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 during a wet week. 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 streaking, and edge condition no camera reads from the driveway. Whether the attic is included — in this climate the attic is where the heat story lives, 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 Piedmont streaking makes it genuinely hard to judge from photos: the stains can dress a sound roof as a tired one, or hide a spent surface entirely. After the summer, on an older covering — the heat’s damage is invisible from the street, and fall is the least costly moment to address it. 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 emergency into a planned, competitively quoted project.
Next step: Compare quotes line by line
A no-cost look offered by a firm that also sells replacements is a sales visit, not an inspection — sometimes a perfectly honest one, but the incentive is what it is. If the answer will steer thousands of dollars, pay for the answer.