Why decking may be hidden
Roof covering and underlayment can conceal rot, delamination, broken boards, old openings, inadequate fastening, moisture damage, or prior repairs. Interior or attic signs may reveal risk but cannot always define the full scope.
The proposal should state
- What deck material and thickness are expected
- How much replacement is included, if any
- The unit price for sheets, boards, or measured repairs beyond the allowance
- Who documents damaged areas and how approval is obtained
- Whether structural framing, insulation, hazardous materials, or interior damage is excluded
- How added work affects price, schedule, and warranty
A useful change order
A written change order should identify the condition, added or deleted scope, price effect, schedule effect, and approval. Emergency work needed to make an opened roof weather-tight should be addressed in the contract before tear-off begins.
Why this is the change order that always happens
Almost every genuine surprise in a roof replacement is beneath the covering. Older Chittenden County housing includes plank sheathing, prior layer-overs, patched sections, and areas softened by long-running leaks around chimneys, valleys and eaves. None of that is visible from the ground and none of it is reliably visible from a satellite measurement.
Two proposals with identical headline scope can behave completely differently here. One may include a set quantity of replacement sheathing and a unit price beyond it; another may leave it undefined and price it after the fact. Ask every bidder the same question — what happens on the day you find bad decking — and compare the answers rather than the totals.
| What to pin down | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Included allowance | A stated quantity in sheets or square feet, included in the contract price |
| Unit price beyond it | A written per-sheet or per-square-foot rate agreed before work starts |
| Measurement | How replaced area is measured and evidenced, not estimated afterwards |
| Authorisation | A signed writing before extra work proceeds, as Vermont requires |
| Evidence | Dated photographs of the exposed deck before it is covered |
| Non-standard conditions | How plank sheathing, prior layers, or unusual spacing are handled and priced |
What Vermont requires about changes
That is not a courtesy — it is contract content the state specifies, and it exists precisely for situations like decking. A verbal “we found some bad wood, it'll be a bit more” is not the process, and agreeing to it removes your only record of what was authorised and at what rate.
The practical version is simple: agree the unit price before the roof is opened, require a photograph and a signed change order before the extra work proceeds, and keep both with the contract. That takes ten minutes on the day and prevents the most common dispute in residential roofing.
Reading the photographs
Ask for dated photographs of the exposed deck before new material covers it, and ask for them whether or not anything was replaced. A clean deck photographed and reported is as useful as a rotten one — it is evidence that the allowance was not spent, and on a fixed allowance it should mean a credit or an unused balance rather than silence.
What you are looking for in the photographs is consistency with the invoice: the area described, in the location described, in the quantity charged. This is the single cheapest control available on a roofing project and almost nobody asks for it.
Published August 12, 2026 and last reviewed August 16, 2026 by Greater Burlington Roofing. General roofing information; an on-site inspection is required for property-specific recommendations.