What a Roofing Contract Should Include: A Michigan Checklist

Homeowners spend weeks comparing shingle brands and colors and about five minutes reading the contract that governs the entire project. That is backwards. The shingle is the same shingle regardless of who installs it. The contract is the document that decides what happens when a decking board turns out rotten, when a delivery slips two weeks, or when the final invoice does not match the estimate you were shown. A one-page handshake agreement with a total at the bottom is not a contract; it is an invoice waiting for a job to happen. This checklist walks the nine things a real roofing contract in Macomb County should include, in the order you should look for them, before a signature goes anywhere near the page.

01 / WHY THE PAPER MATTERSThe contract is the job, on paper, before it happens

Every roofing job has two versions: the one described in the sales conversation, and the one written into the contract. Only the second one is enforceable. A salesperson can promise the world standing in your driveway, but if the contract says "reroof per standard practice" with a single total price, that promise has nowhere to live if a disagreement comes up later. A properly written contract is not adversarial paperwork. It protects the contractor too, by fixing the scope so a homeowner cannot claim extra work was implied. The goal for both sides is the same: nothing important should be left to memory.

This matters more on a roof than on almost any other home project, because a full replacement in Macomb County typically runs $9,000 to $18,000, with most homes landing $12,000 to $16,000, and our own honest pricing sheet publishes those same ranges rather than hiding them behind a phone call. That is a meaningful sum of money changing hands over a job that takes place mostly out of the homeowner's sight line, on top of the house, while the homeowner is inside or at work. The contract is the tool that lets you verify, after the fact, that you got what you paid for. A crew that will not put its scope in writing is telling you something about how it plans to handle a dispute.

02 / THE SCOPEFull scope, with products named, not implied

The single most important section of any roofing contract is the scope of work, and the test for a good one is simple: could a stranger read it and know exactly what is being installed, without ever having heard the sales pitch? A vague scope is where cheap-looking quotes hide their savings. "Reroof house with architectural shingles" tells you almost nothing. A real scope names the manufacturer and product line for the shingles, the underlayment type, whether ice and water barrier is included and where, the ventilation components, and the flashing and accessory materials. If a specific brand or line was discussed and quoted, the contract should say so by name.

• Shingle manufacturer and specific product line, not just "architectural" or "designer"
• Underlayment type, and whether it is synthetic or felt
• Ice and water barrier coverage: eaves, valleys, and around penetrations
• Ventilation components: ridge vent, intake baffles, or additional venting
• Flashing scope: which walls, chimneys, valleys, and vents get new flashing versus reused
• Whether tear-off to the deck is included, and how many existing layers are assumed

Scope should also cover installation method, not just materials. A contract worth signing states the nailing pattern the crew will follow (shingles hand-nailed or nail-gunned to manufacturer spec, with the correct nail count and placement), whether drip edge is installed at both eaves and rakes, and how many courses of ice and water barrier go down at the eaves versus the code minimum. None of that needs to read like an engineering spec, but it should be specific enough that a second contractor, walking the finished roof, could check the work against the paper. A scope so vague that nothing on the finished roof could ever contradict it is not protecting anyone.

That last point deserves its own sentence, because it is a common gap. If your home has two layers of old shingles and the contract does not say tear-off includes both layers, you may find that assumption tested at the worst possible moment, mid-job. Our roof warranties guide covers a related trap: manufacturer warranties are often tied to installing a full system from one product line, so a scope that mixes components from different brands can quietly void enhanced coverage. The scope section is where you catch that before it becomes a warranty problem instead of a paperwork one.

03 / THE CALENDARStart date, completion language, and the weather clause

A contract should say when work is expected to start and roughly how long it will take, without pretending Michigan weather does not exist. The honest version of this section names a start window rather than a single guaranteed date, and it includes a weather or force majeure clause that lets the crew reschedule around rain, high wind, or extreme cold without that delay becoming a breach of contract on either side. What the contract should not contain is a hard promise with no acknowledgment that roofing is done outdoors. A contractor who guarantees an exact date with no weather language is either inexperienced or setting up an excuse to renegotiate later.

The completion language matters just as much as the start date. Look for a definition of what "complete" means: shingles installed, cleanup done, a final walkthrough offered, and any permit closed out with the municipality. A contract that only addresses the start of the job and stays silent on how it ends leaves you with no clear trigger for the final payment, which is exactly the ambiguity a payment dispute grows out of.

04 / THE SURPRISE LINEDecking pricing and the change-order process

Nobody can see the full condition of a roof deck until the old shingles come off. Soft, delaminated, or rotted sheets have to be replaced before new shingles go down, and that is the single most common source of a legitimate mid-job cost change on any reroof. A contract that handles this well states, up front, the unit structure for decking replacement: a stated price per sheet, agreed before the crew ever gets on the roof, so a real cost change is priced against a number you already saw rather than negotiated on the spot with the crew standing over a hole in your roof.

