The Start Time on Each Roofing Bid Sets Your Quiet Hours

A roofing crew that starts at 6:30 in the morning and works until dark is not the same job as one that starts at 8:00 and stops at 4:00, even when both bids carry the same total. Your neighbors will feel the difference on the first morning, and so will anyone who works nights, anyone who works from home, and any dog that hears the first pneumatic nailer. Start and stop times rarely appear on a roofing proposal, which is why this comparison is worth making before you sign.

What the bid should say about the day

Most proposals describe the materials, the tear-off, the underlayment, the flashing and the cleanup. Fewer state the hours the crew expects to work. Ask each roofer for two numbers in writing: the time the crew arrives and sets up, and the time they expect to be off the roof and clear of the yard. If a roofer answers only with "we start early," that is a description of habit, not a commitment you can hold them to later.

Two more details belong beside those numbers. The first is whether the crew works Saturdays, and whether a Saturday is included in the price or billed on top of it. The second is what happens when a day runs long because of weather or a late delivery. A roofer who plans to finish the tear-off by late afternoon and start the nailing the next morning is describing a different schedule from one who plans to keep the crew on the roof after dark so the deck is closed before a storm arrives. Both may be reasonable decisions, but the neighbors will live with them differently.

It also helps to ask who on the crew will answer the phone if the schedule slips. A roofer who gives you a name and a direct number for the site supervisor has thought about the question of a neighbor calling at seven in the morning. A roofer who gives only the office line has not, or has not wanted to say so.

Where the local rules come in

Many St. Louis County cities and St. Louis City set construction hours in their codes or nuisance ordinances, and those rules differ from one municipality to the next. The permit desk for your address is the place to confirm the posted hours, not the roofer's memory of a job across the county line. A roofer who has pulled permits in your city will usually know the hours without looking them up, and a roofer who answers the question with a shrug has told you something about how closely the schedule will be watched once the crew is on your roof.

Hours can also depend on the type of work. Tear-off is loud, and a crew may be allowed to start its noisiest tasks later than it starts its quieter ones such as staging material or laying out the underlayment. You do not need to know the rule in advance, but you should ask each roofer whether their plan sorts the noisy work into the hours the local code allows. A bid that breaks the day into phases with clock times gives you something concrete to compare.

The season changes the working day as well. In July, a crew that starts at dawn can finish the tear-off before the afternoon heat builds on a dark shingle surface, and that is one reason some roofers prefer early starts from late spring through summer. In December and January the window narrows. Sealant strips take hold more slowly in cold air, and a morning frost can keep the deck slick until the sun has been on it for a while. Ask each roofer how the start time moves by season, and whether the schedule changes if the forecast turns cold on the second day of the job.

Roofer comparison

Put the start and stop times from each bid on one line, next to the crew size and the number of working days the bid expects. A bid that promises a 7:00 to 5:00 schedule over three days is a different workload from one that promises a dawn-to-dusk schedule over two days, even though the total may look close. The shorter job is not automatically the better one. It may mean a larger crew working longer hours, which matters if the neighbors are home all day or if a child naps on the street side of the house.

Look also at what each roofer leaves out. Some bids say nothing about hours at all. Others say the crew will "work daylight hours," which can mean anything from sunrise to a fixed cutoff that the roofer chooses. Write the exact clock time into your notes beside each name. Where two roofers give different answers, ask the one whose answer is vaguer to pick a time and put it in writing, so the comparison rests on the same facts for both bids.

A short written schedule is also a useful test of how a roofer plans. A roofer who can name the first two hours of the first day, which includes the staging, the dumpster placement and the first section of tear-off, usually has the rest of the job sketched out. A roofer who can only say the job will take about a week has not shown you the plan yet.

What it costs

Hours rarely carry a line item on a roofing bid, but they can change the price in two places. The first is the number of days. A crew restricted to a short working window may need an extra day to finish, and an extra day means another mobilization, another set of trucks and another round of material handling. Ask whether the bid includes a fixed number of working days, and what the roofer charges if the job runs past that count because the start was late or weather held the crew back.

The second place is labor. If a roofer quotes a crew rate that assumes a long day and the local hours are shorter, the roofer may add crew members to finish in the window, or stretch the job into a second week. Ask whether the price assumes the hours you were told, and whether any change to those hours adds cost or moves the schedule. A bid that answers both questions plainly is easier to compare than one that holds the answers back until the first truck arrives in the driveway.

Be careful with any bid that promises a fast finish without saying how the crew will meet the hours. A three-day job can be a real plan, or it can be a number chosen to look good beside the other quotes. The difference shows up in the crew size and the daily start time. Compare those two figures across all your bids before you compare the totals.

What to ask

1. What time does the crew arrive, and what time do they leave the property on each working day?
2. Does the price assume a Saturday, and if so, is the Saturday included or billed separately?
3. Which municipality's construction hours apply to my address, and how will the crew confirm them with the permit desk?
4. If weather or a material delay pushes the job past the scheduled days, what changes in the price and in the calendar?
5. How does your start time change in July and in January, and what happens if the forecast turns cold mid-job?
6. Which crew member will I call if a neighbor complains about noise before eight in the morning, and what is that person's direct number?

Write each answer next to the roofer's name and the clock time it was given. When the same question gets different answers from two roofers, call each one back with the other's answer in hand and ask which schedule they will commit to. The start time you agree to is the one the crew will keep on your street, so it is worth settling before the first permit is posted. Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 if you want to ask about the schedule for your address.