I had a leak in February and with my roof being over 20 years old, I decided to replace. I keep a high deductible on my home to save on premiums, so paid out of pocket. My neighbor had put a roof on his place the week prior. He received multiple quotes and most were about 10k but the one he went with was 6k. I decided to go with the same roofer. My quote came in a little higher but still seemed somewhat reasonable at 6,500. I do have a 3rd car garage whereas my neighbor doesn't.

A friend of mine had some hail damage from the recent storms and the insurance damage estimate was 18k for his home. Our houses are about the same size and I don't think he has anything special about his. I'm absolutely blown away by this damage estimate. Based on what he said, most roofers want to work directly with insurance to ensure they get the full amount. I'm left pondering why any insurance company would willingly pay 2.75x the fair amount. I'm making the assumption there's a pool of subcontractors virtually all of the roofing companies use so the workmanship is essentially equal.

At the end of the day, if insurance companies are paying out this much, my understanding is it will only make all of our rates go up, while we're giving roofers over 10k profit for a roofing job. MoValley John said a while back in regards to the government that if everyone had at least a little skin in the game, the gov't wouldn't get away with paying $50 for a hammer. I feel a similar principle should be in place with insurance. I don't understand why the insurance company doesn't have a calculator to calculate a fair cost of material plus a fair margin and set the cap there.

[SHOCKvalue]

I replaced a roof at my first home about 10 years ago as a condition of the sale before purchasing our current home. I had an ex-coworker who had started a contracting business and he was perhaps semi-qualified to put on a roof. He charged just shy of 2k which I figured was a decent deal at the time.

I had a leak in February and with my roof being over 20 years old, I decided to replace. I keep a high deductible on my home to save on premiums, so paid out of pocket. My neighbor had put a roof on his place the week prior. He received multiple quotes and most were about 10k but the one he went with was 6k. I decided to go with the same roofer. My quote came in a little higher but still seemed somewhat reasonable at 6,500. I do have a 3rd car garage whereas my neighbor doesn't.

A friend of mine had some hail damage from the recent storms and the insurance damage estimate was 18k for his home. Our houses are about the same size and I don't think he has anything special about his. I'm absolutely blown away by this damage estimate. Based on what he said, most roofers want to work directly with insurance to ensure they get the full amount. I'm left pondering why any insurance company would willingly pay 2.75x the fair amount. I'm making the assumption there's a pool of subcontractors virtually all of the roofing companies use so the workmanship is essentially equal.

At the end of the day, if insurance companies are paying out this much, my understanding is it will only make all of our rates go up, while we're giving roofers over 10k profit for a roofing job. MoValley John said a while back in regards to the government that if everyone had at least a little skin in the game, the gov't wouldn't get away with paying $50 for a hammer. I feel a similar principle should be in place with insurance. I don't understand why the insurance company doesn't have a calculator to calculate a fair cost of material plus a fair margin and set the cap there.

PM me your roofer, if you don't mind.

[Ta Town Shocker]

PM me your roofer, if you don't mind.

I went with Yardley. Posting publicly since I feel he seemed somewhat reasonable and it may help others. Feel free to pm me back if you have inside info you don't want to share publicly.

I figure materials were roughly 1500-2500 but I am mainly basing it on approx $35 a pack of shingles at about 30 packs. I think they mark up some. Menards currently shows 30 bucks a pack with rebate. I tried to get him to share the rebate but he claimed to have bought them elsewhere after telling me earlier he purchases from Menards. The job was done in a day.

[MoValley John]

Last year a tree penetrated my roof and destroyed four rafters. Until then, I had zero claims in 20 years. Insurance was a disaster. Add to that they had to fly teams in the damage was so widespread, insurance was denying all they could. The damage occured mid July, the screen porch repair wasn't finished until Jan. Roofer had to negotiate everything. Roof was five years old and insurance only wanted to patch in where damage occured. Roofer insisted on stripping the whole back of the house. Roofer won, but we sat with tarps until Nov. Insurance can be a nightmare. We had baseball sized hail Tuesday, but no damage.IMG_20210710_111646_01.jpg20210710_203336.jpg

[SHOCKvalue]

I went with Yardley. Posting publicly since I feel he seemed somewhat reasonable and it may help others. Feel free to pm me back if you have inside info you don't want to share publicly.

I figure materials were roughly 1500-2500 but I am mainly basing it on approx $35 a pack of shingles at about 30 packs. I think they mark up some. Menards currently shows 30 bucks a pack with rebate. I tried to get him to share the rebate but he claimed to have bought them elsewhere after telling me earlier he purchases from Menards. The job was done in a day.

Oh I don't have anything. Was just curious as I'll need a roof soon and recommendations are good.

[Kung Wu]

I tried to get him to share the rebate but he claimed to have bought them elsewhere after telling me earlier he purchases from Menards.

Nearly all roofing contractors in Wichita use a supplier (such a Midwest Roofing), because the suppliers will not only deliver the heavy shingles to the site, but use their equipment to place them up on the roofs for the contractors. Without the equipment to hoist the shingle packs on the roof, it's a nasty pain in the arse.

[MoValley John]

Nearly all roofing contractors in Wichita use a supplier (such a Midwest Roofing), because the suppliers will not only deliver the heavy shingles to the site, but use their equipment to place them up on the roofs for the contractors. Without the equipment to hoist the shingle packs on the roof, it's a nasty pain in the arse.

In Omaha, the roofers generally deliver their own shingles. When I had my roof replaced, the company I hired dropped off three pallets of materials, the next day they stripped the roof and used their own hoist to run the shingles up. I did not use John Higgins and the Rooferees.

