Get a Second Opinion on Your Roofing Quote | Free, Line by Line, From a Metal-Only Contractor

A Sample Quote, Read Line by Line

This is the walkthrough we run on every quote that comes in. Ten lines, in the order they usually appear on the paper. For each one: what a complete quote says, and the version that should make you slow down.

1. Tear-off and disposal

Should say: how many layers come off, who hauls the debris, and that dump fees are included. Slow down when: the line just says remove roof, with no layer count and no disposal terms.

2. Decking terms

Should say: a per-sheet price for replacing bad decking, inspected at tear-off. Slow down when: there is no decking line anywhere on the page. That silence is the most expensive sentence never written.

3. Underlayment

Should say: a named, high temperature synthetic underlayment. Slow down when: it says felt paper, or nothing at all, under a metal roof in a Tennessee summer.

4. The metal itself

Should say: panel profile, steel gauge (26 gauge standard, 24 gauge upgrade for standing seam), and the paint system by name, PVDF (Kynar) or SMP. Slow down when: it says metal panels with no gauge and no finish. Those two words hide a decade of service life difference.

5. Fastening system

Should say: concealed clip standing seam or exposed fastener, stated plainly, because they carry different maintenance lives. Slow down when: the phrase metal roof is doing all of the work.

6. Flashing and trim

Should say: valleys, chimney, sidewalls, drip edge, ridge, and pipe boots, custom fabricated or brake formed. Slow down when: flashing is priced as needed. Roofs leak at transitions, and as needed means argued about later.

7. Ventilation

Should say: how ridge and intake airflow is preserved or improved. Slow down when: ventilation is not mentioned at all on a full replacement.

8. Permit

Should say: who pulls the permit and who pays the fee. In Metro Nashville, work beyond 33 percent of the roof area moves past normal maintenance. Slow down when: a full replacement quote never mentions the word.

9. The warranty, split in two

Should say: material warranty years from the manufacturer and workmanship warranty years from the installer, separately, plus whether workmanship transfers when you sell. Slow down when: it says lifetime warranty with no split. That version covers the metal, not the mistakes.

10. The money

Should say: the total, the per-square math behind it, deposit size, a draw schedule tied to milestones, and a written change-order process. Slow down when: there is one round number and a large deposit due at signing.

Score your quote against these ten. Seven or more complete lines is a serious document worth negotiating from. Four or fewer is not a quote, it is an estimate wearing a quote's clothes, and you should ask for the real one.

Red Flags We See Every Week

A red flag is not proof a contractor is dishonest. It is a place where the paperwork stops protecting you. Any single one deserves a question; two or more deserve a second opinion before anything gets signed. These are the eight we see most often across Middle Tennessee quotes, grouped into the four patterns they follow.

The Eight That Matter Most

Pricing Games

A today-only discount, and a price per square far below the market. Real prices survive a night of sleep, and money missing from a lowball comes back later as change orders or missing flashing. Check any number against the published benchmarks further down this page before treating it as a deal.

Missing Specifications

No gauge, no finish, no product names, no underlayment type. You cannot compare what is not written down, and vague paper always resolves in the contractor's favor. If the metal is not named, the quote is a placeholder, not a commitment.

Paperwork Gaps

No Tennessee contractor license number, no proof of insurance, no written workmanship warranty, no decking clause, and a large deposit due before materials are ordered. Verify any license, including ours, number 75515, with the state licensing board. Legitimate contractors put credentials on the paper because they want you to check.

Pressure Tactics

Door-to-door storm quotes from out-of-state crews, urgency to sign before an insurance adjuster has seen the roof, and discounts that expire when the salesperson leaves the driveway. Some storm-response companies are legitimate. The paperwork, not the pitch, tells you which.

When the Quote Comes From a Storm

Storm claims change the paperwork. You are now reading two documents, the insurer's scope and the contractor's quote, and they rarely match line for line. Most replacement cost policies pay in two steps: actual cash value up front, then the recoverable depreciation after the work is completed and documented. The insurer's scope lists what they agreed to pay for. The contractor's quote lists what the roof needs. When the two disagree, the gap gets handled through a documented supplement with photos and measurements, not a handshake.

