Metal roofing keeps taking residential market share — and 2026's steel and aluminum tariffs have made it the most expensive category to misprice. This guide gives roofers the working playbook for metal: how standing seam and steel shingle systems differ in the field and in the estimate, the Xactimate line items that go missing on metal scopes, why "repair vs. replace" is a bigger fight on metal than on asphalt, how to protect margins when panel prices move between bid and install, and how to build a metal macro library that doesn't forget the trim.

Most roofers don't lose money on big, dramatic estimating errors — they bleed it through the same small Xactimate mistakes repeated on every claim. From wrong price lists and lowball waste factors to forgotten steep charges and the infamous felt-suffix mix-up, this guide breaks down the nine most expensive Xactimate mistakes roofers make, what each one costs, and the system that prevents all of them at once.

Verisk has built an AI roofing-estimate generator directly into Xactimate. XactGen Roofing promises to take roof measurement data and produce a scope that's "80% complete in minutes" — and it's aimed at adjusters and claims teams first. That changes what lands on a roofer's desk. This guide explains what XactGen is, how it works, who it's built for, the three things roofers should expect when AI-generated carrier scopes become the norm, and why your own estimating system matters more now, not less.