Check your roofing quote
A legitimate roofing bid states the roof size in squares, the tear-off, a per-sheet decking contingency, the permit, the shingle brand, both warranties, the license number, and a payment schedule — and this page checks yours against that list, one box at a time.
Ask before you sign
Nothing here matches a fraud pattern, but the bid leaves questions open. Get the answers in writing before signing — a legitimate company will have no problem with any of them.
Price check
Enter the bid total and the roof size from the bid to check the price against the published national range.
Range: HomeGuide’s published national installed prices, the same figures our roofing calculator runs on. Not our measurement, and not a quote.
Ask these 9 questions before signing
- “How many squares is my roof, what pitch did you measure, and what waste factor did you use?”If a roofer answers all three in ten seconds, they measured your roof; if not, they guessed. And as our cost video puts it: an estimate that never says how many squares is not an estimate, it is a price.From our video “What Is a Roofing Square?”
- “Does this price include tearing off the old roof, and how many layers are coming off?”Tear-off is its own line at $100 to $300 per square, per layer, in HomeGuide's published table — and two layers doubles it. A bid that skips the word is quoting a job you cannot compare.From our video “How Much Does It Cost to Put a Roof on a 2000 Square Foot House?”
- “What do you charge per sheet if the decking under the old roof needs replacing?”Rotten sheathing is one of the common reasons a roofing bill grows after signing. An honest bid prices it per sheet up front instead of discovering a number mid-job.From our video “How Much Does It Cost to Put a Roof on a 2000 Square Foot House?”
- “Is the permit included in this price, and is your company pulling it?”The permit is what puts a city inspector on your roof at the end. A contractor who avoids the permit is avoiding the inspection, and the final payment should wait for it.From our video “How Much Does It Cost to Put a Roof on a 2000 Square Foot House?”
- “Which brand and which product line, and how many bundles is that?”Bundles are checkable arithmetic: GAF's own spec ships 3 bundles to the square. A bundle count that does not divide by three deserves a walkthrough, and a named product line is what your warranty gets registered against.From our video “What Is a Roofing Square?”
- “What is your workmanship warranty, what is the manufacturer's, and is your company in the manufacturer's own contractor locator?”The long enhanced warranty only exists if the installer holds the manufacturer's certification — and manufacturers publish their contractor locators publicly. Look the company up by name and zip on the manufacturer's own site; if it is not there, the enhanced warranty being sold does not exist.From our video “How to Tell if a Roofer Is Lying”
- “Is this license number yours, in this company's name, and active today?”The state database check takes five minutes and cannot be faked: match the number on the contract to the database, the name on the license to the name on the truck, and confirm it is active. Insurance and bonding usually hang on that license too.From our video “How to Tell if a Roofer Is Lying”
- “Can your agent send the certificate of insurance directly to me?”Certificates are easy to forge and easy to verify. One sent by the insurer or agent, not handed over by the salesperson, is the version that means something — and if a worker is hurt on an uninsured job, the exposure can land on the homeowner.From our video “How to Tell if a Roofer Is Lying”
- “What is the payment schedule — and does the final payment wait until the job passes inspection?”Keeping meaningful money on the table until the work is genuinely done is the best leverage a homeowner has. A schedule written as dollar amounts against milestones is what makes that enforceable.From our video “How to Tell if a Roofer Is Lying”
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Sources last read on August 20, 2026. The verdict is about the bid in your hand, never about a person or a company.
What this checker actually checks
Three things, and it shows its work on all of them. First, completeness: whether the bid carries the elements a legitimate bid typically includes — the squares, the tear-off, the decking contingency, the permit, the materials by brand, the warranty split, the license number, proof of insurance, and a payment schedule. Anything missing becomes a question to ask, with the reason it matters.
Second, price: the bid total divided by the squares, held against the published national installed ranges — the same HomeGuide figures our roofing calculator runs on. We have not measured roofing prices, and this page never pretends to: the range is somebody else’s published measurement, named and linked.
