Compare Who Hauls the Old Underlayment Away on Your Roof Job
Shingles get the attention, but the old underlayment comes off too. Ask each roofer who hauls it, where it goes, and what the bid says.
Shingles get the attention on a roof bid, but the layer under them comes off too. Most St. Louis roofs carry either an asphalt felt or a synthetic underlayment laid over the deck, and tear-off takes it up along with the shingles, the nails, and the old drip edge. Two bids can list the same shingle and the same tear-off and still disagree on who hauls that underlayment away, where it goes, and whether its cost sits inside the number you are comparing.
What the old layer is made of
Asphalt felt is the older, heavier product. It is a paper sheet soaked in asphalt, and when it gets wet it weighs considerably more than it did on the truck. Synthetic underlayment is lighter and tears in long strips instead of breaking into pieces, but it takes up more room in a bin and does not compact the way felt does. A crew that tears off a synthetic layer and a crew that tears off felt will load the bin differently, and a bid that ignores the difference is hiding part of the work.
Ask each roofer which product they expect to find, and whether that expectation will change once they walk the roof. Write both answers down. If the answer changes, the bid should change with it.
Roofer comparison
Read each bid for the words it uses about removal. A phrase like remove existing roofing does not say whether the underlayment comes up, and a phrase like tear off can mean the shingles only. Check these four points on every bid you are holding.
- Whether underlayment removal is named as its own line, or is buried inside a general tear-off figure.
- Whether the haul-away of the underlayment rides on the same bin already on the schedule, or needs a separate trip.
- Whether the crew loads the felt into the same bin as the shingles, or takes it out in a second pass that the bid may not price.
- Who sweeps the leftover felt scraps and nail heads from the yard, the walks, and the gutter lines after the last pass each day.
The reason to care is practical. Wet felt is heavy, and a St. Louis spring can leave it sitting wet for days if the bin is late. If it lies in the yard through a freeze and thaw, it breaks down into scraps that get into the beds, the lawn, and the storm drain at the curb. A bid that says nothing about the underlayment leaves you to discover the gap on the day the bin is full and the crew is waiting on a truck.
Compare the answers, not the adjectives. One roofer may say the cleanup is included. Another may say the bin is included. A third may give a clear line for the haul-away and a separate line for the sweep. Those three bids are not describing the same work, and only the written line tells you which one you have.
Check the yard before the crew leaves
The real test of an underlayment plan happens at the end of each working day, not at the end of the job. Walk the yard, the walks, and the strip along the house before the crew packs up, and look for felt scraps, nail heads, and torn strips that blew off the roof in the wind. A roofer with a working plan will already have a sweep done by then, and will be able to show you where the rake went. Ask for that sweep in the bid, and ask who does it, because a daily sweep that nobody is assigned usually does not happen.
What it costs
The underlayment haul-away shows up on a bid in three common places. It can be a line item with its own number. It can be folded into a per-square price for the whole tear-off. Or it can sit inside the dumpster rental, so the bin price quietly covers the felt. None of the three is wrong by itself. The trouble comes when you set a bid that folds the haul-away into a square price beside one where it is a separate charge, because the two totals then describe different jobs.
Ask each roofer for one figure that covers tear-off and haul-away together, with the underlayment named in the words of the bid. Then ask what happens if the bin fills before the underlayment is out. Who pays for a second bin, and who pays for a second trip, should be written in the scope, not settled by the crew on the afternoon it happens. That question belongs on every bid you compare, because a low total with an open overage clause is not the same price as a higher total with a fixed bin.
Keys Roofing documents the job in a written scope with photos and measurements, so you can set the underlayment removal, the haul-away, and the cleanup next to the other bids at your own table. If you want that scope before you decide, call the office at (314) 220-2333.
What to ask
- Does the price include removing the underlayment, or only the shingles above it?
- Is the haul-away of the underlayment inside the dumpster price, or billed separately?
- Which underlayment do you expect to find, and will that change once you walk the roof?
- Does the used felt share a load with the shingles, or does it leave in a separate pass?
- If the bin fills before the underlayment is out, who pays for the second bin and the second trip?
- Who sweeps the felt scraps and nail heads from the yard, the walks, and the gutters before the crew leaves each day?
- Will these answers appear in the written scope before you sign?
Want Keys Roofing on your roof?
Every argument on this site is that a list cannot tell you whether a crew is any good, and that you have to get somebody on the roof and read what they write down. Keys Roofing is the company this site puts at number one on both of its rankings, and it holds that position on the five criteria printed in the How we rate box rather than on anything Google publishes about it.
What an inspection here produces is a set of photographs, a measurement of the roof, and a written scope that names the material, the underlayment, the flashing work, the ventilation and what happens if the decking underneath turns out to be soft. You keep that document whether or not you hire anyone. If a storm claim is part of your story, the claim stays in your name: under RSMo 407.725 a Missouri roofing contractor may not represent or negotiate it for you, and Keys does not.
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