Part H · the register

Kirkwood Roof Trucks and the Rail Crossing on the Way In

If a loaded shingle truck must cross a rail line to reach your Kirkwood street, ask each roofer how the route and the wait are planned.

A roof job in Kirkwood starts with a truck. The shingle delivery, the dumpster and the crew's own vehicles all have to reach the house, and on some streets the route runs over a rail line or past a crossing gate that closes on its own schedule. If your street is reached by a crossing, the question is no longer only where the truck parks. It is how long the truck can sit, and what happens to the day when a closed gate holds it on the wrong side of the tracks.

Most estimate visits look at the roof and the yard. Few look at the approach. A loaded shingle truck is long and heavy, and its driver needs a turning path that clears the crossing arms, the curb and any parked car. When the route depends on a crossing, the delivery window depends on train timing that neither you nor the roofer controls. A roofer who plans for the bundles to arrive on the first morning also has to plan a second route in case the first one is shut.

Why the route is a roofing question

A delivery problem looks small until it reaches the schedule. If the bundles arrive late, the tear-off may not start, the dumpster may sit full for a day, and the crew may stand around while the weather turns. Each of those is a small cost. Together they decide whether the job finishes in the window the bid described, and they decide whether you have to rearrange your own week around a truck you never saw.

Keys Roofing can put the route in the written scope, but the scope cannot change a railroad's timetable. What a written scope can do is name the approach, name the fallback and name who decides when the truck moves. Those three items are what a homeowner should be able to read before the first delivery is booked. If the bid says only that materials will be delivered on the start date, the homeowner has no way to check whether a gate, a turn or a parked car was ever considered.

What to walk before the delivery date

Walk the trip from the nearest main road to your curb, and time it on a weekday morning and again in the late afternoon. Note every rail crossing, every gate arm and every turn that needs a wide radius. Note where a parked car usually sits, because on many Kirkwood blocks the parked car is what makes a turn impossible. Take photographs at each point. A photo file of the approach is the easiest document to hand the roofer, and it gives the crew something specific to answer.

Then ask each roofer these four things:

• Which crossing the delivery truck will use, and whether the roofer has routed a Kirkwood job through that same crossing before.
• What the fallback is if the gate is down when the truck arrives, including where the bundles will wait and for how long.
• Who calls you when the delivery is late, how soon that call happens, and who makes the call.
• Whether a stalled delivery moves the crew's start date, and whether the contract states that in writing.

The last item matters most. A late truck is a schedule problem, and a schedule problem becomes a cost problem only if the contract says so. A bid that is silent on delivery delay leaves the homeowner guessing whether the crew will be paid for standing by, and whether the homeowner will be asked to pay for a second trip.

Where the bundles wait

A pallet of shingles is heavy, bulky and not something a crew wants to carry across a yard. The crew needs a place for it that is close to the work and out of the way of the walkway, the side gate and any vehicle that has to pass. On a Kirkwood street with a narrow front, that place may be the driveway, the side yard or a rear access point. Each choice touches the lawn, the curb or a neighbor's frontage, and each one needs the homeowner's yes before the truck is booked.

Ask the roofer to mark the staging spot on a photo or a simple sketch before the day. A written scope can show the truck stop, the staging spot and the dumpster location on the same page, so the three are not competing for the same stretch of curb. If the truck has to stop on the street, the sketch should show how much curb it will block and for how long. If a dumpster or a pallet ends up in the public right of way, ask the Kirkwood permit desk whether a separate approval applies. Kirkwood issues its own building permits, and the desk can tell you what it needs rather than leaving the answer to a guess made at the curb.

What it costs

A blocked delivery usually costs time before it costs money, and the bid should say which one applies. Ask whether a waiting day is billed as standby labor, and at what rate. Ask whether a second delivery charge applies if the first load has to be turned around and brought back. Ask whether the material is covered if it sits outside overnight on the approach, and who carries the risk if it is damaged while it waits.

Those are yes-or-no questions with a number attached, and the answers belong in the bid, not in a text message on the morning of the job. A roofer who says delays are never charged, without writing the terms, has not told you what a delay costs you. The same is true of a roofer who says every delay is charged, without saying at what rate or from which hour.

If you want the delivery terms in the written scope, ask for them when you request the bid. Keys Roofing can be reached at the office number, (314) 220-2333, to talk through the route before you sign anything.

What to ask

• Name the crossing, the gate and the turn the delivery truck will use to reach my curb.
• Show on a sketch where the bundles will wait if the truck cannot reach the stop.
• Put in writing who decides when the truck moves, and who I call when it does not.
• State whether a delay changes the start date, the price or both, and from which hour the clock starts.

If your street has no crossing on the approach, the answers will be short, and that is useful too. A roofer who finds nothing to plan for should still say so in writing, with the route named, so the homeowner can check it against the walk.