Is there a typo there? 167 K. $167000?

Yep. $167,000. Hence my concern.

Kind of a jump from $3,000 on the original estimate. As I said, the second guy was sent out by Safeco, so he clearly has a relationship with them.

MM MD

I don't really know what to say. If they had come back with $15000 I probably would ask them to just give me $10000 and let me do it myself or something like that. But $167,000 is crazy. It's crazy to replace your whole roof. It's crazy to paint your house. And it's still a crazy price for doing your whole roof and painting your house. It sounds pretty criminal.

Although that kind of roofing does suck. And those fake Shake roofs have gone out of business because they lost so many lawsuits.

Yeah, I honestly though he had screwed up a zero, but he faxed me the outline.

Interestingly, I've been happy with the synthetic shakes - but to each their own I suppose.

SO, guess I'll see what the insurer says - suspect there's going to be some negotiating.

MM MD

My problem with the synthetic shakes isn't really a matter of personal taste. They are not really ok to put solar on (could be a peeve of mine), but neither are cap and barrel mortared clay tile and that roof is nice imo. Thing is they break easier than the were supposed to and a lot of people sued and I think all the companies making that stuff went out of business. So, they may be ok for you as long as you are ok with fixing the few that fall apart each year, and they probably would be ok with me as well, but they're still pretty crappy.

Makes sense. I don't know what the plan is if Safeco actually OK's the entire room redo - we have a house that would be perfect for solar, so I'll have to look into it. The fake shakes are brittle, though.

thanks

MM MD

If you do, you should definitely feel free to ask me for help.

This.


I'm confused though. Did you settle for 3k - 1.5k deductible, or is the insurance now going to pay 167k - 1.5k? If it's the latter, than obviously ship it. Then wait 6 months until the dishwasher mysteriously ****s water allover the floor and call the same contractor to come back. Rinse and repeat until you can't think of anything that could be nicer about your home, or they cancel you.

Yeah, that's why I'm confused, too. Haven't settled for anything - the original adjuster for Safeco came out and quoted 3K less the deductible. Safeco sent out a contractor they use to get the job done, and he took one look, laughed and said it was a much bigger job, and quoted the 167K, which obviously includes a **** ton of additional work that he says needs to be done. Since Safeco sent him out, we'll see.

Basically, from what I can tell he's quoting the Rolls Royce redo - I'm Ok with something less - I just want to get the stuff fixed before it snows again.

MM MD

The truth obviously lies somewhere in between. 3k seems lol low for what you've described. 167k seems really lol high.

Obviously I'm being facetious about future problems but if you're paying for insurance and the insurance company wants to provide you with a Rolls Royce redo by their suggested contractor then lucky you. I can't imagine saying "no don't replace the roof and repaint the house at your expense."

I've done a remodel, put on a new roof and painted the place in the past. It's a giant pain in the nuts. I don't care about the resale value of the house - I'm not selling, and it's worth 3x what I paid for it anyway.

So it's the pain in the nuts factor vs. getting it done right. And I agree the 167K seems crazy.

MM MD

Sure you're not selling but, unless you're considerably older than my guess, you're going to need a new roof in your lifetime anyway so why not get it now for free? My guess is that things only become a larger pain in the nuts as you get older and more crotchety.

I'm older than you guess. I'm retiring at the end of the year. I'm unlikely to become more crotchety, as I'm pretty well maxed out there, per the nursing staff....

MM MD

Insurance companies usually dont give you what it really cost to fix the damage, the contractor a lot of the time has to ask for more money, or the insurance co will want 3 estimates. The contractor might have quoted that price but the insurance might not pay that. The fact you cant get the shingles anymore might get you a new roof because line of sight. $167k is insane but everything gets bumped up like 40% on insurance jobs a lot of the time. A restoration type company will charge insurance $167 and take 40% and hire a roofer for $100k. Man, even that seems outrageous, but 4000sq home roof is pretty damn big, and if its 2 story price goes up too. They probably charge $25k for demo.

Looks like I'm getting a bargain, then. The demo + disposal of crap is only 10K.

It's actually a 3 story house, kind of. Giant A-frame that is ALL roof. So we'll see.....

MM MD

wait....is this house made of gingerbread???

Does he charge like $5k/hr. in labor or do you live in Beverly hills?

Apparently it will be wrapped in 24k gold when this contractor is finished.

My guess was that the house was on a remote island and shipping the roofing materials to the island was what got the price to $167k.

