Our claim analysis data shows these items are missing on 70-90% of adjuster estimates. Each one is recoverable.
Why Adjusters Miss These Items
Before the list — a quick note on why. The pattern isn't malicious. It's structural.
Time pressure. After a major storm, a single adjuster runs 80 to 150 claims per week. The average estimate gets thirty minutes of attention. That's not enough time to scope a roof properly, much less audit the manufacturer specs.
Desk adjusting. The carrier sends satellite photos and asks the adjuster to write the estimate from a desk. Satellite imagery can't see step flashing, pipe boots, or the condition of underlayment. Anything that requires being on the roof gets dropped.
Template estimates. Most carriers use standardized scopes that omit property-specific items by default. The adjuster has to manually add anything the template doesn't include. Most don't.
None of this is the adjuster's fault. But the result is the same: contractors leave 20-35% of every claim on the table unless someone catches the gaps. Here are the twenty items that account for most of it, organized by category.
These items are required by building code. If they're missing from the estimate, the approved scope would produce a non-code-compliant roof. That's not a margin call — that's a permit problem.
#1 Drip Edge $200–$600
Required at eaves and rakes on all asphalt shingle installations. Drip edge is not optional. EagleView gives you the exact linear footage. If the adjuster's estimate omits it, that's a code violation in the scope itself.
#2 Ice & Water Shield $300–$900
Required in valleys and at eaves in regions subject to ice damming, and industry standard practice in all climate zones for warranty compliance. Compare adjuster I&WS LF to EagleView valley + eave LF.
#3 Starter Strip $150–$400
Required by every shingle manufacturer for warranty validity. Field shingles cannot substitute. Often bundled into the shingle square count instead of broken out as its own line item — which means it's effectively unfunded.
#4 Ridge Cap $200–$500
Must be scoped as separate material and labor — not included in shingle SQ. GAF (Seal-A-Ridge, TimberTex), CertainTeed (Mountain Ridge), and Owens Corning (DuraRidge) all require their manufactured ridge cap product for warranty validity. Field shingles cut down for ridge void the warranty.
#5 Synthetic Underlayment $400–$1,200
Required on steeper pitches and by most manufacturers — GAF Deck-Armor, CertainTeed DiamondDeck, Owens Corning RhinoRoof. Substituting #15 or #30 felt voids the enhanced warranty. Adjusters routinely scope felt when synthetic is the spec.
#6 Pipe Boot / Flashing Replacement $100–$400
Must be replaced during a re-roof — reusing old pipe boots voids the manufacturer warranty. Adjusters frequently omit this because they assume reuse. The line item is small per boot but adds up: 3-5 penetrations per typical residential roof.
Labor adders that adjusters frequently omit, especially desk adjusters who never see the actual job site.
#7 Steep Slope Charge (7/12+) $800–$2,500
Xactimate has specific steep slope labor line items that activate at 7/12 and above. The pitch is right there in the EagleView report — there's no ambiguity. OSHA requires additional fall protection on slopes greater than 4/12, and manufacturer installation specs require hand-nailing on 7/12+ for wind-uplift warranty compliance.
#8 High Roof Charge (2+ Stories) $200–$800
Additional labor for material staging, safety setup, and the 15-25% productivity loss documented for high-roof work versus ground-accessible roofs. Frequently omitted on multi-story homes because the adjuster never visited.
#9 Second Layer Tear-Off $500–$1,500
Additional labor to remove an existing second layer. If the property has two layers of shingles and the estimate is scoped as single-layer tear-off, the contractor eats the difference. Documented in tear-off photos.
#10 Complexity Factor — Cut-up Roofs variable
Multiple hips, valleys, and transitions increase labor time. EagleView's complexity rating (Simple / Moderate / Complex) is documented evidence to support the adder. A "Complex" rating with a flat-pitch labor assumption on the estimate is an obvious miss.
Items directly related to the roof replacement that adjusters scope separately, or forget entirely.
#11 Gutters — Detach & Reset (or Replace) $300–$600
Gutters must be detached and reset to allow proper installation of drip edge. You can't install drip edge correctly without removing the gutters first. If gutters were damaged in the storm, the line becomes "replace" instead of "D&R."
#12 Soffit and Fascia Repair $200–$1,000
Wind and water damage often extends to soffit and fascia. Requires ground-level and ladder photos to document. If the photos show damage, the line item belongs on the estimate.
#13 Satellite Dish Detach & Reset $75–$200
Must be removed and reinstalled. Requires signal realignment equipment — not roofing labor scope. Small dollar amount but missing on nearly every estimate that has a visible dish.
#14 Permit Fees $150–$500
Required by IRC R105.1 for any re-roofing work, and by every municipal jurisdiction we work in. Adjusters routinely assume the contractor absorbs this — they shouldn't.
#15 Dumpster / Debris Haul-Off $250–$500
Per Xactware's own pricing methodology, dumpster and haul-off is distinct from tear-off labor. Tear-off labor covers removal from the roof. Haul-off covers transportation and disposal. They're separate line items and should be billed separately.
The single highest-value supplement category on most claims, and the one carriers fight the hardest.
#16 Overhead (10%) 10% of RCV
Xactimate's unit prices do not include contractor overhead. This is documented explicitly in the Verisk white paper published by Xactimate's own parent company: "O&P is not included in Xactware's unit pricing per Verisk's published methodology. Respondents are specifically asked to exclude these costs." Typically 10% of RCV.
#17 Profit (10%) 10% of RCV
Contractor profit for the coordination of multiple distinct trades (roofing, carpentry, sheet metal, gutter D&R, satellite, etc.). Combined O&P of 20% on a $25,000 claim = $5,000. This is the line item carriers fight hardest. Case law on supporting recovery: Mee v. Safeco Ins. Co. of America (Pa. Super. 2006) and Burgess v. Farmers Ins. Co. (Okla. 2006), both holding GC O&P is part of replacement cost when the loss involves coordination of multiple distinct trades.
Not "missing" items — items that are present on the estimate but priced against under-measured quantities. The numbers are documented in the EagleView; the adjuster just didn't use them.
#18 Waste Factor variable
EagleView suggests a waste percentage based on the roof's complexity (typically 10-25%). Adjusters frequently override the suggested value with a flat 10% or 12%. The delta multiplied by total area equals supplementable material quantity. On a 30-square roof with a 15% suggested waste and an adjuster using 10%, that's 1.5 squares of shingles plus underlayment plus starter that should have been priced.
#19 Ridge / Hip Linear Feet variable
Compare adjuster LF to EagleView LF. Even small discrepancies (10-20 LF) compound across both the material line (ridge cap shingles) and the labor line. The numbers are exact in the report — there's no ambiguity to negotiate over.
#20 Valley Linear Feet variable
The most commonly under-measured linear measurement. Valleys are hard to see from satellite, and adjusters frequently estimate rather than measure. EagleView provides exact measurements. Where the adjuster rounded down, the supplement claims the delta — including the I&WS material that should run the full LF.
The Math: What This Means Per Claim
Average adjuster estimate: $15,000–$20,000. These twenty items are the ones adjusters most often miss — each one documented against code or manufacturer spec.
That's 20-35% of every claim left on the table by default — money that's already owed under the policy and the building code, but that doesn't get paid unless someone catches it.
Every item on this list is documented, citable, and recoverable. None of them require fighting with the carrier on a margin call — they're either code-required, manufacturer-specified, or backed by Verisk's own published methodology and supporting case law.
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