Why did you start The Estimate Company?

Seven years ago, we saw a shift coming to the industry where contractors were going to have the opportunity to capture more business through insurance repair relationships. We also saw a clear gap between what insurance companies were paying and what they should be paying. Legitimate items are left off estimates constantly: code upgrades, missing line items, manufacturer standards. We built a due-diligence process to comb through every estimate and include every line item that's warranted. Nothing more, nothing less. That's why our relationships with insurance companies are strong.

What results have you achieved for contractors?

We have 4 contractors who, within 12 months of working with us, brought in an additional 6 figures of supplemental income that was previously left on the table.

What makes you different from other supplement companies?

Multi-state adjuster licenses across SC, NC, GA, TX, and AL. Next-day turnaround. 20+ years of independent adjuster experience across 50+ carriers. When we write a supplement, it's written in the language adjusters accept, with F9 notes, photo documentation, and code citations on every line item. No fluff. No kitchen-sink padding. Just defensible, verifiable line items.

I'm new to supplementing. What can you guarantee?

Send us an average of 2 insurance claims per week for one year, and we guarantee a minimum of six figures in additional profit margins. If we don't hit that goal, we'll write you a check for $5,000 at the end of 12 months. At our current rate, our fee is 15% of what we recover, which means for every dollar you pay us, you're getting more than 5x back. That's a 500%+ return on every supplemented claim.

How does a roofing supplement company work?

We review the carrier's original estimate, identify every line item that's missing, underpaid, or inconsistent with local codes and manufacturer standards, then write a supplemental Xactimate estimate. We submit it directly to the desk adjuster with documentation (photos, code citations, manufacturer specs) and follow up 2-3x per week until it's resolved. You get paid more without doing the paperwork.

What does a roofing supplement company charge?

We charge 15% of what we recover beyond the carrier's original payment. You pay nothing unless we get you more money. At that rate, for every dollar you pay us, you're getting more than 5x back, a 500%+ return.

How long does a roof supplement take?

Most residential supplements are written and submitted same-day or next-day. Larger supplement and retail jobs may take 1-3 extra days; large commercial projects take longer, and we'll always tell you the realistic timeline upfront. Carrier response typically takes 1-3 weeks depending on the carrier and complexity. We follow up every 2-3 days. Most supplements are resolved within 2-4 weeks from submission.

Is hiring a supplement company worth it?

At 15% contingency, yes. Almost always. On claims where the roof is already approved for full replacement, our own closed files show a median recovery of about $4,000, with half landing between roughly $1,800 and $9,500. Claims that start denied or repair-only run far higher. You pay the contingency only on what we actually recover, so the fee comes out of money you did not have before we wrote the file.

What is a roof supplement?

A roof supplement is a formal request to an insurance carrier to revise their original estimate upward, adding line items they missed (starter strip, ice & water shield, drip edge, high-profile ridge cap, steep slope charges, etc.) or correcting underpaid quantities. It's submitted as a Xactimate estimate with supporting documentation.

What line items do carriers most commonly miss?

Starter strip at eaves and rakes, ice & water shield, high-profile ridge cap, step flashing, drip edge replacement, dumpster/haul-away, steep slope labor surcharges, and renail sheathing when required by code. Individually they look small. On a full replacement they are the difference between an estimate that covers the job and one the contractor eats.

Do you work with all insurance carriers?

Yes. We've worked across 50+ carriers including State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Travelers, Nationwide, Farmers, Progressive, Liberty Mutual, and most regional carriers. Each carrier has different internal guidelines. We know them and write accordingly.

Can you help if a claim was denied?

Yes. Denials are often overturnable. We review the denial reason, build a documented rebuttal with code citations and photo evidence, and submit a formal supplement or re-inspection request. We've overturned denied roof claims and converted partial payments to full approvals.

What is Xactimate and why does it matter?

