Get the Adjuster's Roof Diagram, Slope by Slope

An adjuster's roof diagram is the sketch that turns a storm into numbers. It shows each roof plane, its pitch, its area in squares, and the spots where the adjuster recorded hail hits, wind creases or missing shingles. If the diagram is wrong, the estimate built on it is wrong too, and most homeowners never see the diagram at all. This page explains how to ask for it, what to look for, and how to compare it with the documentation you already have.

Keys Roofing documents damage, puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, and attends as the contractor while the homeowner deals with their own insurer. Keys does not file, negotiate or handle the claim for you, because Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim. The diagram belongs to your claim, so the request for it goes from you to your insurer.

Insurance claim

Ask for the diagram in writing, by email or letter, and keep the date you sent the request. A phone request can be answered with a summary, and a summary is not the sketch. Name the claim number, the date of loss, and the property address, and ask for the roof diagram or sketch that was used to build the estimate. If the estimate was revised after a reinspection, ask for the revised diagram as well and for the date it was issued.

When it arrives, check four things before you read the dollar figures. First, the slope labels. Many diagrams label planes with letters or numbers that do not match the way your roofer names them. Write down which plane is the front, which faces the street, and which sits over the garage, then match each label to that plane. Second, the pitch. A pitch figure on the diagram changes how many squares the insurer counts for that plane, so a wrong pitch changes the total. Third, the area in squares. Add the planes yourself and compare the sum with the total on the estimate. Fourth, the marked damage. Hail marks, creased shingles and lifted tabs should appear on the planes where your photos show them.

Your photos are the check on the sketch. Each photo should be tied to a plane and a date, and the index you send should name the same plane the diagram uses. If a slope on the diagram carries no damage marks but your photos show hits on that plane, say so in writing and attach the photos with their dates. The insurer decides the claim, but a dated, specific disagreement is far easier to answer than a general complaint that the roof looks worse than the estimate says.

Missouri has no matching statute and no matching regulation for roofs. If the diagram leaves out a plane the homeowner believes should be replaced for uniformity, the question turns on the policy wording, not on a state rule. Read the policy's loss settlement language and ask the insurer which provision it applied to the plane in question.

What it costs

Asking for the diagram is a request to your insurer, and whether a copy costs anything depends on the insurer's practice and your policy, so ask that question in the same letter. What costs money is the work that follows a wrong diagram: a shingle order sized from a plane count that was too small, a second trip because the planes do not match, or a supplement that has to be filed after the tear-off because a slope was missed. A roofer's bid should use the same plane names and square counts the homeowner is comparing against the insurer's sketch, so the two documents can be laid side by side.

Keep the figures separate in your file. The insurer's estimate is one column, your roofer's written scope is another, and the differences go in a third column with a short reason for each line. A plane that appears in the roofer's scope but not the insurer's diagram is a question to ask the insurer, not a number to argue on the phone. The same goes for the square count. A few squares of difference can come from waste factor, from how the ridge and hips are counted, or from a plane that was split in one document and merged in the other.

Missouri roofers cannot negotiate the claim on your behalf, so the work of resolving a disagreement stays with you and with any help you choose to hire for the claim. That help has to be someone allowed to represent you in that role, and a roofer is not one of them.

What to ask

Ask the insurer these questions in writing, and file the answers with the diagram:

1. Which document is the roof diagram, and what date was it made?
2. Does each plane label match the labels on the estimate?
3. What pitch was used for each plane, and was it measured or estimated?
4. What is the total area in squares, and how was waste or overage handled?
5. Which planes show hail or wind damage, and which were marked as undamaged?
6. Was the diagram revised after any reinspection, and when?

Ask your roofer these questions before you sign anything: which plane names will the written scope use, how many squares does the scope count for each plane, and will the scope show the photos tied to each plane? A scope that cannot be matched to the diagram is not finished, and a bid that uses different plane names will make every later comparison harder.

Ask yourself one question at the end: does the diagram describe the roof you can see from the street? If a plane is missing, a pitch looks wrong, or the damage marks do not match your photos, the answer goes in writing to the insurer, with the dates and the photos attached. The roof does not change while the file is open, so the record you build now is the record you will need later.

Keys Roofing can be reached about the scope or the photos at (314) 220-2333. Questions about the claim itself go to your insurer.