Texas, where I’m based, spells out how far a roofer can go on an insurance claim: you may discuss your own estimate and every supplement to it with the carrier. The state’s Department of Insurance (TDI) tells homeowners that if the damage turns out worse than the adjuster originally thought, “you or your contractor can talk to the adjuster about raising the estimate.” Coverage is the homeowner’s to argue, and in Texas acting as their adjuster is a misdemeanor. Anywhere Xactimate prices your market, Verisk, which publishes the price lists, will recheck a price you think is wrong if you ask. When the homeowner and the carrier still disagree on the amount, the homeowner can take it to appraisal, and in Texas the award binds both sides.
“Worst estimate I’ve seen from an adjuster for ‘full’ replacement was 3 lines: remove shingles, install shingles, underlayment,” a contractor wrote on r/Roofing in September 2025. It took four months to get a supervisor to look at it, and two days later the carrier approved the contractor’s own estimate as written.
I run Zentora, a marketing company for roofers, and supplements are outside our work, so this guide rests on what roofers report and on public sources, mainly Texas law and Verisk’s papers on Xactimate. Texas is the only state whose rules I’ve read, so check your own state’s or province’s rules before you rely on the legal parts.
Roofers describe first estimates with whole line items missing
Of the 213 posts and comments on adjusters and supplements I went through from roofing subreddits, about half looked to be from sales reps and 73 from people running their own company. A roofer doing storm restoration across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas wrote on r/Contractor in September 2025 that adjusters were writing $8,000 to $10,000 for roofs that were, in the poster’s words, clearly $15,000 to $20,000 jobs.
An estimator raised a newer gap on r/Contractor in August 2026: carriers increasingly fold starter and hip and ridge into a set waste percentage, even when the measurement report shows the field shingles alone exceed the material allowance. Verisk’s papers don’t say whether its waste allowance is meant to cover starter and ridge, so treat that as one estimator’s report and show the adjuster your measured quantities.
A general contractor in Oklahoma asked on r/Roofing in 2023 why adjusters fight code-related items over and over when the homeowner’s policy has code upgrade provisions. Texas has no statewide residential code, so adoption varies by city there. Wherever you work, cite the code edition your city or county adopted when you supplement a code item. Whether the policy pays for the upgrade is a coverage question, and in Texas that one is the homeowner’s to raise.
Texas lets you discuss scope and price with the adjuster and leaves coverage to the homeowner
TDI’s 2014 FAQ on unlicensed adjusting says a roofer may discuss the damage and what a proper replacement should cost with the insurer, and “may discuss supplements and clarifications concerning the revised estimate with the consumer or the consumer’s insurance company.” Asked whether a roofer may advocate for the homeowner and discuss what the policy covers and excludes, it answers no. TDI’s July 2026 bulletin says the same about estimates.
Insurance Code 4102.163 bars a contractor from acting as a public adjuster, or advertising to adjust claims, on any property it is or may be working on, even with a public adjuster license or the homeowner’s power of attorney. Breaking chapter 4102 is a Class B misdemeanor. So is paying, waiving, absorbing or rebating a homeowner’s deductible without the insurer’s consent, under Business and Commerce Code 27.02. The same section requires any contract of $1,000 or more that you expect to be paid, even in part, from a property insurance claim to carry the state’s deductible notice in at least 12-point bold type. Roofing Contracts and 1099 Rules: What a New Owner Needs in Writing covers the rest of that paperwork.
Verisk will recheck a Xactimate price you think is wrong for your market
Verisk says it publishes Xactimate price lists for more than 460 markets, built from ZIP codes, every month and as often as every two weeks when demand surges. For each line item it groups the prices submitted to it and picks “the most common price recently submitted.” It also says there’s no way to be certain a published price fits a particular contractor or job, and Xactimate lets users create or change any cost.
When a price looks wrong for your market, you can file what Verisk calls an Independent Verification Request, which in the US means emailing [email protected] with the city and the line item. If the price you send falls outside the cluster of prices Verisk already has, it surveys local contractors at random and updates the list, and it reports back to whoever asked either way. It’s a separate step from discussing a claim with the adjuster, so it’s worth the email when the same line item comes in low job after job.
Xactimate’s unit prices leave out general contractor overhead and profit
Verisk asks the people it surveys to leave out general overhead and profit, so Xactimate’s unit prices exclude the general contractor’s O&P, which goes on as a percentage in the Estimate Parameters window. A subcontractor’s O&P already sits inside the labor in each unit price. Job-related overhead, like a project manager or temporary fencing, goes in as its own line items, so put those on your estimate when a job needs them.
Nothing I read in Texas law or Verisk’s papers says when a carrier has to pay general contractor O&P. A licensed general contractor on r/RoofingSales wrote in 2023: “we get overhead and profit but it’s a fight 95% of the time.”
