I hired a roofer to shingle my roof. They did a reasonable…

The spreadsheet layout is a little confusing. The cost of replacing the perennial plants is estimated at $436.45.

The white pine is the large mature tree that they broke a limb off to make it easier to do the garage roof - this was after I asked them if the garage roof was sufficiently accessible for them to do their work. When I saw that they had broken the white pine branch they said it was in their way and "besides" it is no good for the roof. I replied that that was my decision and I have taken great care trimming the branch growth over the years because it provided privacy to my garden. The $1685.59 is the cost to remove/replace the damaged tree. The $1680.00 is an estimate of what it would cost to place high fence panels to block the view that is now exposed due to the loss of the white pine limb.

So there are two options:

1) the replacement of perennials and the replacement of the white pine is estimated to be $2144.04 (the white pine replacement is probably impossible because it would be very difficult to get such a large speciment into that part of the garden).

2) the replacement of perennial and the construction of two high fence panels to recreate the privacy that the white pine afforded is estimated to be $2116.45 (and may be impossible because of zoning bylaws prohibiting such a high fence

Because neither of these options is possible I'm not sure what compensation is reasonable for the loss of privacy.

They have not seen the list that you saw, but they did see an earlier version with rough estimates before I went to various nurseries to get actual costs.

I assume you meant that I shouldn't pay them anything for the roof until this is resolved. Would trying to negotiate the roof price/damage compensation by providing them with the damages spreadsheet in any way weaken my case if we ended up in small claims court?

Do you have a ballpark figure for what it would cost to have a lawyer send them a letter? Are you a lawyer who could do this?