Xactimate is the industry-standard estimating software used by virtually every major insurance carrier. Supplements written in Xactimate are taken seriously by desk adjusters. We build every estimate natively in Xactimate. Not a spreadsheet, not a PDF, not a contractor invoice. That's why our supplements get approved.

Do you work with contractors outside your licensed states?

Yes. We serve roofing contractors nationwide. Our adjuster licenses (SC, NC, GA, TX, AL) allow us to operate as licensed IAs in those states, but we write supplements and estimates for contractors in all 50 states. The license is about our credentials, not our coverage area.

What is AccuLynx and can you work in it?

AccuLynx is a roofing-specific CRM used by many mid-to-large contractors to manage jobs, documents, and measurements. Yes. We can work directly inside your AccuLynx account using your existing templates and workflows. Most supplement companies can't do this. We can.

How do I send you a file?

Email us the carrier's estimate (PDF), your EagleView or measurement report, any photos of missed damage, and a brief note on anything specific about the claim. That's it. We handle the rest, same-day or next-day for most residential jobs.

El Paso, TX

The estimate was written for a shingle roof. This one does not have shingles

A large share of the Texas roofing corpus is an argument about steep slope composition: squares, pitch charges, starter, cap, tear off by facet. Point that vocabulary at an El Paso house with a low slope built up or modified bitumen field and every quantity on the page is measuring something that is not there. The adopted residential code sends this assembly to entirely different sections than the shingle ones, and the gap between those two sets of sections is where the recovery on these files lives.

By Kyle Hamrick, Founder

Send an El Paso file Free supplement review

The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, and Texas is one of the states where that license is held. Against an assembly the carrier's template was never built to price, what that buys is narrow and worth naming: your scope is drafted by somebody who has adjudicated claims from inside the carrier's own file and can tell which arguments clear a desk without going upstairs for sign off.

The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, with claims experience across many states, writing for contractors nationwide. What we bring to an El Paso file is code mechanism, carrier behavior, and claim pattern, confirmed for the address rather than assumed from a statewide rule.

Licensed independent adjuster in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Alabama, writing for contractors nationwide. More about Kyle.

What the rest of the Texas corpus assumes, and why it is not true here

A low slope roof is an ordinary house here, not a commercial exception

Most of the estimating language a Texas contractor hears all year was calibrated on steep slope composition stock: a pitched field, a ridge to cap, a facet count that drives the waste, and a tear off measured in squares. That vocabulary is not wrong. It is simply pointed at a different building than a great many El Paso houses actually are. Built up and modified bitumen coverings on residential structures are an unremarkable condition in this city, and we are describing that as a prevalence rather than a percentage on purpose, because we could not open a primary table that counts them and will not invent one.

The consequence is mechanical rather than rhetorical. When the assembly changes, the material list changes, the unit that quantity is measured in changes, and the sections of the code that govern the work change with them. An estimator writing from a statewide template does not decide to underpay a membrane roof. The template simply has no row to put those materials on, so they do not appear, and the shortfall reads like an oversight instead of the structural mismatch it is.

Underlayment is the tell, and it is a citable one

Section R905.1.1 of the 2021 International Residential Code sets the underlayment requirements, and it names the coverings it governs: asphalt shingles, clay and concrete tile, metal roof shingles, mineral surfaced roll roofing, slate and slate type shingles, wood shingles, wood shakes, metal roof panels, and photovoltaic shingles. Built up roofing is absent from that list. Modified bitumen roofing is absent from it too. Modified bitumen instead takes a base sheet under Section R905.11.2.1, and built up material answers to its own standards table at Table R905.9.2.

That is a short paragraph with an outsized effect on a supplement. It converts a soft complaint that an estimate feels light into a specific and checkable claim: the line item priced here does not correspond to a requirement that reaches this roof, and the components that do apply are missing. A desk adjuster can argue about whether damage occurred. It is far harder to argue that a covering type on an enumerated list is somehow also covered by a section that does not enumerate it. Verify with local building dept Confirm the currently adopted edition and any local amendments with the City of El Paso before a citation goes in writing.