Get the roof documented independently first. A written inspection with photos gives you and the adjuster the same set of facts before anyone negotiates. Read for cosmetic exclusions if you own a metal roof. Some Tennessee policies exclude dent-only damage, and the cosmetic versus functional call is exactly what an inspection settles. Treat doorstep contingency agreements as what they are: contracts. Some are legitimate scheduling tools after a storm; all of them deserve a careful read before a signature. Match scope to quote line by line before work starts, and keep every photo, report, and invoice in the claim file.

The full claims walkthrough lives on our insurance page. Storm-damaged quotes get the same free read as everything else: send the scope and the quote together, and we will read them side by side.

The Roof Math Behind Every Quote

Roofing prices live in squares: one square is 100 square feet of roof surface. Your roof is bigger than your house because it is tilted, so you cannot take a footprint from the tax record and divide. Geometry does the correction. Multiply the building footprint, including overhangs, by the factor for your roof pitch, and you have a working estimate of true roof area. Pitch is written as rise over run: a 6/12 roof rises six inches for every horizontal foot.

Two Worked Examples

A 1,800 square foot footprint under a common 6/12 roof: 1,800 times 1.118 is about 2,012 square feet, call it 20 squares. A 2,400 square foot footprint under a steeper 8/12 roof: 2,400 times 1.202 is about 2,885 square feet, call it 29 squares. At standing seam pricing of $1,100 to $1,900 per square, that second roof should quote somewhere between $31,900 and $55,100 installed. When a quote lands far outside the bracket the math builds, the quote owes you an explanation on paper.

Why Two Quotes Count Different Squares

Two honest contractors can still list different square counts. Material squares include a waste factor, usually 10 to 15 percent for cuts, ridges, hips, and valleys, while measured squares describe the roof surface itself, and complex rooflines carry more waste. When you compare quotes, divide each total by that quote's own square count so the waste assumptions cancel out. Then ask any bidder whose count differs from the others by more than a square or two to show the measurement. Aerial measurement reports make that a two minute conversation.

Three Quotes, Side by Side

Here is the comparison we walk homeowners through most often, a composite built from quotes we review every week: one roof, about 20 squares, three bids that look impossible to compare. Watch what happens when each total is divided by the same 20 squares and read against the benchmarks above.

Quote A: $17,800, one page

The line reads metal roof, installed. No gauge, no panel name, no underlayment, no decking clause, and half the money due at signing. The math says $890 per square, inside the $800 to $950 exposed fastener range, so the price itself is plausible. The paper is the problem. If the specs get written down and the deposit gets tied to a materials order, this can become a real bid. As it stands, you would be signing a placeholder.

Quote B: $23,400, exposed fastener

This one names the panel: 29 gauge exposed fastener steel with synthetic underlayment, new drip edge, and a ten year workmanship warranty. Specified, but the math says $1,170 per square, well above the $800 to $950 exposed fastener range and already past the $1,100 floor where standing seam pricing begins. Nothing in the spec explains the premium. This is the quote that owes you an answer, because at this money you could be shopping concealed fastener systems.

Quote C: $30,800, standing seam

The longest quote and the highest number: 26 gauge standing seam with a PVDF finish, high temperature ice and water shield, custom fabricated flashings, permit included, lifetime workmanship warranty in writing. The math says $1,540 per square, inside the $1,100 to $1,900 standing seam range. Quote C is not $13,000 more expensive than Quote A. It is a different product with a different service life, priced fairly for what it is.

The lesson generalizes: sticker prices compare nothing. Only specified quotes can be compared, and the spread between honest, specified bids for the same build is usually far smaller than the spread on the stickers. This is exactly the reading we do when you send yours in.

The Fine Print: What You Sign Is What You Get

Everything before this section was about the roof. This section is about the agreement, because the quote you sign is usually the contract itself, and the boring paragraphs are the ones that decide what happens when something goes sideways.

License and Insurance, Verified

A Tennessee contractor working at replacement scale should carry a state license you can verify with the licensing board in about a minute; ours is number 75515, and we want you to look it up. Then ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly from the contractor's insurance agent, showing both general liability and workers compensation. Roofing is exactly the trade where an uninsured injury on your property becomes your problem.

