ROOFING · ENVELOPE AND STRUCTURE · FIXED BY STEP 04

The corner takes twenty fasteners and your bid priced twelve

You priced fastening off field of roof density because that's what the takeoff shows. The approved layout loaded up the corners and perimeters, and no allowance came with it.

WHY IT'S A ROOFING PROBLEM

Most trades submit product data and get a stamp back. Roofing submits an assembly and gets an engineered fastening schedule back that changes the quantity of work after the price is locked. The person setting your hours per square is a manufacturer's technical reviewer protecting a warranty his company has to honor, and he has no reason to care what your bid priced.

WHAT IT COSTS

The size of it

Fastener and plate count can run 30% to 60% higher in perimeter and corner zones than the bid, on a line that's hardware plus pure labor with nothing behind it. It turns up as a labor overrun in month two and gets blamed on the crew.

OVERHEAD AT $1M–$5M

15%

CFOS target 14% for roofing.

GROSS MARGIN AT $1M–$5M

22%

CFOS target 24.5% for roofing.

NET PROFIT AT $1M–$5M

CFOS target 10.5% for roofing.

Every warranted low slope system goes to the manufacturer's technical department for pre-job approval against an FM or UL listed assembly. What comes back is a fastening schedule tied to ASCE 7 wind uplift zones, and the 7-16 and 7-22 pressures loaded the perimeters and corners hard. Your estimator priced off the takeoff, which shows field of roof density, because that's the number printed on the page. The approved schedule raises density in the zones that install slowest, so the fastener and plate count goes up and the labor hours per square go up more. Nothing releases until the tech desk and the architect's submittal reviewer both clear it, and neither of those clocks belongs to you.

WHAT TO DO

Three moves, in order

STEP 01

Split fastening into three quantities on every takeoff, field, perimeter, and corner, and price each zone separately so the delta is visible the day approval comes back.

STEP 02

Lay the approved fastening schedule next to the bid quantities before the first load ships, and price the difference as a change request that same week while the submittal trail is fresh.

STEP 03

Log the approved density by building type in your cost history, so next year's bids start from what the tech desk approved and not from field of roof math.

THE FIX

Step 04: Estimating system

The estimate maps one to one onto the job cost codes, so variance means something the day it appears.

CFOS-04 · CHAPTER 4

Make the estimate and the job cost report match

What this step changes, what it depends on, and how to tell it's installed.

BENCHMARKS

Roofing by revenue band

All 7 bands are published. The CFOS target is beside the figure up to $10M to $25M, and the 4 bands above that are labelled modeled.

ACROSS EVERY TRADE

The estimate and the actual never match

You can compare the estimate to the job cost report, but the two use different words, so the comparison means nothing.

SAME TRADE

What else costs roofing contractors money

ROOFING · CFOS-06

That tapered package is spent before you bill it

The tapered package was drawn for one building and cut at the plant. If the GC moves dry-in, you're holding six figures of foam that fits nowhere else.

ROOFING · CFOS-04

Price letters move faster than your contract

Shingles and polyiso reprice on 30 days notice. Your hard bid subcontract has no escalation language and the carrier's price list updates when the carrier feels like it.

ROOFING · CFOS-01

You finish in month two and get paid in month eighteen

You dry the building in so every other trade can start, then wait on 10% until the whole job closes and a manufacturer's inspector you don't employ signs off.

ROOFING · CFOS-08

Whoever punctured it, the call comes to you

Mechanical set the units, somebody cut your membrane, and the GC still calls you. Two men and a truck later you've proven it wasn't yours and billed no one for the trip.

SAME MECHANISM, OTHER TRADES

The same mechanism in other trades

CIVIL

The grading permit clock isn't on your schedule

Third resubmittal on the grading permit, the power pole relocation is six months out, and your crew and iron cost money while no party in your contract chain is at fault.

CONCRETE

The 28-Day Break Decides a Pour You Already Billed

You poured in March on an approved mix, the cylinders came back low in April, and two floors have already gone up on the slab in question.

DEMOLITION

Four Clocks Own Your Start Date And You Own None

The machine is on the pad, the crew is standing around, and everyone is waiting on a letter from the gas company. None of the clocks that release your start belong to you.

QUESTIONS

What roofing owners ask

Why did the manufacturer approval raise my fastener count above what I bid?

You priced fastening off field of roof density because that's what the takeoff shows. The approved layout loaded up the corners and perimeters, and no allowance came with it.

What does it cost?

What do I do first?

Split fastening into three quantities on every takeoff, field, perimeter, and corner, and price each zone separately so the delta is visible the day approval comes back.

What are roofing contractors supposed to be making?

Roofing runs 22% gross margin, 15% overhead and 7% net profit before taxes at $1M–$5M. The all-trade average is 7%, so this trade is right on it. The CFOS target is 10.5%.

Which part of the system fixes it?

The step is number 04, estimating system. The estimate maps one to one onto the job cost codes, so variance means something the day it appears. It comes from chapter 4 of CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System.

OR HAVE IT HANDLED

Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for roofing contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.

What a fractional CFO does for roofing contractors

AUTHOR

JOSH LUEBKER

MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.