Quoting a roof before you climb on it

A roofer quotes far more jobs than they win. Every quote costs a drive, a ladder, and an hour on a roof you may never touch again.

Most of that hour is avoidable. Photographs and one measurement answer nearly every question a quote needs.

Ask the customer for four photographs

Your customer has a phone and wants a price. Most people will happily take four pictures if you tell them exactly which ones.

• The whole roof from the front, taken from the far side of the street.
• The same view from the back, so you see the whole plan.
• Any spot the customer worries about, close enough to show the detail.
• The inside of the roof space, where they can reach it safely.

Those four tell you the material, the rough pitch, the gutter line and the access. They also tell you when the job needs a proper look.

Measure the footprint, not the roof

Sizing a roof needs no walk across it. The building footprint and the pitch give you the area, and both come from the ground.

Pace the footprint or read it off the plan. Your customer often has a plan from their own purchase, and they will send it.

Say which jobs still need a climb

Some roofs earn the hour. A leak nobody can locate, a two storey with awkward access, and anything with structural movement all need your eyes on them.

The photographs make that decision, which is the point. The climb becomes a choice you make for a reason, rather than a habit you keep for every enquiry.

Quote in ranges where the photographs leave a gap

A photograph hides rot. A quote can still go out, as long as it says plainly what the price covers and what it excludes.

The quote prices the visible work firmly. Then name the unknowns as separate lines with their own rates, so your customer sees the shape of the risk before they accept anything.

Your customer picks the options they want and accepts in one tap. Quoting for trade jobs covers how to lay those options out so a customer can accept part of a quote.

Keep the photographs on the job

The photographs that won you the job answer the argument that comes later. They show the roof as it stood on the day your customer asked for a price.

The photographs belong on the job rather than in a phone. Six months on, a customer who says the ridge already looked like that gets an answer in a minute.

Check your quoting accuracy every quarter

Twenty finished roofs give the answer, held against what each job really cost.

Most roofers find the photograph quotes hold well on tile and drift on metal, or the other way round. The comparison names the material that still earns the climb. Most roofers find one material holds well from photographs and the other drifts.

Send it the same day the photographs arrive

A roofing enquiry usually goes to three businesses. The first useful price often wins, and speed beats a slightly sharper number.

Photographs remove the site visit, so nothing stops you quoting that evening. Your customer hears from you while they still remember asking.

What to change first

• Every caller sends the same four photographs, asked for in the same words
• The footprint and the pitch size the roof, not a walk across it
• A climb earns its hour on leaks, difficult access and structural movement
• The quote prices visible work firmly and lists each unknown separately
• The photographs live on the job, not in a phone
• Twenty roofs a quarter compare quoted against actual