Deposits and Draw Schedules

A reasonable deposit reserves your slot and starts the material order, and the paper should say so: the deposit amount, what it purchases, and a payment schedule tied to milestones you can see, such as material delivery, dry-in, and final walkthrough. Final payment waits for the walkthrough. Be careful with any schedule that puts most of the money in hand before most of the work is on the roof.

Change Orders and Or Equivalent Clauses

Decking surprises are normal; surprise pricing is not. The quote should carry a per sheet price for decking replacement before anyone climbs a ladder, and every change order should be written and priced before the work it describes happens. Watch for or equivalent language on materials. It gives the installer room to substitute, so either strike it or define what counts as equivalent in gauge, finish, and warranty.

Lien Waivers and Close-Out

In exchange for final payment, ask for a lien waiver covering the contractor and any suppliers, plus the close-out packet: permit sign-off where one was required, warranty documents in writing, and the photo record of what is under your panels. Metro Nashville treats roof repairs up to 33 percent of roof area as normal maintenance, but a full replacement is permitted work, and the sign-off belongs in your file.

The Warranty Decoder: Two Promises, Read Separately

Every roofing quote carries two different promises that homeowners are encouraged to read as one. The manufacturer warrants the material. The installer warrants the work. They fail differently, they transfer differently, and only one of them covers the way roofs actually leak.

The Material Warranty

Metal finish warranties are long because PVDF paint systems earn it, commonly decades against fade and chalk, with separate coverage against substrate perforation. Read for three things: whether the warranty is prorated, meaning the payout shrinks every year; whether it requires registration or an approved installer to be valid at all; and whether the paint warranty and the metal warranty are the same document, because they are not. A quote that says lifetime warranty without naming whose lifetime, of what, has told you nothing yet.

The Workmanship Warranty

Field data from more than 10,000 Middle Tennessee repairs says roofs rarely fail in the middle of a panel. They fail at pipe boots, flashings, and fasteners, which is to say they fail at workmanship. That is why the installer's warranty is the one that matters most, and the one to get in years, in writing. Ours is lifetime, on every installation. Ask two questions of any bidder: how many years, and does it transfer when I sell the house.

What Voids Them

The fastest ways to void a roof warranty have nothing to do with the roofer: a satellite dish screwed through a panel, a solar array fastened to the deck instead of clamped to the seams, another trade walking the wrong line on a low slope roof. On standing seam, solar must clamp to the raised seam and never penetrate the panel. Route every future penetration through the installing contractor and both warranties survive.

Coating Warranties

Restoration coatings carry their own manufacturer warranties, commonly 10 to 20 or more years for silicone systems applied at proper thickness; our minimum spec is 25 mils of dry film. The practical magic is renewability: at the end of the term the roof can be cleaned and recoated instead of torn off. A coating quote without a named chemistry, a thickness spec, and a warranty term is not yet a quote.

Repair, Coat, or Replace: The Question Under Every Quote

Before you compare replacement quotes, make sure the roof actually needs one. Across our books we perform about ten metal roof repairs for every full replacement, and the arithmetic is lopsided: repairs run $150 to $1,000 with a typical invoice near $500, while 2026 replacement projects ran $15,000 to $69,600. A quote that says replace should be able to name the failure that makes a $500 fix impossible.

When a Repair Wins

Most metal roof problems are detail problems: failed pipe boots, flashing that has pulled loose, fasteners backing out, isolated storm damage. None of those are the panels. If the leak traces to a detail and the panels and decking are sound, a repair is not a compromise, it is the correct engineering answer, and it buys the roof years.

When a Coating Wins

On commercial roofs, restoration is the option most owners are never quoted. Where the same roof was bid both ways, a coating restoration typically ran 40 to 51 percent of the replacement price. The condition is honesty about the substrate: tight seams, dry decking, sound metal or membrane. We put a minimum of 25 mils of coating on roofs that qualify, and we tell you plainly when a roof does not.