[Kung Wu]

In Omaha, the roofers generally deliver their own shingles. When I had my roof replaced, the company I hired dropped off three pallets of materials, the next day they stripped the roof and used their own hoist to run the shingles up. I did not use John Higgins and the Rooferees.

Yeah, there are definitely a few roofing contractors around here that do it themselves, but by and large they just let the suppliers do it around here. The fly by nighters often just use their laborers to hump 'em up the old fashioned way.

[MoValley John]

Weatherguard-About-Photo.jpg

[ShockerDropOut]

I went with Yardley. Posting publicly since I feel he seemed somewhat reasonable and it may help others. Feel free to pm me back if you have inside info you don't want to share publicly.

I figure materials were roughly 1500-2500 but I am mainly basing it on approx $35 a pack of shingles at about 30 packs. I think they mark up some. Menards currently shows 30 bucks a pack with rebate. I tried to get him to share the rebate but he claimed to have bought them elsewhere after telling me earlier he purchases from Menards. The job was done in a day.

I am not a roofer, but I have done many roofing jobs. I think your estimate of materials is a little low. One pack of shingles generally covers about 1/3 of a square. That would be about 33 ft.². Your estimate would only be about 10 square, or 1000 ft.² of roof. That would only cover an 800 square-foot house.

Shingle prices, like everything else, I went up quite a bit over the last few years. I think $6500 for a new roof is very reasonable. My roof was replaced about 10 years ago due to hail damage, and the bill was in the neighborhood of $8,000. I don’t think it would be anywhere near that price now.

If I need a new roof anytime soon, I will definitely contact your contractor

[Ta Town Shocker]

ShockerDropOut The contractor told me it was 29 packs, but my house is more like 1200 SQ ft. Even if it was 40, that's only 1500 for the shingles. No idea what the remaining materials cost though.

[WuTheOne]

A commercial roofing company formerly owned by Mike Boyd (FB player from the late '60's, early '70's) recommended Truett Roofing. I had great prices, the job got done quickly. I had a small leak show up in my current house and called them again. They caulked around one of the exhaust pipes and charged $60 for two guys to come out.

Some years ago a friend of mine bought his own shingles. He bought shakes that were custom cut to precise dimensions. Those cost a lot more than standard shakes. He hired people to put the shingles on and told them to charge twice what they would normally charge. He turned all his invoices in to the insurance company.

The insurance company **** a brick. Not because his price was too high. It was TOO LOW. They told him that if they accepted his price they would have major problems with every other job they had done in the area. They gave him a "suggested" range. He ended up being paid $4,000 more than he spent.

In the house I'm in now, I got insurance bids from about 5 carriers when I bought it. State Farm was the lowest until I told them I was going with them. Then my bumbling sales guy had about 20 questions and had to "adjust" his bid. He became the highest bidder, but I was tired of dealing with it and went with him. Now I've seen what he did. He's got my house insured for about $100,000 over the appraisal and sales numbers. He's got contents insured about $150K to $200K higher than what I've got.

I got an insurance roof at my previous house. When the adjuster came down from looking at it he told me I was getting a new roof, but I never should have let the roof get to the point where hail would have damaged it so badly. I never insured that house again.

About 9 years ago a tornado came through SE Wichita. The center of that tornado was directly over the neighbor across my back fence. At that time I had 19 years on a 20 year roof and no insurance. I paid $7K to roof an 1,800 sq' house. I had saved over $20K by not having insurance.

[Kung Wu]

Aren't insurance companies incentivized to pay top dollar for claims? That justifies higher premiums in the entire area for all other clients. It's similar to how casinos love it when a person hits a jackpot on slot machines during busy hours.

[SubGod22]

There's a reason I left State Farm years ago. I used them because my parents did. I think I talked to my agent once and that was right after I signed up.

When I finally looked into a couple of others, I was blown away. When I switches, I actually got more coverage on my house and still saved hundreds of dollars and my deductible is no worse. Car insurance also went down but wasn't as dramatic. That's when I received a call for the very first time basically insulting me for leaving and asked why. I told them why and they said they could raise my deductible and save me money and ignored the fact that my deductible didn't go up, the coverage of my house was better, nearly twice as much as it was with State Farm, and my new agent was willing to work with me to find me the absolute best coverage he could and not just milk me for as much as he could.

[MoValley John]

There's a reason I left State Farm years ago. I used them because my parents did. I think I talked to my agent once and that was right after I signed up.

When I finally looked into a couple of others, I was blown away. When I switches, I actually got more coverage on my house and still saved hundreds of dollars and my deductible is no worse. Car insurance also went down but wasn't as dramatic. That's when I received a call for the very first time basically insulting me for leaving and asked why. I told them why and they said they could raise my deductible and save me money and ignored the fact that my deductible didn't go up, the coverage of my house was better, nearly twice as much as it was with State Farm, and my new agent was willing to work with me to find me the absolute best coverage he could and not just milk me for as much as he could.

I had it worse with State Farm. Every single year my rates went up. Never a claim. As my kids began driving, my rates surged, as expected, but they manipulated my rates to go higher than they should. I would call and the agent would work the numbers down. This went on for five years at six month increments. The last time, the agent told me the underwriters always do this, but this time there was little they could do. The tree fell on my house and the **** hit the fan with them! 20 years, no claims, terrible rate hikes and they were trying to nickel and dime me. Until then, I had bundled everything with them, had no claims in the house, nobody had tickets or accidents. I shopped and found USAA. They have been fantastic.