Coat it or replace it, and the code decides which

A shingle claim does not have this fight. A membrane claim almost always does. Section R908.3.1 permits a new protective coating to be applied over an existing coating, built up roof, modified bitumen roof, single ply system, or sprayed foam system without tearing off what is under it. That provision is legitimate, and it is also why a coating shows up on the carrier's first number: it is the cheapest compliant path on the page.

Section R908.3.1.1 is what closes it. The recover is barred outright once the old covering is saturated, or degraded far enough that it will not serve as a base underneath new roofing, and it is barred again on any building already carrying two applications. Both of those are findings rather than opinions. A moisture probe and a core cut settle them in an afternoon, and once they are documented the recover path is closed by the same code the carrier was relying on. The roof claim inspection checklist is the field order that puts that evidence into the record while the crew is still standing on the roof.

You are an hour behind the desk that has your file

Under 49 CFR 71.7, the boundary between the central and mountain zones runs south along the east line of Hudspeth County to the international boundary, which puts El Paso County west of the line and on mountain time while the rest of Texas is not. This is a logistics fact rather than a scope argument, and it is worth one paragraph because it quietly costs contractors here. A carrier desk closing its queue at five o'clock closes at four in the afternoon local, so a package sent at the end of an El Paso workday lands the following morning on the carrier's clock even when it was submitted the same day on yours. Files out of this city get staged against the receiving desk's hours, not against the crew's.

Three provisions that only exist on this assembly

What the reroof does not have to fix, which is as useful as what it does

Section R908.1 carries two exceptions that exist specifically for low slope work. Reroofing is not required to meet the minimum design slope of one quarter unit vertical in twelve units horizontal where the roof provides positive roof drainage, and on those same roofs a recover or replacement does not require the secondary emergency overflow drains or scuppers of Section R903.4.1 to be added to an existing roof. Knowing where the obligation stops is what keeps the rest of the scope credible. A file that asks for a re slope on a roof that already drains hands the desk a reason to treat every other line as inflated.

The surfacing is a one way quantity

Section R908.5 states that aggregate surfacing materials shall not be reinstalled. On a gravel surfaced built up roof that single sentence sets the removal, the disposal, and the new surfacing as three real costs with no salvage credit available against any of them. The same section also requires existing flashings, edgings, outlets, and vents that are part of the assembly to be replaced where they are rusted, damaged, or deteriorated, which is a different instruction than the reuse a fast estimate quietly assumes. Verify with local building dept Confirm the adopted edition for the address before this citation goes in front of a desk adjuster.

Flashing on a bituminous roof is reconstructed, and it is primed first

Section R908.6 requires flashings to be reconstructed in accordance with the approved manufacturer's installation instructions, and adds that metal flashing to which bituminous materials are to be adhered shall be primed prior to installation. Section R903.2.1 then puts flashing at wall and roof intersections, at every change in roof slope or direction, and around roof openings, with a corrosion resistant minimum of 0.019 inch where that flashing is metal. Together those are a materials line, a labor line, and a location count. A shingle derived estimate produces none of the three, because on a shingle roof the priming step does not exist at all.

The carriers writing El Paso, and the template that follows them here

The residential book in this city runs largely through State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, Travelers, and Texas Farm Bureau, with USAA concentrated around the Fort Bliss population. None of them staffs a desk that exists only to price flat roofs on houses. The file routes into whichever Texas queue has capacity, and the estimator on the other end has spent the season writing composition roofs in a market where composition is the default. The result is not carrier bad faith. It is a template arriving in a city the template was not written for.

One thing worth saying plainly so nobody wastes a paragraph on it: the windstorm inspection program run out of the Texas Department of Insurance covers coastal property, does not reach an El Paso address, and therefore has no place in a scope written here. Citing one is a fast way to tell a desk adjuster that the file was assembled from a statewide template instead of from the roof.