When Replacement Is the Honest Answer

Replacement is honest when the failure is systemic: saturated insulation or decking, widespread corrosion, a roof at the end of its service life. Age is evidence, not proof. Asphalt shingles in Middle Tennessee run 20 to 25 years, exposed fastener metal 25 to 45, metal shingles 40 to 60, standing seam 50 to 70. A quote to replace a 15 year old standing seam roof deserves hard questions. A quote to replace 22 year old asphalt usually does not.

From Signature to Finished Roof

A quote is also a schedule, and knowing the real sequence tells you which dates in a bid are honest. From first visit to finished roof, a typical project runs up to about three weeks, and most of it is invisible from the driveway.

1. Assessment, day one

Measure, photograph, check decking and ventilation from the attic side where access allows, and talk through system options at the roof, not the kitchen table. This visit is free and produces the numbers everything else is built on.

2. Design and the written estimate

Profile, gauge, and color locked in with physical PVDF samples in your hand, then the line item estimate this page just taught you to read.

3. Permits and approvals

Davidson and Williamson County permits and HOA submittal packets where they apply. Metro Nashville treats repairs up to 33 percent of roof area as normal maintenance; a full replacement is permitted work, and the permit line belongs in the quote.

4. Fabrication

Panels cut to your exact run lengths and flashings bent to spec at the Nashville yard. This is the quiet week that makes the installation fast, and it is why a metal quote can promise less time on your roof than an asphalt one.

5. Installation

Tear-off in sections, full deck inspection, high temperature underlayment, then panels and custom flashings. Opened sections are dried in the same day, weather permitting, and every evening ends with a magnet sweep of the yard for fasteners.

6. Walkthrough and warranty

A foreman walkthrough with you, photo documentation of what now lives under the panels, permit close-out, and the lifetime workmanship warranty delivered in writing. That packet is the close-out file Section IX told you to collect.

The Language of a Roofing Quote

Quotes are written in trade shorthand. Here is the shorthand, translated. Skim it once and the rest of your quote starts reading in plain English.

Measurement

Square: 100 square feet of roof surface, the unit all roof pricing uses. Pitch: slope written as rise over run, so a 6/12 roof rises six inches per horizontal foot. Pitch factor: the multiplier that converts a footprint to true roof area, tabled in Section VII. Waste factor: the extra material, usually 10 to 15 percent, consumed by cuts, ridges, hips, and valleys. Run length: the eave to ridge distance a standing seam panel must span in one piece.

Materials and Systems

Gauge: steel thickness, and smaller is thicker: 24 gauge outranks 26, which outranks 29. PVDF, sold as Kynar: the premium architectural paint system, the finish that keeps its color for decades. SMP: the economical paint system, sound on barns and shops, with a shorter fade life in full sun. Standing seam: panels joined at raised seams over concealed clips, with no fastener heads exposed to weather. Exposed fastener panel: ribbed panels screwed through the face, the economical system, also sold as classic panel or corrugated. Metal shingles: stamped steel or aluminum profiles that read as slate, shake, or tile from the street. Underlayment: the water barrier between deck and metal; on a metal roof, specify high temperature rated. Ice and water shield: the self adhering membrane at eaves, valleys, and penetrations, the last line of defense under the metal.

Details and Workmanship

Decking, or sheathing: the wood surface everything else depends on; the quote needs a per sheet price for replacing the bad ones. Flashing: the formed metal wherever the roof meets anything else: chimneys, sidewalls, valleys. Custom fabricated beats stock bends. Pipe boot: the seal around plumbing vents, and the single most common repair we perform. Drip edge: the perimeter metal that throws water clear of the fascia. Ridge vent: exhaust ventilation at the peak; intake at the eaves has to match it or the attic cooks. Oil canning: cosmetic waviness in the flat of a panel, managed with striations and proper gauge, not a leak risk. Fastener backout: screws working loose over years of thermal movement, the routine maintenance item on exposed fastener roofs.

