How to Read a Roof Insurance Estimate (Xactimate Explained for Homeowners)

Xactimate is estimating software widely used by U.S. property insurers, adjusters, restoration professionals, and many roofing contractors. When an adjuster inspects your roof, they may enter line items into Xactimate: 'remove and replace laminated shingles,' 'drip edge,' 'starter strip,' 'ice & water shield.' The software then applies a regional price list (updated periodically, tied to your ZIP code) to produce a dollar figure. Not every carrier uses Xactimate on every claim, but the concepts below apply broadly.

That is important because the total on the last page is not one number your adjuster typed in — it is the sum of dozens of small unit prices multiplied by measured quantities. If a quantity is wrong, or a needed line item is missing, the total is wrong. Understanding the pieces is how you check the total.

Ignore the header noise for a minute. Most roof estimates come down to four numbers you will typically see on the summary page:

Every line item has four parts: description, quantity, unit of measure, and unit price. For example: 'Laminated - comp. shingle rfg. - w/out felt — 34.50 SQ — $285.00 — $9,832.50.' 'SQ' is a roofing square (100 sq. ft.), so that line covers 3,450 sq. ft. of shingle installation at $285 per square, totaling $9,832.50.

If that quantity is off by three squares because the adjuster forgot a dormer, you are short roughly $855 before O&P and tax. Small quantity errors compound quickly, which is why measurement reports (EagleView, Hover, GAF QuickMeasure) matter so much.

There are a handful of line items that legitimately belong on almost every full roof replacement and that get skipped often enough to be worth checking on yours:

'O&P' is the general contractor's overhead and profit — commonly stated as 10% and 10%, so 20% added on top of the subtotal. O&P may be included when a repair reasonably requires general-contractor coordination (a common industry rule of thumb is three or more trades). Whether O&P is included on your specific claim depends on carrier practices, policy language, project complexity, and state-specific rules. If it seems like it should apply and it isn't included, that's a fair question to ask.

Sales tax on materials is a separate line and is required in most states. Verify tax was applied to the material subtotal (not labor) at your state and local rate.

Here is the sequence that works: (1) Find the summary page and write down RCV, depreciation, ACV, deductible, and net ACV. (2) Confirm the roof measurements against your own measurement report or your contractor's. (3) Scan the line items for the overlooked list above. (4) Confirm O&P and sales tax are on the estimate if they should be. (5) Note any 'not included' or 'per invoice' items — those get supplemented later once you have a real invoice.

If any of those steps produces a mismatch, you have the beginning of a supplement request. You do not need to be right about every line; you need to be specific.