Line up your roofing quotes and see what is missing

On housing this old, two or three generations of covering on one roof is ordinary. A tape measure at the rake edge answers it in a minute — so a quote that assumes rather than measures has told you how the rest of the job will go.

Pre-war houses here were often decked with boards laid apart, sized for a covering that was hung. A modern covering needs a continuous surface, and the rate for closing those gaps belongs on paper before the roof is open, not in a phone call on day one.

The word included is not a specification. Which membrane, on which parts of the roof, is what separates two quotes that look alike — and it is the layer nobody sees again once the covering goes on.

On a building with a heated top flat, the warm area of the roof reaches further up the slope than the code minimum assumes. The useful answer is a distance, not a yes — and on this housing it is the line that decides whether the ice comes back.

Most of the dormers here were cut in when houses were divided into flats, and their flashing was fitted to what was already there. A re-roof is the one moment it can be rebuilt properly — re-sealed as found repeats the detail that failed.

Two households historically meant two flues, and on many of these houses neither carries anything any more. Is the counterflashing let into the brick or fastened to the face, and does a dead chimney need to stay at all? Both answers belong in the number.

A ridge vent with no working intake pulls heated indoor air into the roof space, which is precisely the condition that makes ice at the eaves. A quote that lists the ridge vent and says nothing about the soffit has named half a system.

On this market the edge takes the ice, and it is where these roofs actually begin to go. It is also the least expensive part to do properly during a replacement and the most disruptive to correct afterwards.

Removed and put back, replaced, or worked around — and on a house that ices at the eave, how the gutter is fastened decides whether it survives the winter. It should be a stated line, not an assumption.

Every city and town here runs its own building department. Included, billed separately, or left to you are three different deals — and if you apply, you become the responsible party for work you are not performing.

The manufacturer stands behind the shingle; someone has to stand behind the installation, and installation is what fails first. On a multi-family, ask whether the warranty survives a sale of the building.

On a lot with no side yard, where the container sits and how the properties on both sides are protected is real labour and real risk. A bidder with a specific answer has walked the property; a vague one has not.