Where these files stall is almost never on whether something happened. It is on whether the existing assembly is still an adequate base, which is the question that decides recover against replacement and therefore decides most of the money. That dispute is won with a probe, a core cut, and a layer count taken while the crew is on the roof, and lost with a photograph taken from the ground. The reinspection supplement is built for the file sitting on exactly that disagreement, where a carrier representative needs to be back on the roof with the moisture and layer evidence already in hand. Where an aging schedule discounted a membrane system on the assumption that it was a shingle roof of the same age, depreciation recovery is the separate fight.

What gets recovered on an El Paso roof file

Ordered by how often the item is missing when a file reaches our desk.

Status key: In scope. Usually omitted. Code driven. Verify with the authority having jurisdiction. Every status is spelled out in words beside the item, so nothing depends on color.

Assembly class settled before a price list is opened
Verify with local building dept
The single most expensive mistake on an El Paso file happens before any peril is discussed: a steep slope shingle template gets applied to a low slope membrane field. Every quantity downstream of that choice is then wrong, including the ones that look right. Establish covering type and slope from the roof itself and pick the price list section that matches it.
Base sheet and cap sheet priced as their own materials
Code driven
Section R905.1.1 of the adopted 2021 residential code enumerates the coverings whose underlayment it governs, and neither built up nor modified bitumen appears among them. Modified bitumen gets a base sheet under Section R905.11.2.1 instead, and built up material answers to Table R905.9.2. Carrying a felt underlayment row on this roof prices a component the assembly does not use while omitting the ones it does.
Aggregate surfacing removed and disposed with no reinstallation credit
Code driven
Section R908.5 is unambiguous that aggregate surfacing materials shall not be reinstalled. On a gravel surfaced built up roof that converts the surfacing into a one way quantity: it comes off, it gets hauled, and new surfacing goes back. An estimate that treats the existing aggregate as reusable is pricing a step the adopted code forbids.
Tear off quantified by ply count and surfacing rather than facet geometry
Usually omitted
What drives removal labor on a multi ply roof is how many plies are bonded down and what is sitting on top of them, and none of that is visible in a squares count taken off an aerial report. A single number carried over from a shingle takeoff describes the roof's outline and says nothing about its thickness.
Waste recalculated for lap coverage instead of cut waste
Usually omitted
A shingle waste percentage exists to cover material cut away at hips, valleys, and rakes. A membrane field has very little of that and instead loses coverage to side laps and end laps on every sheet. Borrowing the shingle percentage onto a membrane roof produces a number that is unrelated to the material the crew will actually consume.
Metal flashing primed before bituminous material is adhered to it
Code driven
Section R908.6 requires flashings to be reconstructed to the manufacturer's installation instructions and specifically requires metal flashing that bituminous material will be adhered to be primed first. It is a small operation with a real material and a real labor minute attached, and it exists only on this assembly class, which is precisely why a shingle derived estimate never carries it.
Base flashing and counterflashing at every change in roof slope or direction
Code driven
Section R903.2.1 puts flashing at wall and roof intersections, wherever roof slope or direction changes, and around roof openings, and where that flashing is metal it sets a corrosion resistant minimum thickness of 0.019 inch. A low slope residential roof in this market frequently carries several such transitions where an addition or a porch meets the main field, and each one is a priced detail rather than trim included with the field above it.
Existing slope left alone where the roof already provides positive drainage
Code driven
The first exception to Section R908.1 states plainly that reroofing is not required to meet the minimum design slope of one quarter unit vertical in twelve units horizontal on a roof providing positive drainage. Writing a re slope into a scope on a roof that drains is padding a defensible file with an indefensible line, and it invites a desk to discount everything around it.
Secondary overflow drains not force added to an existing roof
Code driven
The second exception to Section R908.1 says that on roofs providing positive drainage, recovering or replacing a covering does not require the secondary emergency overflow drains or scuppers of Section R903.4.1 to be added. Knowing that the requirement stops there is what lets the rest of the drainage scope, the parts the roof genuinely needs, stand up under scrutiny.
Coating recover refused where the existing assembly is not an adequate base
Code driven
Section R908.3.1 permits a protective coating over an existing built up, modified bitumen, or single ply system without tear off, which is exactly why a coating turns up on a first estimate. Section R908.3.1.1 shuts that door on saturation, on deterioration severe enough that the old covering will not serve as a base underneath new roofing, and on an application count that has already reached two. Document moisture and layer count and the cheap path closes itself.
Above deck insulation board replaced to a listed standard
Code driven
Where a low slope assembly carries thermal insulation board above the deck, Section R906.2 sends that board to the standards in its own table by material type, so polyisocyanurate, perlite, wood fiberboard, and the rest are not interchangeable substitutions. Wet board found under a failed membrane is a material line with a specification attached, not a rounding allowance.
Roof mounted equipment detached, reset, and reflashed on a membrane field
Usually omitted
Anything bolted through a low slope deck sits directly in the path of the crew rather than off to one side the way it would on a pitched roof, so the unit comes off, the curb underneath it gets rebuilt into the new membrane, and the unit goes back. That is three operations, and a first estimate written from a ground level photograph typically carries zero of them.
Overhead and profit on multi trade files
In scope
When a single loss reaches the roofing membrane, an interior ceiling under the breach, and the stucco or masonry a termination detail dies into, that is three trades that have to be sequenced against one another on one schedule. What qualifies the line is how many trades are waiting on each other, never the settlement total.

