The Labor Hours Inside Your Roof Price, and Who Pays for an Overrun

A labor line in a roof bid is a number someone chose before the roof was open. Most St. Louis quotes build it one of three ways: a lump sum for the whole tear-off and install, a rate per roofing square (100 square feet), or an hourly rate with a crew-hour estimate behind it. The first kind hides its hours entirely. The second kind hides them inside the square count. Only the third kind shows you the hours, and even then the homeowner usually sees only the total.

Why do the hours matter? Because the hours are where an overrun lives. A crew that expected to strip one layer and finds two, or finds soft decking that needs replacing along a valley, is spending hours the quote did not name. Whether those hours cost you anything depends on what the quote says about them, and most quotes say nothing.

Cost and estimates

Ask the roofer how many crew-hours the labor line assumes, and for how many people. A crew of four on one day is a different number from a crew of three on two days, even when both add up to a similar dollar figure. The hours should be stated, or at least the crew days, so you can see whether the price is a day of work or a week of it.

Here is how the same job can read two ways. Bid A lists labor as one lump sum and says nothing else. Bid B lists a crew of three for one day and names a labor rate for extra crew hours. Bid B may look higher on the labor line, but it tells you what happens if the deck is worse than the estimate assumed. Bid A leaves that question open until the old shingles are off and the crew is standing there waiting for an answer.

Then ask what the labor line assumes about the roof itself. A quote built on a clean deck, one existing layer, and a ladder placed on the front elevation is making assumptions. If your house has a second layer, a steep section, or a dormer with a valley running into it, the hours change. The estimate should say which conditions it was built on, in writing, next to the labor number. If it does not, you are comparing two prices that rest on two different roofs.

In St. Louis the freeze and thaw cycle makes this worse on older decks. Boards that have swelled and softened over several winters take longer to pull and replace than sound boards do. A bid that prices decking as a unit rate, not as a lump sum, shows you what each replaced board will cost in labor as well as material. Get that rate before the tear-off, because the rate is the only thing that lets you price the surprise.

What it costs

Once you have the hours, you can ask what an extra hour or an extra crew day costs. Two bids can show the same total and very different overrun terms. One might bill extra hours at a stated hourly rate. Another might bill extra work per square, which can be cheaper for a large surprise and expensive for a small one. A third might say nothing, which in practice means the extra work gets negotiated after the crew has already stopped to wait for you.

Write the overrun rate into the contract, next to the labor line. A sentence that says additional labor will be billed at a stated hourly rate for crew hours beyond the estimate, with the crew size and the rate named, is enough to answer the question later. Without it, the decision to keep working or pause falls on the homeowner standing in the driveway at eight in the morning while a crew waits.

A permit inspection can also pause the crew. In St. Louis County, some jobs need an inspection at a stage of the work, and the crew may wait on the inspector's schedule before it can cover the deck or finish the edge. Ask whether that waiting is inside the labor hours or billed on top, and whether it moves the completion date. The inspection fee itself is a separate question, but the idle hours are part of the labor line.

Also check whether the labor line includes the time to load and clear debris, the time to protect landscaping, and the time to set up the trailer and ladders. Those hours often sit outside the roofing hours and do not appear in the square count. A bid that names them separately has told you how the day will be spent. A bid that folds them in is harder to check, and harder to compare with a bid that leaves them out.

What to ask

• How many crew-hours does the labor line assume, and how many people are on the crew for those hours?
• What is the labor line built on: one existing layer or two, a clean deck or a repair allowance, and which elevations get walked and shingled?
• If the deck is soft under the old shingles, what is the labor cost per replaced board or per square of decking, and is that rate written into the contract?
• Is extra labor billed by the hour, by the square or as a lump sum, and who decides when the extra work starts?
• Does the labor line include setup, debris loading and landscape protection, or are those hours billed separately?
• If a municipal inspection holds the crew, is that waiting time inside the hours, and does it move the completion date?

Keys Roofing can walk through the labor line on your house before you choose a bid. The office number is (314) 220-2333. Ask for the hours in writing, along with the scope and the photos and measurements that support them, so the number you compare is the number you will be billed against.