Money and Paperwork

Scope of work: the list of everything the price includes; the shorter it is, the more you will buy later. Exclusion: anything the quote names as not included. Read these twice. Allowance: a placeholder dollar amount for an unpriced item, which means the real number arrives later. Change order: a written, priced amendment for work discovered mid job. Supplement: on insurance claims, the documented request that adds missed items to the carrier's scope. ACV and RCV: actual cash value pays depreciated value up front; replacement cost value policies release the held depreciation after the work is completed and documented. Lien waiver: the document confirming the contractor and suppliers are paid, collected at final payment. Workmanship warranty: the installer's own promise, in years, in writing, covering the labor and details where roofs actually leak.

Metal vs Asphalt: The 50 Year Ledger

Asphalt quotes win the mailbox because the sticker is smaller, and if your ownership window is short, that can be the rational choice. The study grade comparison uses a longer window. A published 50 year comparison for a 2,000 square foot home estimates roughly $10,000 at installation for architectural shingles, $16,000 for metal shingles, and $22,000 for standing seam. Those numbers only make sense next to service life, because Tennessee heat cycles retire asphalt on a schedule metal does not keep.

We are a metal-only contractor and we say so on every page, so weigh the source. But the arithmetic is not ours: by year 50 an asphalt home has bought two or three roofs, each with its own tear-off, disposal, and decade of price inflation, while one standing seam install spans the whole window. The cheapest roof per year of service is rarely the cheapest roof at install. When a metal quote and an asphalt quote are competing for the same house, divide each by the years it will actually serve and read them again.

How the Free Review Actually Works

Everything above is the curriculum. This is the service. Send the quote and it goes through the same five passes, in the same order, every time. Call or text (615) 649-5002, open every day 8am to 8pm, or use the Send Your Quote button at the bottom of this page.

1. Send the paperwork

A photo or PDF of the quote and your city; roof size if you know it. On a storm claim, send the insurer's scope with it so both documents get read together.

2. The completeness pass

The quote is checked against the ten parts of Section II. Every part that is missing or vague becomes a written question you can hand the bidder.

3. The price pass

Total divided by squares, read against the Section VI benchmarks built from more than 10,000 Middle Tennessee jobs. Inside the range, outside it, or unexplainable: you get the number either way.

4. The terms pass

Warranties in years, deposit and draw schedule, decking price, change order language, license and insurance. The quiet paragraphs from Sections IX and X, read so you do not have to learn them the expensive way.

5. The verdict, in writing

What is fair, what is missing, and the exact questions to ask, usually the same business day. We never contact the other contractor, we do not ask who they are, and the review costs nothing whether or not we ever meet your roof.

Asked Every Week, Answered Straight

Is my roofing quote too high?

Divide the total by your roof size in squares and compare against the published ranges on this page: $800 to $950 for exposed fastener, $850 to $1,500 for metal shingles, $1,100 to $1,900 for standing seam. Inside the range, the question is what the quote includes. Far outside it, in either direction, the quote should explain itself on paper. Send it over and we will run that math with you.

How long is a roofing quote good for?

Most quotes state a validity window, commonly 15 to 30 days, because material prices move. A quote with no expiration date is not a red flag by itself, but confirm the price is still current before signing anything older than a month. A contractor who honors a written price without drama is telling you something good.

Should I get three quotes?

Two or three comparable quotes beat five vague ones. The goal is not volume, it is comparison: same roof, same specs, prices you can put side by side. Once quotes are specified to the same build, the honest spread in this market is usually much smaller than the sticker spread suggests.

Will you just try to sell me a metal roof?

No. If the quote you are holding is for asphalt and asphalt fits your budget and your plans for the house, we will say so. We install metal exclusively, which means an asphalt recommendation costs us nothing and earns your trust. The review is the product; whether you ever hire us is up to you.

Reviewed by People Who Build Roofs

Every second opinion is read by The Metal Roofers field team in Nashville: a family-owned, metal-only contractor since 2003 with more than 10,000 metal roof jobs and 1,000+ full replacements across Middle Tennessee, rated 4.9 stars across 150+ Google reviews. We hold Tennessee Contractor License #75515, verifiable with the state licensing board, and an A+ rating you can check on our BBB profile along with our Metal Roofing Alliance contractor listing. The benchmarks on this page are the same published numbers we quote from, and they update as our job data does.