Get a Written Roof Estimate

What you actually get

A written estimate with the arithmetic shown — not a single figure on one page that you are expected to accept or reject.

You will see the measured area of your roof in squares, the rate it is priced at, what is inside that rate, what is explicitly outside it, and what happens if something unexpected turns up once work starts.

The estimate is free. There is no obligation attached to it, and nobody is going to attempt to close you on your kitchen table while the ladder is still on the truck.

The two ways to start

If you have no quotes yet, ask for an estimate. We come out, measure the roof properly, and write it up.

If you already have a quote from somebody else, send us that instead. We will review it and write back — free, no obligation, and you do not need to be considering us to use it.

The second option is the more useful one and almost nobody offers it. A homeowner holding a quote for thousands of dollars usually cannot tell whether it is fair, because the things that make it fair or not are the things it does not mention.

You will get a written note on what the quote covers, what it does not, and which lines are likely to move once the work starts. We would rather you signed a good competitor's contract understanding exactly what you were buying than signed ours because nobody else would explain theirs.

How the price is built

A roof replacement is priced at $500 per square — a square being 100 square feet of roof. That is the number every proposal is built from, published up front so you can do the arithmetic before anyone knocks on your door.

The underlayment is where that shows up most clearly. We use SWR, a premium synthetic water-resistant underlayment, and we supply it at cost — no markup at all. Most contractors mark up materials and never tell you by how much. On the layer that decides whether the deck stays dry once the covering is gone, our margin is zero, and you can price the product yourself against any supplier and check that.

The material and labour figures are allowances. Once a real supplier quote and a real sub quote exist for your job, the actual numbers replace them. What is being committed to is the method, not a placeholder.

Squares are waste-adjusted and rounded up. Measured area, times the waste factor from the measurement report, divided by 100, rounded up to the next whole square. A roof measuring 4,517 square feet at 11 percent waste becomes 5,014 square feet, which is 50.14 squares, which rounds up to 51. We round up because materials are bought in whole squares — rounding down means either stopping mid-job or absorbing a cost that reappears somewhere else.

So before anyone visits, you can put a rough number on your own roof and check ours against it.

What the estimate will and will not commit to

Held for 30 days. Supplier price-increase notices arrive monthly through hurricane season, so a longer hold would be a promise we could not keep. Being told that up front is better than being re-quoted later.

Unknown and hidden damage is the honest exclusion. Nobody can tell you the condition of every sheet of decking beneath intact shingles without removing them. That is a physical fact rather than a loophole, and a contractor who quotes a firm all-in number without that caveat is either padding to absorb the risk or preparing a change order.

What we do is put a number on the most common version in advance: up to 3 sheets of OSB decking are included. Beyond that, you see it before it is replaced.

Offers are subject to inspection, written scope, material availability, roof size, code requirements, permit requirements, decking condition, ventilation needs, flashing conditions and a signed contract. Not valid as cash, rebate, deductible payment, deductible waiver or insurance inducement. Final price and scope are controlled by the signed written agreement.

How payment works, before you ask

Worth knowing at estimate stage rather than at signing.

Your material deposit is written directly to SYL Roofing Supply — not to us. It is credited against your contract price, it pays for the materials supplied to your job, and once the funds clear it removes the supplier's lien exposure on those materials. There is no version of that arrangement where the money leaves with a truck.

No material is ordered until brand and colour are chosen and the supplier is paid, so nothing arrives at your house that you did not select.

The balance is due on completion and after the final inspection passes — not before it. Check that wording on any contract you are handed. "Due before final inspection" is common phrasing and it quietly moves the risk onto you.

Card payments carry a 3 percent processing fee. Late balances accrue 18 percent per annum. Claims have a 2-day window with written confirmation within 5 days.

What we will ask you

A few questions make the visit useful rather than exploratory:

• Where the property is — postcode is enough to start
• What prompted this — a leak, an insurance letter, a roof you know is old, or a quote you are checking
• Roughly how old the roof is, or when you bought the house
• Your timeline — ready now, this week, this month, or researching. All four are legitimate answers and "researching" gets the same estimate as "ready now"
• Whether you are the owner or authorised to decide. Not a qualifying hurdle — it determines who needs to be there and whose signature the paperwork requires

If there is an active leak, say so at the start. That changes the response from an estimate visit to an emergency call, and they are different things.

Not sure you need a whole roof?

You may not, and we would rather establish that before quoting one.

The test is the condition of the shingle, not its age. A shingle still pliable can be lifted, worked under, resealed and laid back down. A shingle gone brittle cracks when lifted, so repairing around it creates more failure points than it closes. Two roofs of identical age routinely get opposite answers.