Each becomes a written line with a reason attached, inside a real Xactimate file. Depending on the claim it ships as a roofing supplement, an Xactimate supplement package, a supplemental estimate, or a full claim estimate written from scratch.

What happens to your file after you send it

01
The covering on the roof decides which price list gets opened
Before anything else, your El Paso file gets checked for the mismatch that ruins these estimates: a steep slope shingle template applied to a low slope built up or modified bitumen field. If the carrier's number carries a felt line and a starter line on a membrane roof, that is where the read starts.
02
Chapter 9 gets read against the actual assembly, section by section
The City of El Paso lists the 2021 International Residential Code as its adopted residential edition. Which sections of Chapter 9 reach your roof depends entirely on what the covering is, so the base sheet, surfacing, slope, drainage, and flashing provisions get matched to the assembly on the parcel rather than quoted from the shingle defaults.
03
The supplement is written in Xactimate and delivered as a PDF
Real file, real price list, real sketch. You get the PDF as the deliverable, and the ESX free any time you ask for it. Written same day or next day, submitted next day. One to three extra days on large commercial and multi structure work.
04
We stay on the file until the carrier answers
Follow-up, desk adjuster calls, and reinspection support when the carrier sends someone back to the roof. The file does not close on our side because it went quiet on theirs.

Two promises, stated separately

Promise one: the fee

The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery. If a file produces no additional approved recovery, you pay nothing on that claim. That is the whole fee structure, and it applies claim by claim.

Promise two: the guarantee

Send us an average of 2 claims per week for 12 months. If that volume does not produce a minimum of six figures in additional margin for your company, we write you a $5,000 check at the end of the 12 months. The volume, the 12 month term, the six figure threshold, and the $5,000 figure are one set of terms and they always travel together.

Two different promises, no overlap. The fee describes what a single claim costs you. The guarantee describes what a year of steady volume is worth. Nothing in the fee structure is a guarantee, and the guarantee does not change the fee.

El Paso questions we get from contractors

Why does a flat roof estimate come back wrong in El Paso specifically?

