How to Read a Commercial Roof Coating Quote: The Line Items That Decide What You’re Actually Paying For

A commercial roof coating quote should tell you exactly what goes on your roof, how thick it goes on, and what happens when the crew finds a problem. If all you have is one number — “$4.25/sq ft, 20-year warranty” — you can’t compare it to anything. Three bids on the same 30,000 sq ft roof can come in at $95,000, $130,000 and $165,000, and very often the cheapest one is quoting less work, not doing the same work for less. Here is how to read a silicone coating proposal line by line, and the questions that bring out what a blended price hides.

The 10 Line Items Every Silicone Coating Quote Should Show

A complete restoration proposal breaks the job into the steps the crew will actually do. Look for each of these as its own line, or at least as a named item in the scope:

• Measured roof area. Total square footage, how it was measured (on-roof, aerial, drawings), and what is excluded. If one bid says 28,000 sq ft and another says 31,500, you are not looking at the same job.
• Moisture survey and core cuts. Infrared, capacitance or nuclear scan plus core samples. This sets the wet-insulation tear-out quantity and is required for most manufacturer warranties (see why the moisture scan decides your warranty).
• Wet insulation removal and replacement. Priced as a unit cost (per sq ft or per board), with an estimated quantity based on the scan.
• Cleaning and surface prep. Pressure washing (typically 2,000–3,500 psi), removing loose or failed material, and any cleaner the manufacturer requires.
• Seam, flashing and penetration repair. Reinforced seams, fabric at transitions, detailing around curbs, drains and pipes.
• Primer, if required. Bleed-block primer over asphalt or mod-bit, adhesion primer over TPO or EPDM. It should name the product and coverage rate, or state that an adhesion test showed none is needed.
• Base coat and topcoat. Product name, number of coats, and the dry mil thickness each coat is meant to reach.
• Granules or walk pads in service lanes around HVAC units and roof hatches.
• Manufacturer warranty fee and final inspection. Usually a separate pass-through cost from the manufacturer.
• Permits, equipment, lifts and disposal. Lift rental, dumpster, and permit fees where the local jurisdiction requires them.

A missing line doesn’t always mean the work is left out. Sometimes it’s buried in the total. But a line you can’t see is also a line you can’t hold anyone to. Ask for it in writing.

The Number That Matters Most: Dry Mils, Not Gallons

The warranty term is tied to the thickness of the cured coating film, not to the number of buckets on the truck. As a rule of thumb, around 20 dry mils supports a 10-year manufacturer warranty, and 30 or more dry mils supports a 20-year term. A quote that lists only “2 coats” or “1.5 gal/square” can’t be checked.

Ask each bidder for three numbers: target dry mils, the product’s solids content by volume, and the total gallons they plan to buy. Dry mils equal wet mils times percent solids, so a 96%-solids silicone and a 70%-solids product need very different gallon counts to reach the same film. One gallon covers 1,604 sq ft at 1 wet mil. Check the bid’s math against those figures. If the gallons can’t produce the thickness the warranty needs, the bid is short on material. Our solids content guide walks through the conversion, and the data sheet should also show compliance with ASTM D6694.

Allowances, Unit Prices and the Change-Order Trap

No contractor can know exactly how much wet insulation or deck damage is under a roof until it is opened up. Good proposals handle that honestly with allowances (e.g., “includes up to 1,000 sq ft of wet insulation replacement”) and unit prices for anything beyond that (e.g., “$X per sq ft for additional replacement; $Y per sheet for deck repair”).

Watch for the opposite pattern. A low bid with no allowance and no unit prices is often a bid that will make up its margin in change orders once the crew is on the roof and you have no leverage. When comparing proposals, put every line into one of five columns: included, excluded, allowance, unit-priced, or not addressed. The “not addressed” column is where the surprises come from.

Which Warranty Are You Actually Being Quoted?

“20-year warranty” can mean very different things on three different bids:

• Manufacturer material warranty: covers the coating product only. Labor to fix a failure is usually excluded.
• Manufacturer system / NDL warranty: covers material and labor with no dollar limit, issued only after the manufacturer inspects the finished roof and the job meets spec (usually only for certified applicators).
• Contractor workmanship warranty: typically 2–5 years, backed only by the contractor’s own balance sheet.

Ask for a sample of the actual warranty document, not just the length. Check whether ponding water is excluded and what maintenance you, the owner, have to document to keep it in force.

Five Red Flags on a Coating Bid

• No product name or data sheet, just “silicone coating.”
• No dry mil thickness, or only wet mils.
• No moisture survey, so no basis for the warranty the bid promises.
• A price far below the typical $3–6/sq ft range for a full silicone restoration, with nothing explaining the gap.
• One coat at a thickness that “meets warranty,” with no named warranty program behind it.

A properly scoped restoration still comes in well under replacement. At $3–6/sq ft against $10–16/sq ft for tear-off, owners typically save 50–70%, with a 1–3 day install for most mid-size roofs and no tear-off debris. The point of reading the quote closely isn’t to find the cheapest number. It’s to make sure the savings are real.

Get a Quote You Can Actually Compare

Every NoTearOff proposal itemizes the scope above: measured area, moisture survey results, prep, detail work, named product, target dry mils, gallons, and the exact manufacturer warranty you’ll receive. You can line it up against any other bid. For ballpark pricing first, see our silicone roof coating cost guide or learn how no-tear-off roofing works. If you’re in Delaware, see our Delaware silicone coating page.

Already holding a competitor’s bid? Request a free roof assessment. We’ll inspect your roof, give you a line-item proposal, and walk through any other quote you have so you know what each one actually covers.