If you would rather start with an assessment than an estimate, the $30 roof report gives you a measured written assessment with a condition score, photographed findings, an estimated remaining life and a recommendation of repair, monitor or replace. Monitor is a real outcome — a report that can honestly conclude nothing needs doing yet is the reason it is worth having.

See also roof repair if the question is a specific leak rather than the whole roof.

The permit side, so there are no surprises

Residential re-roof permits in Lake County are auto-issue — the fees generate and the permit is issued once the packet is submitted, with no plan-review queue. A property in a flood zone requires additional review first.

A Notice of Commencement must be recorded and certified; Lake County's re-roof checklist sets that at a job value over $5,000. We prepare it, the property owner signs and records it. Most homeowners have never heard of it until a job is held up because it was not filed.

One detail worth expecting: the permit application states the full square footage of the roof, while your estimate states the square count. Two different numbers on two documents for the same roof. Both correct, measuring different things.

What is inside the price

So the estimate can be compared against anyone else's line by line, here is what the standard replacement scope contains:

• Full tear-off of one existing covering, down to the wood deck
• Full peel-and-stick / SWR underlayment across the entire deck — this is FBC-R 905.1.1's most protective method, and Lake County requires the method used to be declared on a notarised affidavit that becomes part of the permanent record
• Florida Building Code deck re-nailing — required on any detached single-family home built before 1 March 2002, so check your build year
• Up to 3 sheets of OSB decking when needed
• Architectural shingles, your choice from three options presented equally
• Drip edge, valley protection, hip and ridge cap
• Roof ventilation and pipe flashing boots, quantities set at the site survey
• An updated wind mitigation report documenting the roof's features
• Dump trailer or dumpster, all debris hauled away, and a magnetic nail sweep
• 10-year transferable workmanship warranty, 5-year on low-slope

Two of those are worth pausing on when comparing quotes. Underlayment is invisible once the shingles are on, which makes it the easiest place to save money quietly — ask every contractor which 905.1.1 method they are installing and across how much of the deck. And decking is the most common mid-job surprise in this trade, which is why a number goes on it in advance rather than after the tear-off, when you have no leverage.

Gutters, metal, and other coverings

Gutters are billed at cost plus a $75 setup fee. The sub quote passes straight through — if the gutter sub quotes $3,300 for 400 linear feet and 9 downspouts, you pay $3,375. There is no margin buried in that line.

The same cost-plus method works on any covering, but metal needs real numbers rather than a shingle rate — a supplier quote for the panel and trim, plus a sub quote for the labour. Metal is meaningfully slower to install than shingle, particularly on a hip roof, and carrying a shingle labour rate onto a metal job produces a figure nobody can honour.

If part of your roof is low-slope, expect it quoted differently. Below a 2:12 pitch shingles are not permitted at all, and between 2:12 and 4:12 multi-layer underlayment must be verified by inspection or photographs. A quote applying one rate to a roof with a porch or addition has not looked carefully.

Colour basis is Weathered Wood or the manufacturer equivalent rather than black, and you are free to choose otherwise. Brand and the selected contract price stay as fill-in fields until you actually pick — nothing is pre-filled on your behalf.

On insurance

If a carrier is involved, here is the limit stated plainly rather than discovered later.

Timothy Parks Roofing & Construction, Inc. is a roofing contractor, not a public adjuster. We inspect roof conditions, provide documentation, and prepare repair or replacement scopes. We do not file, negotiate, adjust or settle insurance claims. Coverage, deductible, payment and premium-credit decisions are made by your insurance carrier under your policy. Homeowners are responsible for the deductibles required by their policy — TPROCO does not pay, waive, rebate or compensate insurance deductibles. Filing false, incomplete or misleading insurance claim information can constitute insurance fraud under Florida Statutes §817.234.

An estimate is an estimate of what the work costs. What your carrier does about it is between you and them.

Who turns up

Timothy Parks has been self-employed in construction for 46 years and holds three Florida licences: CBC059592 Certified Building Contractor, CCC1327217 Certified Roofing Contractor and HI4878 Licensed Home Inspector — all current Florida DBPR licences.

The building licence matters at estimate stage more than people expect. Under Florida Statutes §489.113 a roofing-only contractor cannot perform structural work, so if there is any chance your job becomes structural, an estimate from a roofing-only company is an estimate for part of the job.

We work from Clermont and serve Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Polk, Volusia and Hernando counties.

Call 689-600-3099 to arrange an estimate or to send over a quote for review.

Common questions