Because the roof is priced against the wrong chapter of the price list before anybody argues about the peril. A great many El Paso houses carry a low slope field with a built up or modified bitumen covering rather than a pitched shingle field, and an estimator working a Texas queue reaches for the steep slope defaults out of habit. Those defaults carry a shingle line, a felt line, a starter line, and a cap line. A membrane roof needs none of the four and needs a base sheet, ply or cap sheet material, surfacing, and a flashing reconstruction the shingle template has no row for. The number is not slightly low. It is describing a different building.

Is underlayment even the right line item on a built up or modified bitumen roof?

No, and this is the cleanest place to show a desk adjuster that the estimate was written for another assembly. Section R905.1.1 of the 2021 International Residential Code, which the City of El Paso lists as its adopted residential edition, sets underlayment requirements for asphalt shingles, clay and concrete tile, metal roof shingles, mineral surfaced roll roofing, slate, wood shingles and shakes, metal roof panels, and photovoltaic shingles. Built up roofing and modified bitumen roofing are not on that list. Modified bitumen instead gets a base sheet under Section R905.11.2.1, and built up material has its own standards table at Table R905.9.2. An estimate carrying a felt underlayment line on a membrane roof is quoting a requirement that does not reach the roof it is pricing.

The carrier wants to coat the roof instead of replacing it. Does the code let them?

Sometimes, and knowing exactly when is the whole fight on this assembly. Section R908.3.1 permits a new protective coating to go over an existing coating, metal panel, metal shingle, mineral surfaced roll roofing, built up, modified bitumen, single ply, or sprayed foam system without tearing off what is already there. That provision is why a coating shows up on a first estimate. Section R908.3.1.1 is the provision that takes it back, and it does so on two independent grounds: saturation or deterioration severe enough that the old covering no longer serves as an adequate base underneath new roofing, and a count of applications already standing at two. The argument is therefore about the documented condition of the existing assembly, not about preference, and it is settled by a probe and a layer count rather than by a photograph.

Does the reroof have to correct the slope or add overflow drains to be code compliant?

Not where the roof already drains, and contractors lose money in both directions on this one. Section R908.1 carries two exceptions written for exactly this assembly. The first says reroofing is not required to meet the minimum design slope of one quarter unit vertical in twelve units horizontal on roofs that provide positive roof drainage. The second says that on roofs providing positive drainage, recovering or replacing a covering does not require the secondary emergency overflow drains or scuppers of Section R903.4.1 to be added to an existing roof. So a scope padded with a re slope or a new overflow assembly on a roof that already drains is inflated, and a scope that quietly drops a drainage detail the existing roof genuinely needs is short. Document which condition is actually present.

Does the coastal windstorm certification process apply to an El Paso roof?

No. Windstorm inspections run out of the Texas Department of Insurance are a coastal requirement, and El Paso sits at the far western corner of the state against the New Mexico line, nowhere near the water. That matters mostly because it is worth knowing what you are not required to produce: a certification step belongs on a Gulf file and citing it here would tell a desk adjuster that whoever wrote the scope was working from a statewide template rather than the address.

How fast is turnaround, and what does it cost?

Estimates are written same day or next day and submitted next day. Larger commercial and multi structure files take one to three extra days, said up front. The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery, and a file with no additional approved recovery owes nothing on that claim.

El Paso and the Texas market

El Paso sits inside the wider Texas market at its far western corner, against the New Mexico line and several hundred miles west of Odessa and Midland, which answer to their own building departments and their own assembly mix on those files, never El Paso's. Work also crosses the state line into Albuquerque and the wider New Mexico market, which is a separate state with its own adopted code and its own answer on every question above.

Send one El Paso file and see which assembly it was priced as

Send the carrier estimate, your measurements, and the declarations page, plus a core cut or moisture reading if you have one. The covering and slope get established first, the price list section gets matched to them, and the supplement comes back written against the sections of Chapter 9 that actually reach that roof instead of the ones a shingle template defaults to.

Order an estimate Free supplement review