You have three quotes for a standing seam roof on the same house. They are $9,000 apart. All three say "standing seam metal roofing" and give a total. None of them tells you why they differ.
Here is what to look for. Seven specifications decide whether a metal roof performs for twenty years or fifty, and a cheaper bid is almost always cheaper because it has quietly omitted some of them.
1. Panel profile and gauge
What to look for: the specific profile name, panel width, and the gauge — 24 or 26.
24-gauge steel is thicker than 26. It resists denting better, shows noticeably less oil canning, and holds a seam more reliably across decades. 26-gauge is common on budget residential work and outbuildings. The material difference on a typical house is a few hundred dollars, against a roof you intend to keep for fifty years.
Panel width matters too. A narrower panel — 16 inches rather than 20 — shows less oil canning, because there is less unsupported flat area to distort. It also costs more, because a narrower panel means more panels and more seams.
Red flag: "metal roofing" with no gauge stated anywhere.
2. Clip type — floating or fixed
What to look for: the words "floating", "sliding" or "two-piece" clip, or an explicit statement that the system allows for thermal movement.
This is the most consequential line on the page and the one most often absent. Steel expands and contracts with temperature — across the range a Minnesota roof sees between January and July, a 40-foot panel run changes length by roughly three-eighths of an inch.
A floating clip lets the panel slide as it moves. A fixed clip pins it. On short runs fixed clips are acceptable; on long runs they are not, and the movement has to go somewhere — into elongated fastener holes, buckled pans, and seams that creep open around year eight.
Red flag: no mention of clips at all.
3. Ice barrier coverage
What to look for: a stated measurement, and the point it is measured from.
Minnesota's residential code requires an ice barrier from the lowest roof edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line. On slopes of 8:12 or steeper it must also extend at least 36 inches measured along the slope from the eave.
Note the wording: inside the exterior wall line, not from the fascia. On a house with a two-foot overhang, hitting that line takes roughly four feet of membrane — which is two courses, not one. Measuring from the fascia leaves you short of code, and it is invisible once the roof is on. It is also precisely the band where deck rot turns up during the next tear-off.
Red flag: "ice and water shield at eaves" with no dimension.
4. Underlayment
What to look for: the product type, and whether it is high-temperature rated.
Metal roofs get hot. A standard underlayment installed under metal can soften and degrade. A high-temperature synthetic is the correct specification, and it costs more than the felt some bids assume.
Red flag: "underlayment included."
5. Valley and flashing detail
What to look for: confirmation that valleys use a separate formed metal pan, and that penetrations are flashed rather than sealed.
This is where a cheap bid on a complex roof finds most of its savings, because no homeowner ever climbs up to check. A valley carries more water, faster, for longer than anywhere else on the roof, and it is where ice sits. Done properly it is a formed metal pan with panels cut back cleanly either side, hemmed, and mechanically held. Done badly it is panels butted close with a bead of sealant across the joint — which looks fine for about six years.
Sealant is a maintenance material with a service life. It is not a substitute for a flashing detail. If a house has multiple valleys — common in St. Michael — this line is worth more than any other on the quote.
Red flag: any scope that mentions caulk or sealant where it should describe formed metal.
6. Decking replacement rate
What to look for: a per-sheet price, agreed before work starts.
Nobody knows the condition of your decking until the old roof is off. That is not a flaw in the quote — it is physics. What matters is that the rate is fixed in advance, so there is no negotiation happening while your roof is open to the sky.
Red flag: decking handled as an open-ended extra "at cost", or not mentioned. This is the single most common route by which a cheap bid becomes an expensive job.
7. Warranty — and which one
What to look for: two separate documents.
The manufacturer's warranty covers the material: paint finish, perforation, substrate. It is typically long and typically prorated, and it says nothing whatsoever about the installation.
The workmanship warranty is the contractor's own, and it is the one that matters, because metal roofs overwhelmingly fail at details rather than in the panel. It is also the one that requires the company to still exist when you call.
Red flag: a headline "lifetime warranty" that turns out to be the manufacturer's material warranty with no workmanship cover behind it.
Who pulls the permit, and who books the final inspection. You want that permit
closed in your records — it comes up at resale.
Who is physically on the roof. Employees or subcontractors. Either is fine, but
it should not be a surprise on day one.
Putting it to work
Send all three contractors the same short message: "Please confirm in writing the panel gauge and width, clip type, ice barrier coverage measured from the exterior wall line, underlayment type, valley detail, decking rate per sheet, and workmanship warranty term."
You will get three kinds of response. Some will answer in full, which tells you they had already thought about it. Some will answer partially. And some will go quiet or revise their price upward, which is the most informative outcome of the three.
Once all three are quoting the same actual scope, take the cheapest with confidence. Until then, you are not comparing prices — you are comparing different roofs that share a name.
Our written scope states all seven as standard. That is deliberately awkward for us, because it makes our number directly comparable with anyone else's — see what drives it.