Why you shouldn’t trust the lowest bidder for your roofing project
Many homeowners and businesses will compare bids for a roofing project and choose the lowest bid. Why is the lowest bidder not the best bet? Here are a few things to consider when reviewing quotes for your roofing project.
Why Shouldn’t The Lowest Bid Be The Best?
Low bids aren’t necessarily bad or good. A bad offer is significantly lower than the rest—an outlier.
When you receive a bid that is too low, you may wonder whether the roofer knows the proper scope of work, calculated their costs correctly, left something out (and will change the order to death), or will skip town before finishing the job.
“The lowest estimate may not be the best choice – costs will be higher for higher levels of installation quality, product durability, and warranty protection.” GAF
What is too low?
A bid that is significantly high or low is an outlier. Consider five quotes, for instance. The average would equal the sum of each quote divided by five.
- Bid 1: $6,500
- Bid 2: $11,000
- Bid 3: $18,500
- Bid 4: $16,750
- Bid 5: $22,000
In this example of five bids, the average is $12,950. There could be significant issues with the low bid at $6,500, including damaged materials, no worker’s comp or general liability insurance, and/or more problems than it’s worth.
Review the bids you received. Is the scope of work the same in all of them? In that case, you can compare them (apples to apples). If they’re not, then you have to decide who to trust.
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Going with the lowest bidder may be a considerable risk and cost more in the long run. EDCA Roofing is an experienced, safe, and effective roofing contractor.