Cynical, but that's why I searched this forum and made the post. I'm
cynical too. The low bidder proposed 15# felt and four nails. It made
me wonder about what other ways they would cut qulaity on my roof..
Richard J Kinch wrote:
What can be making such a difference?

It is quite typical to have wildly varying bids for the same work.

This is especially typical of locales with tight licensing and other
restraint-of-trade gimmicks imposed by the local gangsters ... excuse
me, building department run by the builders. When things get busy (like
your hailstorm creating more work than the licensees can handle), then
there
is a sort of collusion at work as follows. It takes time and effort to
calculate a precise estimate that gets the bid to its low but still
profitable amount without risk to the bidder. Contractors who aren't
already busy will tend to give such low bids. Other contractors, who
are already busy with the rush of business, will bid more or less as a
courtesy to their fellows in the biz and in support of the collusive
system, but such bids will be based on a cursory inspection and will be
overpriced to guarantee that the job (which they don't really want
because they're already busy) won't be awarded to them or if by chance
is awarded to them won't possibly turn out to be anything but highly
profitable.

You've got to understand that you're an amateur at hiring a contractor,
and the contractors are experienced professionals at manipulating you
(this mindset is part of the process of becoming a licensed contractor,
including a kind of brainwashing into belief that a collusive restraint-
of-trade price-maintenance scheme is "in the best interest of the
consumer" and "professional"), and the game and the laws are all rigged
in their interests.