Set three roofing quotes side by side and read the blanks

Many capes and colonials in these towns wear a second layer of shingle, added when the first wore out and stripping felt like too much. Under a winter of snow load that second layer is weight the rafters were never sized for, and stripping it is close to twice the work of stripping one. A quote priced for one layer is a quote that will change.

Board sheathing on a house from before the war has gaps between the planks, and a modern shingle wants a continuous surface. Add the soft spots along the eaves where ice has sat for decades. A stated price per sheet, and the number of sheets assumed, is what turns that into a figure rather than a surprise.

Felt and synthetic membrane cost different amounts and behave differently when a wet March week leaves the deck open longer than planned. The word "underlayment" on its own does not tell you which one is going down, and the difference matters most on the slope that faces north.

Snow sits here for weeks, melts from underneath, and refreezes at the cold overhang. Whether the membrane runs the code minimum at the eave, past the exterior wall line, up every valley, or around the chimney and every pipe is a different quantity of material and hours. On a low-pitch colonial it can be the largest single difference between two quotes.

Where a dormer cheek meets the main slope or a garage roof meets the house, the step flashing can be replaced or it can be sealed and left. Sealing is faster and cheaper that day, and it is the commonest reason a roof that is three winters old is already staining a bedroom ceiling.

A chimney on the uphill side of a slope holds a bank of snow against its back all winter. A cricket to shed it, counterflashing cut into the mortar rather than caulked to the brick, and a proper crown are all separate work, and all routinely absent from a headline number.

Warm air reaching the underside of the deck is what melts snow from below and builds ice at the eave. Reinstalling the old vents changes nothing. Opening the soffits, adding baffles and balancing intake against exhaust is real labor, and the quote should say whether it includes that or merely puts back what was there.

The metal at the eave and the starter strip beneath the first course sit under ice from January to March. Both are inexpensive, both are easy to leave off a quote, and both are where the first water gets in when they are missing.

Aluminum gutters carrying a winter of ice either survive or they do not, depending on how they are hung. Whether they come down and go back up, are replaced, or are worked around should be a written line. If heat cable is involved, the quote should say what becomes of it.

Every town here has its own building department, its own fee and its own inspection schedule. Whether the contractor pulls the permit, bills it as a separate line, or leaves it to you are three different arrangements, and only one of them puts the contractor's license on the paperwork.

The manufacturer covers the shingle. Somebody has to cover the installation, and in a climate where the roof carries snow for weeks it is the installation that is tested. A quote with a material warranty and no stated labor warranty has covered the cheaper half.

A dumpster on a driveway that may be under snow before the job ends, a magnet sweep for nails across a lawn that will not be raked again until spring, and protection for the foundation plantings. Small lines, and most of what people argue about afterward.