Third, the deal terms: the handful of patterns that consumer-protection agencies have documented for years around storm repairs — full payment demanded up front, no written contract, no verifiable local address, door-to-door pressure right after a storm, and the offer to “take care of” your insurance deductible. Every one of those flags cites its source in the result, because a claim like that should never be ours alone.
Why the license number is the one box you verify yourself
A license number printed on a bid proves nothing until you look it up. In states that license roofing work, the lookup is free, public and takes about five minutes: match the number on the contract to the database, match the name on the license to the name on the truck, and confirm it is active today. The checker links you straight to your state’s official database where we could verify one exists.
The honest wrinkle: not every state has one. Texas has no state roofing license at all — anyone can legally call themselves a roofer there — and several other states leave it to cities and counties. For those states this page says so and points you to your local building department instead of faking a link. A tool that invents a lookup is worse than no tool.
Where the red-flag patterns come from
Not from us. The National Insurance Crime Bureau has documented the post-storm contractor fraud pattern for years: out-of-town crews, door-to-door solicitation, pressure to sign, large upfront payments. The Federal Trade Commission lists the same warning signs for home improvement work generally, and the Florida Attorney General repeats them after every major storm, including “never pay the full amount upfront.” And in Florida, a contractor offering to waive or rebate your insurance deductible is not just a warning sign — it is prohibited by Florida Statutes s. 489.147. The checker repeats what those sources document, names them next to every flag, and adds nothing of its own.
What a green result does and does not mean
Green means the bid in your hand carries the elements a legitimate bid typically includes, and the price sits inside a published national range. It does not mean the work will be good, the crew will show up on time, or the price could not be better. It means the document is complete enough to compare, and comparison is the whole game: get three bids that all pass this page, and you are choosing between real offers instead of guessing between pieces of paper.
The longer reads behind this checklist: what to check before signing a roofing contract, how much of a deposit is normal, and how much a roof replacement costs.
Questions people ask next
- What should a roofing bid include?
- A legitimate roofing bid typically states the roof size in squares, whether the old roof is being torn off, a per-sheet contingency price for decking, the permit, the shingle brand and line, both warranties in writing (workmanship and manufacturer), the contractor's license number, and a payment schedule tied to milestones. This checker walks through each one.
- How do I know if a roofing quote is fair?
- Divide the total by the number of squares on the bid. HomeGuide publishes $400 to $600 per square installed for architectural asphalt, plus $100 to $300 per square, per layer, for tear-off. A number far below that range usually means missing scope; far above it should be explained by pitch, layers or access — on the bid, in writing.
- Is it normal for a roofer to ask for full payment upfront?
- No. A modest deposit toward materials is ordinary. Full payment before work starts is a documented fraud pattern — the National Insurance Crime Bureau's contractor-fraud guidance says not to pay for the job in full up front. Keep meaningful money on the table until the work passes inspection.
- How do I verify a roofing contractor's license?
- Look the license number up yourself in your state's own database — free and public in states that license roofers. Pick your state in the checker and it links you straight to the official lookup. Some states, like Texas, have no state roofing license at all, and the checker says so instead of pretending otherwise.
- What are the red flags of a roofing scam?
- The documented post-storm patterns: door-to-door solicitation right after a storm, pressure to sign today, full payment demanded up front, no written contract, no verifiable local address, and an offer to cover or waive your insurance deductible — which in Florida is specifically illegal under Fla. Stat. 489.147. Each flag in this checker cites the source that documents it.
- Does this tool tell me if my roofer is a scammer?
- No, and it never will. It checks the bid — the document and the deal terms — against what published consumer-protection guidance says a legitimate bid typically contains. A yellow or red result means ask more questions and verify, not that anybody is dishonest.
Built for homeowners by Most Recommended Roofers, which measures which roofers AI assistants actually recommend across U.S. metros. The checklist logic here is ours; the prices, the fraud patterns and the license databases belong to the sources named above, in the copy, where you can check them. How we measure.