In this video, Adam Sand, CEO of a roofing business, explains why the common practice of quoting roof jobs solely by "per square" (a 100‑square‑foot unit) is fundamentally flawed. He shows that two roofs with the same square footage can differ dramatically in difficulty due to pitch, valleys, flashing, and other features, which increase labor and material costs. When contractors ignore this complexity, they under‑price hard‑to‑install roofs, leading to lower profit margins, uneven subcontractor compensation, and reduced close rates on easier jobs. Sand argues that the market naturally separates "easy money" (simple, low‑slope roofs) from "hard money" (complex roofs with many valleys and flashings), and that pricing only by square forces subcontractors to work hard jobs for the same rate as easy jobs, causing frustration and morale problems. He recommends building a detailed rate sheet that adds line‑items for complexity—such as a price per linear foot of valley, extra charges for steep pitch, or additional flashing—so both homeowners and subcontractors are compensated fairly. By pricing complexity directly, roofing companies can protect profit, improve subcontractor satisfaction, and align pricing with the true effort required for each job.
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If you're charging per square without complexity pricing, you're losing money on every complex job. I'm Adam San, CEO of the roofing business Partner. Today I'll show you how to price simple roofs versus complex roofs for maximum.
Profit, understanding the complexities of labor and how that impacts your subs. When you look at these houses here, what I found in the roofing market is that when we price per square. Well, let's say this is a 412 roof and the pitches on this house are also 412. I know that's not a 412, but if this is a 412, 30 squares and this is a 4 12, 30 squares, is it the same job? But if you ask any roofer, they're going to say no. This 30 squares and this 30 squares are not the same 30 squares, they are different. The roofers will say that. And if you're paying hourly, you will see it in your bottom line. That's what I got yelled at by my partner. He's like, well, no materials and labor times two. Labor is more for this one because this is more. You've got valley here, you got a valley here and you're gonna have more capping to do. You're gonna have a kind of wall flashing up here. It's like all of a sudden this 30 squares is a lot harder to do than this 30 squares. So no, these two 30 square, 412 roofs, they're not the same roof. If someone was to come and say yes, they are the same roof. You're thinking about it because you're like, well, my sub tells me that they price at whatever 225A square. That's what they charge me, 225A square for 412. So you're like, to me they are the same roof because they're both 30 square 412. Here's what happens in the market. The homeowner with this house selling single story, two sided bungalow, 412 roof, they know they have the easier roof than this guy. So when they inquire, their lead looks differently. So you get a first name, last name, email, phone number and a little description box. They say how much for a 30 square roof, low slope, easy job. That homeowner knows they have the easy job and they know that the price should be less. Now if you have a Salesperson go to 10 houses like this and 10 houses like this and their close rate is 30%, the good odds are that they're getting a higher close rate on houses like this. One than this one. Because of the five roofers that this homeowner phoned, some people looked at and said, ah, it's a complicated roof. Give them the fu price. You know, they gave them the high price. You know, it takes two jobs to do this roof, and it just takes longer. This job, they're done by 2 o'. Clock. So this is easy money, this is hard money, this is fast money, this is slow money. This is usually more profit, this is usually less profit. So if you never price in complexity, what happens is you only land these jobs and then your subs say, ah, man, we're always working for 225A square and we're always getting these hard crazy jobs. This sucks. And so you're frustrated. And so you have to have something in your terms and your rate sheets that says, hey, we pay a little less for this type of job. We pay a little more for this type of job. So this is still fast, easy money, but maybe not as much money. And this is slower hard money money, but it's better money for them. But if you're just pricing per square, this is what happens is that there's a supply and demand curve. And that will come back to bite you because then your subs might say, man, all of the money we make for XYZ roofing is hard, slow money. Because they must not be charging enough for this. This is why having things in your rate sheet like saying, okay, we pay this much per linear foot of valley or something like that, you price in complexity and you charge your homeowner for that complexity.