Just as important is the process around that number and any other change. A solid contract requires that any change to scope, including decking overages, be documented in writing, ideally with a photo, and approved by the homeowner before the work proceeds, not billed after the fact as a surprise on the final invoice. If your contract is silent on how changes get approved, ask the question directly before you sign: what happens, in writing, the moment a crew finds bad wood?

Why a blank allowance is worse than no allowance at all

Some contracts include a decking allowance, a lump sum set aside for anticipated bad wood, but leave the per-sheet math out entirely. That can look reassuring on the surface, since it feels like the issue was already handled. In practice a blank allowance with no stated unit price is harder to audit than no allowance at all, because there is nothing to check the final decking bill against. If the crew replaces four sheets or fourteen, the homeowner has no independent way to know whether the allowance was consumed fairly. The fix is the same either way: ask for the per-sheet price in writing, whether or not an allowance number also appears on the page.

05 / THE MONEYA payment schedule that protects both sides

Common practice on a roofing job is a modest deposit at signing, sometimes a second draw tied to material delivery, and the balance due on completion, after a walkthrough. That structure protects the homeowner by keeping the largest share of the money attached to finished work, and it protects the contractor by covering material cost before it is ordered. Financing changes this flow somewhat, since a lender may disburse funds on its own schedule, subject to approval, and a contract using financing should say how that interacts with the deposit and final payment. Our deposit and payment schedule guide goes deeper on what counts as a normal ask versus a red flag.

The clearest warning sign in this section is a demand for the full price upfront, in cash, before any work has started. That pattern shows up again and again in complaints about out-of-state storm-chasing crews, and it removes your only real leverage, which is unpaid work still owed. A written payment schedule tied to milestones, with each payment referenced against completed work, is the version that protects you if anything goes wrong partway through.

06 / THE FINISHCleanup, property protection, and warranty statements

The scope section should not stop at the roof itself. It should also state what happens to your property during and after the job: tarps or plywood to protect landscaping and siding from falling debris, a magnetic sweep of the lawn and driveway for stray nails, and disposal of the old roofing material and packaging, all included in the price rather than billed as an afterthought. This is a small section on the page and an enormous factor in how the job actually feels to live through.

The warranty section deserves particular attention, because a roofing job actually carries two separate warranties: the manufacturer's warranty on the materials, and the contractor's own workmanship warranty on the installation. The contract should state the length and scope of the workmanship warranty in the contractor's own words, separate from whatever the shingle manufacturer promises on the wrapper. If the contract only references the manufacturer's warranty and says nothing about the installer's own workmanship coverage, that is a real gap. Read the full breakdown of how the two warranties differ, and which one to call first when something goes wrong, in our roof warranties explained guide.

07 / THE PROOFLicense, insurance, and lien waiver basics

A Michigan roofing contract should reference the contractor's license number and carrier information for liability and workers compensation insurance, not just a verbal assurance that "we're licensed and insured." Michigan residential building work generally requires licensing through the state, and specific statutory notice and disclosure requirements apply to residential contracts; the exact requirements are a matter of Michigan statute and licensing rule rather than something to take on a company's word. See Michigan LARA's Verify a License lookup.

It is fair to ask a contractor to name their insurance carrier on the contract, and it is reasonable to follow up by requesting a certificate of insurance directly, which most legitimate companies keep on hand and provide without hesitation. A certificate lets you confirm liability and workers compensation coverage exist independent of anything printed on the contract itself, which matters because an injury on your property during the job is the kind of risk a homeowner does not want resting on an unverifiable claim. This step takes a few minutes and closes a gap that a signature line alone cannot close.

The last item belongs in the contract even though most homeowners have never heard of it: lien waiver language. A construction lien lets an unpaid supplier or subcontractor place a claim against your property, even if you paid the general contractor in full, if that contractor never paid the people below them. A contract that references collecting lien waivers alongside each payment, so that paying the contractor also closes the door on a lien from anyone working underneath, is protecting you from a problem that shows up on a title search, not on a roof inspection.

A contract you cannot read in ten minutes and understand is not protecting you. Ask for the scope, the decking price per sheet, the payment schedule, and the warranty terms in writing, every time.

None of this is about assuming bad faith. Most roofing companies, including the ones with the best reputations, are glad to put every one of these items in writing, because a clear contract protects them from disputes as much as it protects you. If you want the full vetting sequence, from shortlisting a contractor through reading a bid for scope rather than just the bottom line, our how to compare roofing quotes guide is the companion piece to this checklist, and our roof replacement service page lays out our own process end to end, including how we handle every item on this list on our own contracts. If you are ready to see what a scoped contract looks like on your own home, the free estimate request is the first step, and the cost calculator gives you a ballpark to compare against whatever number you already have in hand.