One Price List, Signed Once — Not a Fight in Every Driveway

The problem in one breath

Every roof starts with the same argument. The crew lead looks at the pitch, the second layer, the drive out, and the number moves before the ladder's off the truck. You give a little to keep him moving, he gives a little to keep the work, and by the end of the season neither of you can say what a square actually pays at your shop.

Why it happens

A price per square is only half a price. The other half is what the square includes, and if that half lives in your head, the crew lead has to re-open it on every roof that isn't plain. He isn't being difficult; he's pricing the roof in front of him because nobody priced it ahead of time. The fix is a list: the standard square, and then every way a roof stops being standard, each with its own number, written once and signed once. After that the per-job number is arithmetic, not a negotiation, and the only thing that ever changes it is something neither of you could see from the ground.

The play

1. Start from his number, not yours. Put a price form on your website and in the truck: a crew that wants your work fills in what it charges per square and per extra. That form is the opening bid — you're allowed to talk it up, down, or say no thanks — but it means you never open a deal by guessing what a crew is worth to itself.
2. Write the crew price list once, together. Sit down with the crew's owner and settle every line out loud: the standard square, the extra layer, decking per sheet, steep pitch, second story, long drive, the flashing details that take real time, and the one line that catches everything else. Every number on it is yours — the card below is the list of lines, not the prices.
3. Say what the shop covers, on the same page. Dump fees and the supplier's delivery are ours; that stays off his price and off the argument. Whatever else is yours — the lift, the tarps, the port-a-john — write it down, because every line you don't name is a line he'll price in.
4. Price each roof off the list and sign it before the first bundle goes up. Squares times the square rate, plus the extras that roof actually has. That number goes on the job paper (Module 12, Play 2) and both owners sign it. From then on it is the price.
5. Let it move for three things only. Something nobody could see from the ground, which is a change order and gets its own written price before the work happens (Module 6, Play 17). A roof that turned out plainly harder than the list said. A drive that was farther than anybody figured. Those three you pay for, sometimes after the fact, because a crew that ate a bad roof for you will eat the next one somewhere else. Anything else is the price.
6. Take care of the good crews with the list, not around it. Steady winter work, the check on time, the extra when a roof was worse than it looked — all of that rides on top of the list. Loyalty is a habit the crew can see, not a number you fudge on a Friday.

Do this this week

Write your standard square rate and five extras on one page, and put a price form on your site that asks a crew for its own numbers on the same lines. Next crew that calls, you have a deal to start from.

The tool

The crew price list, printed and signed once per crew:

THE CREW PRICE LIST — signed once, priced per job off this page

Crew (company): __________________  Owner: ______________  Date: ______

THE STANDARD SQUARE                                     $______ / square
  Means: one layer off, deck swept, new roof on to the spec on the job
  paper, roof and yard clean, photos at each checkpoint.

WHAT MAKES A ROOF NOT STANDARD
  [ ] Each extra layer off                              $______ / square
  [ ] Decking replaced                                  $______ / sheet
  [ ] Steep — pitch of ____ /12 and over                $______ / square
  [ ] Second story / high eave                          $______ / square
  [ ] Long drive — over ____ miles from the shop        $______ / job
  [ ] Detail work: chimney, skylight, wall flashing      $______ each
  [ ] Low-slope section, boots and seams welded         $______ / square
  [ ] Anything not on this list: priced in writing before it's done.

THE SHOP COVERS: dump fees, supplier delivery, ______________________
THE CREW COVERS: hand tools, ladders, compressor, ___________________

PRICE ON A JOB = squares x standard rate + the extras that roof has,
written on the job paper and signed by both owners before the first
bundle goes up. It moves for three things only: a change order for
what nobody could see, a roof plainly harder than this list, a drive
plainly farther. Signed: ____________ (shop)  ____________ (crew)

Hand the Spanish twin, the Spanish card, to a crew owner who reads Spanish first.

If your crew is 1099

This is the sub case, and the list is what keeps it clean: one company telling another what it will pay for a result, line by line, with his own price form as the starting point. Keep it about the roof — the squares, the extras, the standard — and never about his hours or his men. If you use the same list to pay your own payroll crew by the square, you now have a piece-rate pay plan, and the rules on minimum wage, overtime and how a piece rate has to be worked out are set by federal and state law and vary by state, so before you switch a payroll crew to squares, run the plan past your own accountant.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.