Roof inspection cost dataset

Five methods, priced separately

The free row is in this dataset on purpose, priced at zero and flagged in the report column, because leaving it out would be the dishonest choice. A free inspection is a sales visit rather than an inspection — partial rather than useless, since the person deciding whether you need work is the one who gets paid for it. What the paid rows buy is the report column: $166 of $608 here, and a document that belongs to you rather than to the company hoping to do the work. ⚠️ Two of these are right for one question each and wrong for everything else. Infrared finds wet insulation under a flat or low-slope roof and rarely beats walking a pitched shingle roof. A drone sees the surface without anybody going up, which is the right answer on a steep or fragile roof, and cannot feel the deck flex underfoot, which is the one thing walking is for.

Access costs more than area

⚠️ The left-hand table is the correction that shaped this model. Roof area is derived by dividing floor area between the storeys and multiplying by 1.2 for pitch, so a two-storey house has less roof than a single-storey house of the same floor area — and the first version of this dataset therefore made it cheaper to inspect, which is absurd. It was caught by the table not being monotonic. The fix was structural rather than cosmetic: hours are half fixed and half scaled by area, because getting up, going round and getting down costs the same on a small roof as on a large one, and the height and pitch factors are set above the area term deliberately. The whole spread across four very different houses is $68, which is the real shape of this job: mostly the cost of somebody turning up and writing it down.

Where patching stops paying

Calculated on a 15-year-old roof from our own roof repair and roof replacement datasets at the same wages — a new roof here is $14,547. ⚠️ Two things have to be said with it. Patch cost is scaled linearly from the repair model, where a tenth of the roof is one ordinary repair; that is a declared assumption rather than a measurement, and a real roof does not damage itself evenly. And the crossing lands at about 40% rather than at the 25% the popular rule names — the two are not the same claim. The code version of the 25% rule, which limits how much of a roof may be repaired before the whole thing must be brought up to current requirements, is local: its threshold and its period vary by jurisdiction and there is no national figure worth publishing here.

Line items

74% of the reference total comes from estimated rather than official figures. The reference job is a walked inspection of a 2,000 square foot single-storey house — about 24 squares of roof, 2.9 trade hours, with a written report. Methods not selected sit at zero quantity, so the table below is all five rather than one job.

The reasoning behind each figure

Inspection fee — Visual, from the ground and inside the atticestimated, ±41%

• Binoculars from the ground and, more usefully, an hour in the attic with a torch looking at the underside of the deck for daylight, staining and damp. ⚠️ Cheap and better than it sounds: most roof leaks are visible from below long before they are visible from above.
• The fee covers turning up and the equipment. The time on the roof is the separate line below, so a bigger or more awkward roof costs more without the base fee moving.

Visual, from the ground and inside the attic — time on site

• Modelled at 1.2 hours for a 2,000 square foot single-storey house. Half of that is fixed and half scales with roof area, because getting up, going round and getting down costs the same on a small roof as on a large one.
• Multiplied by 1.55 above one storey and by 1.35 on a steep pitch. ⚠️ Those factors are larger than the area term on purpose: a two-storey house has LESS roof than a single-storey house of the same floor area, and inspecting it still costs more, because the ladder work is where the time and the risk are.
• ⚠️ Height and pitch are where the honest cost is. Above one storey the ladder work changes, and past about a 7:12 pitch a roof stops being walked and starts being climbed with fall protection.

Inspection fee — Walked, on the roofestimated, ±43%

• Somebody goes up and looks at the flashings, the penetrations, the valleys and the condition of the covering, then writes it down. It is the standard against which the others are judged, and it is the only one that finds soft decking underfoot.
• The fee covers turning up and the equipment. The time on the roof is the separate line below, so a bigger or more awkward roof costs more without the base fee moving.

Walked, on the roof — time on site

• Modelled at 2 hours for a 2,000 square foot single-storey house. Half of that is fixed and half scales with roof area, because getting up, going round and getting down costs the same on a small roof as on a large one.
• Multiplied by 1.55 above one storey and by 1.35 on a steep pitch. ⚠️ Those factors are larger than the area term on purpose: a two-storey house has LESS roof than a single-storey house of the same floor area, and inspecting it still costs more, because the ladder work is where the time and the risk are.
• ⚠️ Height and pitch are where the honest cost is. Above one storey the ladder work changes, and past about a 7:12 pitch a roof stops being walked and starts being climbed with fall protection.