Just to show I'm not making this stuff up - from the invoice

DESCRIPTION QTY REMOVE REPLACE TAX O&P TOTAL
24. Drywall (Bid Item) 1.00 EA 0.00 3,750.00 0.00 750.00 4,500.00
DRYWALL REPAIR & INTERIOR PAINTING
DRYWALL REPAIR-Water Damage Affected Areas Per Scope: Remove Wall Paper: Kilz Over, Cut Out Bubbles, Skim and Match Texture Upper Hallway Windows: Scape,Tape, Float and Match Existing Texture Labor and Material $3750.00
INTERIOR PAINTING- Water Damage Affect Areas Per Scope: Great Room Ceiling and Hallway Ceilings and Walls Prep, Prime and Paint Labor and Material $7500.00
25. Painting (Bid Item) 1.00 EA 0.00 7,500.00 0.00 1,500.00 9,000.00
26. General Laborer - per hour 24.00 HR 0.00 45.00 0.00 216.00 1,296.00
Labor to clean up and roll up tools daily
27. Scaffolding Setup & Take down - 64.00 HR 0.00 45.00 0.00 576.00 3,456.00 per hour
29. Scaffold - per section (per month) 24.00 MO 0.00 112.88 0.00 541.82 3,250.94
Total: Main Level 0.00 3,583.82 21,502.94

8,468.69 Surface Area 703.58 Total Perimeter Length
84.69 Number of Squares 115.60 Total Ridge Length
DESCRIPTION QTY REMOVE REPLACE TAX O&P TOTAL
6. General Demolition - per hour 120.00 HR 50.00 0.00 0.00 1,200.00 7,200.00

7. Dumpster load - Approx. 40 yards, 7- 4.00 EA 645.00 0.00 0.00 516.00 3,096.00 8 tons of debris
8. Roofer - per hour 8.00 HR 0.00 188.00 0.00 300.80 1,804.80
Inspect roof for failed sheathing
10. Ice & water barrier 2,804.36 SF 0.00 2.42 108.94 1,379.10 8,274.59
11. Step flashing 94.00 LF 0.00 12.44 10.49 235.98 1,415.83
12. R&R Valley metal 25.11 LF 0.59 6.68 3.72 37.24 223.50
13. Roof vent - turtle type - Detach & 12.00 EA 0.00 78.00 0.58 187.32 1,123.90 reset
14. Roof vent - Detach & reset 8.00 EA 0.00 111.44 0.38 178.38 1,070.28
15. Painter - per hour 16.00 HR 0.00 65.05 0.00 208.16 1,248.96
paint all sheet metal to match roofing
17. Roofing felt - synthetic 84.69 SQ 0.00 51.11 106.39 886.98 5,321.88 underlayment
18. Remove Synthetic composite rfg - 84.69 SQ 68.49 0.00 0.00 1,160.08 6,960.50 Slate style - 50 yr. - incl felt
19. Synthetic composite rfg - Slate 84.75 SQ 0.00 840.64 3,669.70 14,982.78 89,896.72 style - 50 yr. - incl felt
20. R&R Synthetic composite roofing - 231.21 EA 9.48 22.41 68.22 1,488.30 8,929.81 Slate style (per SHINGLE)
This is for the ridge shingles
21. Boom lift - 50'-60' reach (per day) 14.00 DA 0.00 468.64 0.00 1,312.20 7,873.16
22. Cleaning Technician - per hour 40.00 HR 0.00 40.40 0.00 323.20 1,939.20
Labor to clean up debris throughout the course of the project, this is a gated and monitored neighborhood and will require additional labor to meet requirements for daily cleanup and roll up of equipment each day
Totals: Roof1 3,968.42 24,396.52 146,379.13
Total: Main Level 3,968.42 27,980.34 167,882.07
Line Item Totals: 3,968.42 27,980.34 167,882.07

I am hoping to get some gold plated roofing nails out of the deal, though.

MM MD

Don't forget the hookers and blow left on the job once its done, that's yours.

I especially like the cleaning technician at $40.00 an hour. Last roofing job I had he was a guy in a dirty wife beater sucking on a Lucky Strike while tossing **** into a dumpster. For technician I hope I get a guy in a snappy uniform and a hard hat, at least.

MM MD

It's not that I don't believe you. It is just such a ridiculous amount that I don't understand how any contractor on earth would expect that to seem legit. So I'm imagining a Beverly hills mansion. I'm with everyone else. Take as much as you can get from the ins. company.

Shockingly, I've had nothing but good experiences with Safeco over the years - we have radient heat (hot water pumped thru floors) and when it **** the bed and dumped a couple of thousand gallons of water into our subfloor area, they took care of it no problems and no big bump in my premiums - so I'm going to try to work with them and be reasonable. OTOH if they just sign the check, I'll take it.

MM MD

Between that quote and not even giving you a lesser option, I'd just drop him. >0% it is an 'I'm booked' quote too.