When the adjuster won’t move, appraisal settles the amount and binds both sides
A supervisor’s review was enough for the three-line estimate. When a supervisor won’t move either, the homeowner has appraisal. Texas Insurance Code chapter 1813, passed in 2025, requires residential property policies to carry an appraisal clause, used only to decide a disputed amount of loss. The statute leaves out TWIA and commercial policies, and TDI says it applies to policies issued or renewed after January 1, 2026. Appraisal settles how much, so it won’t decide whether the policy covers the damage at all.
As TDI describes it, each side hires an appraiser and the two choose an umpire, who decides whatever they can’t agree on. The homeowner pays their own appraiser and half the umpire’s expenses. Short of fraud, accident, a material mistake or an award made without authority, the result binds the homeowner and the carrier alike, so if the award lands below your estimate, the lower number stands. Give the homeowner your full estimate, every supplement included, before the appraisers meet.
On r/RoofingSales in 2023, a contractor in the Southwest wrote that a desk adjuster wouldn’t budge on a $33,000 clay tile estimate, so the claim went to a public adjuster and then to appraisal, where the award came to $50,000. That’s one claim, outside Texas.
If you point a homeowner to a public adjuster in Texas, the adjuster’s commission is capped at 10 percent of the settlement, and you can’t share in it.
Texas sets deadlines for carriers, and the damages for missing them belong to the homeowner
Under Insurance Code chapter 542, an insurer has 15 days to acknowledge a claim and start investigating. Once it has every item it asked for, it has 15 business days to accept or reject the claim in writing, with up to 45 more days if it explains why, and then 5 business days to pay. Surplus lines insurers get longer. A carrier that misses those deadlines can owe the homeowner interest and attorney’s fees, which in Texas you can’t pursue for the homeowner. Keep a dated record of each item the adjuster asks for and when you or the homeowner sent it, since the 15 business days start when the carrier has the last of them.
The depreciation check waits for your final invoice and the deductible
TDI says most replacement cost claims pay in two checks. The first is the estimated repair cost minus depreciation and the deductible. The withheld depreciation follows once the insurer gets the bill for the finished job, usually inside a deadline to complete repairs that varies by policy. Under Insurance Code 707.004 the insurer can also hold it until it has reasonable proof the deductible was paid. Both are in your hands, so collect the deductible and send the final invoice as soon as the roof is done. Roofing Cash Flow: Depreciation Checks, Final Payments and Liens goes further into the timing.
Skipping small supplements cost one owner about $5,000 to $10,000 a year
An owner on r/Roofing wrote in 2024 that the company lets $100 to $200 or more in supplementable items go on about 50 roofs a year, so funding isn’t held up, and was weighing a supplement service that charges a percentage. By my math that’s $5,000 to $10,000 or more a year. Run the same sum with your own roof count, then set it against a service’s percentage, or against an Xactimate license plus someone’s hours in your office. Xactimate lists at $2,390 a year for one platform, or $1,575 for six months, with training and certification extra.
Every figure I found for how often roof claims get supplemented, or what a supplement recovers on average, came from a company selling supplements, so I’ve left them out. Ask any vendor for its results on roofs in your own market.
An estimator who writes supplements for Colorado roofers complained on r/Construction in 2022 about the photos and scope sheets their reps make. Whoever writes yours works from what your reps bring back.
Texas counts your website as an advertisement, so word any supplement service carefully
TDI’s “Roofing and insurance: Know the law” page cites a state rule, 28 TAC 21.102(1), that counts a website as an advertisement, and lists language a roofer must not use:
- offering to negotiate a claim settlement or file a claim for the homeowner
- promising to recover “every dime you are owed”
- advertising to help homeowners avoid “incorrect settlement pricing”
- telling anyone, the insurer included, that you represent the homeowner or can speak for them on coverage
If your site says any of that, including a page a marketing company like mine wrote for you, rewrite it to what TDI allows: you’ll write the estimate and discuss it, supplements included, with the homeowner’s insurer. The last item covers what your reps say at the door as well.
On the next claim, be at the inspection and put every line in writing
- Be at the adjuster’s inspection, since TDI advises homeowners to have their contractor there.
- Write your estimate line by line, with measured quantities for starter and hip and ridge.
- Keep each supplement to scope and price, and ask for a supervisor when the adjuster won’t move.
- When the amount stays disputed, give the homeowner your full estimate for appraisal.
- Check your contract and website against your state’s or province’s rules, which in Texas means the 27.02 notice and TDI’s list.
To see where you come up when a homeowner searches after a hailstorm, run Zentora’s free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search like “hail damage roof repair”, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.