Roof Deck Repair Work - What's Fair?

By Tim Carter
©1993-2010 Tim Carter

Summary: Roof repair of rotten wood should be verified before you allow a roofer to charge you extra when he installs your new roof. Ask him for a cost breakdown and monitor his progress. You can also address the cost in the bidding stage.

DEAR TIM: The roofer installing a new roof on my house has discovered rotten wood. This comes as a surprise. He has quoted what appears to be an excessive price to install new wood. How do I determine if it is a fair price? J. K.

DEAR J. K.: First, you must verify if, in fact, you have rotten wood and how much. If you can not see the wood yourself, ask the roofer to take an instant photograph of the damage for you to see.

Ask the roofer for a breakdown of the added cost to remove and install the wood. This breakdown should show the quantity of wood being replaced, its cost, the amount of time it will take in man-hours, and the hourly rate per man-hour he intends to charge. It should also show any overhead and profit, as a separate item, that he is charging.

Using this breakdown, you can monitor this extra activity. You can see how long it takes and how much lumber was in fact used. The breakdown will enable you to see if you are being treated fairly.

You can address this situation in the bidding stage of your project. Ask the bidders to quote how much they will charge per square foot to install new wood, in the event they discover rotten wood. This is the best way.

You can see in the bidding stage, who offers the better value. Also, in the event that you do have rotten wood, you simply have to calculate the square footage which has to be replaced to determine your extra cost.