What a roof inspection costs, and when it earns its price
An inspection is cheap next to the decisions it informs: a home purchase, a replacement budget, a ceiling that stained last February. The price varies with what is actually done, and the difference between a drive-by opinion and a documented evaluation is most of what you are paying for.
What moves the price
Whether the roof is walked. A ground-and-ladder look costs less and catches less; walking the surface finds soft decking underfoot, what actually sits under the moss, and edge condition no camera reads from the driveway. Whether the attic is included: in this climate the attic is where condensation, ventilation problems and mis-ducted fans live, and no exterior look can replace it. And whether you get a written report with photographs, versus a verbal impression that evaporates by the weekend.
When it clearly earns its price
Before buying a house: roof condition is one of the largest single numbers hiding in a purchase, and this region’s housing makes it easy to misjudge: the listing photos show the sunny slope. Right after the wet season, on an older covering: eight months of damp do their damage slowly, and March is when it shows, before the dry-window rush raises every price.
And when a roof is near the end of its expected life: a documented “three more years” is worth real money, and a documented “this season” turns a future scramble into a planned, competitively quoted project.
Next step: Compare quotes line by line
The free roof check advertised around here almost always comes from a company whose business is replacing roofs. That does not make the assessment wrong, but it does mean nobody in the conversation is paid to tell you the covering has five good years left. On a Sound-area roof where moss and edge rot decide the verdict, a paid opinion from someone with nothing to sell is worth its price several times over.