Which Comes First: Your Roofer's Scope or the Insurer's Estimate?

A Missouri homeowner with an open roof claim usually ends up holding two documents about the same roof. One is the insurer's estimate, written by the insurer after its own inspection. The other is the roofer's written scope, which lists the work the roofer will do, with photos and measurements. The two rarely match line for line, and the question people ask is which one to get first. Missouri does not set an order for these. The practical answer depends on who inspects first and what each document is for.

Start with the limit that shapes everything else. Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and that prohibition is why a roofer's scope is a document you carry to your insurer rather than a document the roofer argues for you. Keys Roofing documents the 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. The insurer's number, and how you respond to it, stays with you.

Insurance claim

The insurer's estimate reflects the adjuster's inspection and the insurer's own pricing. It describes what the insurer has agreed to consider. It does not describe the work a roofer would actually perform, and the gap between the two is where most confusion starts. A line can be missing because the adjuster did not see it, because the adjuster saw it and priced it differently, or because it was left out by mistake. You cannot tell which from the estimate alone.

The roofer's scope answers a different question: what has to be done to return the roof to the condition the policy covers, and what the physical roof shows. A usable scope lists each slope, each penetration, the drip edge, the starter course, the underlayment, the ridge, and the flashings, and it names the photos and measurements behind each line. If a pipe boot or a valley is damaged, the scope should say so on its own line, not buried inside a total.

Order matters in one practical way. If the roofer documents the roof before the insurer's adjuster arrives, the photos show the condition before any temporary repair and before anyone else walks the roof. If the adjuster inspects first, the roofer's scope can be compared against the insurer's estimate line by line once both exist. Neither route is required. What you should avoid is letting one document sit unread while the other one gets accepted.

Keep both in one folder, with dates. Keep the insurer's estimate exactly as it came, including any version number or date printed on it. Keep every version of the roofer's scope. A changed scope with no date is hard to explain later, and a photo with no date is hard to place in the timeline of a storm.

Missouri has no matching statute and no matching regulation for roofs. Whether a partial replacement must match the existing shingles turns on the policy wording, not on a state rule. If the insurer's estimate treats the shingles as matching or not matching, read the policy language it relies on before you accept the number.

What it costs

The gap between an insurer's estimate and a roofer's bid is normal. The insurer may use a price list that does not match what a roof costs in your neighborhood, and a roofer's bid may include work the insurer chose to leave out. Neither one is a fraud by default. The question is which lines differ and why, and that answer belongs in writing from both sides.

Waiting has a cost of its own in St. Louis. An open roof meets the freeze-thaw cycle, and in hail season it meets the next storm. A roof left open while the paperwork moves can take water into the decking and the attic insulation, and that water can turn a repair into a larger job. Keep receipts for any temporary tarping or repair, and keep the removed pieces until the insurer has seen them. Repairing the opening is usually necessary. Destroying the evidence is the thing to avoid.

Ice damming at the eave adds its own pressure. If ice has been backing up behind the eave, the scope needs to say where the damage starts and whether it is storm damage or a separate condition. Those two categories often land on different lines of the insurer's estimate, and a single total hides the split.

Permits cost money too. Most reroofs in St. Louis County, and in the municipalities that issue their own permits, need a permit pulled through the local desk. The permit fee should appear as its own line on the roofer's scope, so you can compare it with the insurer's estimate, which may or may not include it. Missouri has no state roofing license, so the local permit desk is where much of the paper trail gets made.

What to ask

1. Ask the insurer for its estimate in writing, and ask for the date it was prepared.
2. Ask the roofer for a scope that lists each slope, each penetration, and each accessory, with photos and measurements behind each line.
3. Ask the roofer which items in its scope do not appear on the insurer's estimate, then take that list to your insurer yourself.
4. Ask the insurer whether it needs to see the roof before any repair, and whether it wants the removed pieces kept.
5. Ask the roofer for the permit fee as its own line, and confirm which local desk issues the permit.
6. Ask the roofer for a start date that is written down, and ask what happens to that date if the insurer's decision takes longer than expected.

Keys Roofing can be reached at (314) 220-2333 to request a written scope with photos and measurements. The roofer will not argue your insurer's number and will not tell you how to respond to it, because Missouri law forbids a roofing contractor from doing that work. Those decisions stay with you and your insurer.