Xactimate roofing line items all live under the RFG category, and each one is built from three parts: the category (RFG), a selector that names the material or task (the laminated-shingle selector, ridge cap, drip edge, ice & water shield, and so on), and an action — remove & replace, detach & reset, or labor-only. The codes themselves aren't the hard part; the money is in the supplements crews forget — starter course, ridge cap, drip edge, ice & water, steep and high-roof charges, flashing, pipe boots, and code-upgrade coverage — and in scoping the right shingle class and layer count. Exact selectors and prices live in your current Xactimate price list and change by region and version, so confirm there; this guide explains how the pieces fit and where claims leak.
Your roof report doesn't get paid — an estimate does. Whether you build it or the adjuster does, the scope lands in Xactimate, the estimating platform most carriers and independent adjusters use to price a claim. Getting the line items right is the difference between a scope that matches the adjuster's first read and one that bounces back for a supplement — or quietly underpays the job.
This is a field guide to how roofing line items are structured in Xactimate, the supplements most commonly left off a roof claim, and the scoping mistakes that trigger carrier pushback. One honest caveat up front: Xactimate's price list is proprietary and changes by region and version, so the exact selector strings and prices belong to your current price list, not to any blog post. We'll name the common items and where they live; verify the specifics in the software.
How an Xactimate line item is built
Every roofing line item is assembled from three pieces:
- Category — for roofing it's RFG. (Related work pulls from neighboring categories: gutters under GUTTER, soffit and fascia under SFG, painting under PNT, and so on.)
- Selector — the specific material or task: a three-tab vs. laminated shingle, ridge cap, starter, drip edge, underlayment, ice & water shield, flashing, a pipe jack, decking, and the rest.
- Action — what you're doing to it: remove & replace (R&R), detach & reset, replace-only, or labor-only (a "+" or detach/reset modifier).
So "tear off and replace architectural shingles" is the RFG category, the laminated-shingle selector, and the R&R action — written in most price lists as something like RFG 240. Underlayment, ridge, starter, and drip edge are their own selectors layered on top. The estimate is just a stack of these, each with a quantity (usually roofing squares, where one square = 100 sq ft) and a waste factor.
Common roofing line items and where they live
This is the working set for most asphalt-shingle losses. Treat the selector column as the family, not gospel — confirm the exact code in your price list.
| What it covers | Where it lives in Xactimate |
|---|---|
| Architectural / laminated shingle, tear-off & replace | RFG — laminated selector (e.g. RFG 240) |
| 3-tab shingle, tear-off & replace | RFG — 3-tab selector |
| Ridge cap, composition | RFG RIDGC |
| Starter course | RFG STARTER (or RFG STRT) |
| Drip edge / eave metal | RFG DRIP |
| Underlayment — felt or synthetic | RFG FELT / RFG SYN |
| Ice & water shield (self-adhering membrane) | RFG IWS |
| Pipe jack / boot flashing | RFG — pipe-jack selector |
| Step / counter flashing | RFG — flashing selector |
| Valley metal | RFG — valley selector |
| Roof decking / sheathing (OSB or plywood) | RFG — sheathing selector |
| Steep-slope charge (7/12 and up) | RFG STEEP |
| Two-story / high-roof charge | RFG HIGH |
Notice how much of that list is not the shingle. Which is exactly where claims leak.
The supplements crews leave on the table
A roof isn't a field of shingles — it's a system of components, and a proper R&R touches all of them. The most commonly missed line items, in rough order of how often they're forgotten:
- Starter course and ridge cap. You can't reinstall a roof without them, yet they're the two most-dropped items on a thin scope. They're separate selectors from the field shingle — not included in it.
- Drip edge. Required by current code at eaves and rakes (IRC R905.2.8.5), so on a full tear-off it isn't optional — it's a code item.
- Ice & water shield. Required at eaves in cold-climate jurisdictions and smart at valleys and penetrations everywhere. Frequently missed on the supplement.
- Steep and high-roof charges. Labor add-ons for pitch (7/12 and steeper) and for two-story or otherwise hard-to-reach roofs. Easy to forget, real money on a big or steep roof.
- Flashing, pipe boots, and valley metal. Step and counter flashing, new pipe jacks, and valley metal that can't be reused. Reusing old boots on a new roof is how you get a callback.
- Detach & reset. Satellite dishes, solar attachments, lightning protection, and anything else mounted to the roof that has to come off and go back on.
- Decking replacement. Rotten or delaminated sheathing found at tear-off — usually written as a unit allowance per sheet, often with a note that quantity is verified on tear-off.
- Second-layer tear-off, waste, dumpster, permits, and sales tax. The non-glamorous items that still cost money: extra tear-off for a second layer, the right waste percentage for cut-up roofs, haul-off, the permit, and tax on materials.
Ordinance & law: the code-upgrade line item
The biggest single item crews miss isn't a shingle — it's code-upgrade coverage, usually called Ordinance & Law (O&L) on the policy. When current building code requires something the original roof didn't have — drip edge, ice & water shield, a second layer of fasteners, full deck re-nailing, or a deck that meets current attachment standards — that upgrade is real, required scope. Many policies carry a separate O&L limit to cover it, and it's frequently left unclaimed simply because nobody cited the code that triggers it.
This is where a report that already carries the jurisdiction's code citation pays for itself: if the finding names the code that mandates the upgrade, the supplement writes itself. We break down what "code-aligned" documentation looks like in what a HAAG-aligned report is.
The scoping mistakes that trigger pushback
Getting the codes "right" isn't only about adding items — it's about not miswriting the ones you have:
- Wrong shingle class. Scoping a 3-tab price on an architectural roof (or vice versa) is the fastest way to get a scope kicked. Match the selector to what's actually on the roof.
- Missing the layers. A two-layer tear-off is more labor and more disposal than one. Count the layers and scope the extra tear-off.
- Over-bundling. Folding starter, ridge, drip edge, and flashing into "the roof" instead of listing them as separate line items. Bundled scopes underpay and look sloppy to an adjuster who itemizes.
- No waste factor. Hips, valleys, and cut-up roofs need a realistic waste percentage. Flat 0% waste on a complex roof is a scope that can't actually be built.
- Skipping minimum charges and access. Steep, high, and minimum-labor charges exist for a reason; leaving them off quietly discounts the job.
Codes don't replace the photos
A line item is a claim, and the claim has to be supported. An adjuster approving a supplement wants to see the evidence that justifies it: the photo of the rotten decking, the code that requires the drip edge, the manufacturer instruction that calls for new starter, the measurement that drives the square count. The cleanest supplements pair every added line item with the documentation that makes it non-negotiable. That's the bridge between your damage documentation and the estimate — and it's why the read of the adjuster's scope matters as much as the codes themselves, which we cover in how to read an adjuster's scope.
Where AI helps — honestly
Mapping a finding to a starting Xactimate code is repetitive, lookup-heavy work — exactly what a tool should take off your plate. Roof Diagnose tags each finding with the likely Xactimate category and selector and the building code behind it, so the report hands you a starting line item instead of a blank field.
The honest part: Xactimate's price list is proprietary, regional, and versioned, and the AI's suggestion is a starting point, not the final estimate. Confirm every selector and quantity in your current price list, and let the estimator own the scope. Used that way — a fast first pass you verify in the software — it saves the office hours without putting a wrong code in front of an adjuster.