Inspection fee — Drone surveyestimated, ±44%

• High-resolution photographs of every slope without anybody going up, which is genuinely better on a steep or fragile roof and on anything three storeys or higher. What it cannot do is feel the deck flex or lift a shingle, so it sees the surface rather than the structure.
• The fee covers turning up and the equipment. The time on the roof is the separate line below, so a bigger or more awkward roof costs more without the base fee moving.

Drone survey — time on site

• Modelled at 1.6 hours for a 2,000 square foot single-storey house. Half of that is fixed and half scales with roof area, because getting up, going round and getting down costs the same on a small roof as on a large one.
• Multiplied by 1.55 above one storey and by 1.35 on a steep pitch. ⚠️ Those factors are larger than the area term on purpose: a two-storey house has LESS roof than a single-storey house of the same floor area, and inspecting it still costs more, because the ladder work is where the time and the risk are.
• ⚠️ Height and pitch are where the honest cost is. Above one storey the ladder work changes, and past about a 7:12 pitch a roof stops being walked and starts being climbed with fall protection.

Inspection fee — Infrared moisture surveyestimated, ±41%

• A thermal camera picks up wet insulation under the covering as it releases heat after sunset. ⚠️ It is the right tool for one specific question — where is the water actually getting in on a flat or low-slope roof — and overkill for anything else. On a pitched shingle roof it rarely tells you more than walking it.
• The fee covers turning up and the equipment. The time on the roof is the separate line below, so a bigger or more awkward roof costs more without the base fee moving.

Infrared moisture survey — time on site

• Modelled at 2.6 hours for a 2,000 square foot single-storey house. Half of that is fixed and half scales with roof area, because getting up, going round and getting down costs the same on a small roof as on a large one.
• Multiplied by 1.55 above one storey and by 1.35 on a steep pitch. ⚠️ Those factors are larger than the area term on purpose: a two-storey house has LESS roof than a single-storey house of the same floor area, and inspecting it still costs more, because the ladder work is where the time and the risk are.
• ⚠️ Height and pitch are where the honest cost is. Above one storey the ladder work changes, and past about a 7:12 pitch a roof stops being walked and starts being climbed with fall protection.

Written report with photographsestimated, ±62%

• ⚠️ This is the line that separates an inspection from a look, and it is the reason to pay for one at all. A written report with dated photographs is a document you can hand to a second contractor, to a buyer, or to an insurer — and it belongs to you rather than to the company hoping to do the work.
• A free inspection does not come with one. That is not an oversight: the value of a sales visit to the company is the conversation, not the paperwork.

Written report — preparing it

• Modelled at 0.9 hours to sort the photographs, write it up and mark the plan. An insurance claim adds to that, because the documentation has to be organised the way a claim is read.

Documenting damage for an insurance claimestimated, ±62%

• Marking and photographing every impact, measuring test squares, recording slope by slope and dating it against a weather event.
• ⚠️ This page prices work and does not advise on claims. What is worth knowing is the distinction most policies turn on — sudden accidental damage against wear and deterioration — and that an independent report carries more weight with an adjuster than one from the company that wants the job.

Not included in this dataset

Fixing anything that is found

An inspection tells you what is wrong. Our roof repair page prices patching it and our roof replacement page prices starting again — and the whole argument for paying for an inspection is that it tells you which of those two you actually need.

What your insurer will pay

⚠️ Most policies distinguish sudden accidental damage from wear and deterioration, and which one a worn roof counts as is decided on your roof and in your wording. This page prices the inspection; it does not advise on a claim, and a report from somebody independent carries more weight than one from the company that wants the job.

Going up there yourself

It is free and it is the single most dangerous thing a homeowner can do to save a couple of hundred dollars. Falls are the leading cause of injury among older adults. Most of what a roof is hiding can be seen from a ladder at the eaves or from inside the attic.

The rule about how much can be patched

Many jurisdictions limit how much of a roof may be repaired before the whole thing has to be brought up to current code, and the threshold and the period vary locally. The economic version of that question is calculated on this page; the code version is a phone call to your building department, and there is no national number worth publishing.

Anything under the roof

A roof inspection looks at the roof. Attic insulation, ventilation and any moisture already in the structure are separate questions with their own pages here, even though an inspector standing in your attic will very likely mention all three.