You do not need to be home for a roof-only inspection. We can measure and photograph the roof from the ground, the ladder, and a drone, then send you the report. You do need to be home, or leave attic access arranged, if your roof needs an interior check, since that is where most ventilation and decking problems actually show up. Either way, plan on a written quote the same day.
I am Aaron Scott, licensed Michigan residential builder and owner of Roofing Army. About 110 callers a year ask us directly whether they need to be home for an inspection, and another 72 text us about driveway access, gate codes, or a dog in the yard before we show up. Those are fair questions. Nobody wants to take a day off work for a stranger to walk their roof, and nobody wants to come home to find a crew let themselves in. Here is exactly what our free inspection covers, step by step, so you know what to expect before we knock on the door.
Do I Need to Be Home for a Roof Inspection?
It depends on what we need to see. A standard exterior inspection, roof surface, flashing, gutters, and a drone pass over the whole roofline, does not require anyone home. We can work from the exterior and leave a report. But a full inspection also includes getting into the attic, because that is where we check insulation, ventilation, and the underside of the decking for moisture and rot, none of which shows up from the ground or from photos of the shingles. If attic access means a pull-down ladder in a closet or a hatch in a garage ceiling, someone needs to be there to let us in, or you need to leave that access open and tell us where it is ahead of time.
If you are dealing with an active leak or storm damage, we strongly recommend being home, or at least reachable by phone, so we can show you what we are finding in real time rather than describing it after the fact.
What Actually Happens During a Free Roof Inspection?
This is the same process whether the call started as a routine checkup, a suspected leak, or storm damage:
| Step | What we do | Do you need to be home? |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Exterior walk and drone pass | Measure the roof, photograph every slope, check flashing, valleys, pipe boots, and gutters | No |
| 2. Attic check | Insulation depth, intake and exhaust ventilation, decking condition from underneath, signs of a bathroom fan venting into the attic | Yes, or leave access open |
| 3. Ventilation analysis | We calculate what the attic actually needs on every estimate, not just whether the current setup looks fine | No |
| 4. Written quote | Delivered the same day in most cases, with options at different price points | No |
Across our jobs this year, the median time from the inspection to a quote in your hands is about half a day. The bigger wait is usually getting the inspection scheduled in the first place, a median of 3.2 days from the first call to the actual visit, which is normal and gives us time to pull satellite measurements ahead of showing up.
The attic check is the part most homeowners do not expect, and it is also where we catch the most. On most of the attics our crews walk into, they find a bathroom exhaust fan venting straight into the insulation instead of outside through the roof or a wall, something that does real damage over years without ever showing up as a visible leak from inside the house. A flashlight and five minutes in the attic catches that; a drone pass over the shingles never will. We cover exactly why that matters in our guide on bathroom fans venting into the attic, and how we balance intake and exhaust ventilation in general in our roof ventilation breakdown.
What If I Can't Be Home, but You Need the Attic?
This comes up often enough that we plan around it. A lot of our access texts are about exactly this: a lockbox code, a neighbor with a key, a garage code, or a note that the dog needs to be put away first. If you cannot be present, tell us that up front and we will work out attic access with you, whether that is scheduling around a half day you can take off, having a family member let us in, or in some cases splitting the visit into an exterior pass now and an attic check on a day that works. What we will not do is go into a home without a plan the homeowner agreed to.
Will the Inspection Actually Cost Me Anything?
No. The inspection itself, including the attic and the drone photos, is free whether or not you end up booking work with us. We make our money building roofs, not charging homeowners to find out what is wrong with one. The only time a fee enters the picture is if you specifically want a formal written report for something like a home sale or an insurance dispute where photos and measurements alone are not enough; ask about that when you schedule, since it is a different product than a standard estimate visit.
Will I Get One Price or Options?
You get options. We build every homeowner five quotes at different price points off the same inspection, rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it number, because there is rarely one correct roof for a house. All five are written the same day, and every photo from the drone and the attic lands in your own job portal so you can see exactly what we saw. A project manager reviews every job before and during the work, not just the salesperson who wrote the quote.
Before Your Inspection: What to Have Ready
- Attic access location. Know where the pull-down ladder or hatch is, and clear a path to it if it is behind storage.
- Gate codes or lockbox info if you will not be home and we need the backyard or garage.
- Pets secured somewhere other than the yard or the attic access point.
- A rough history of the roof's age, any known leaks, and whether an insurance claim is involved, so the inspection can confirm or rule those out.
- A phone number you will actually answer the day of, in case we find something during the attic check worth a quick call.
What Happens Next
Once the inspection is done and the quote is in hand, the next step is comparing it against anything else you have, or against what a fair price should look like for your roof. Our guides on how to compare roofing quotes when one is thousands higher and what should be in a roof replacement quote, line by line both walk through exactly what to check once you have a written number. If you are still deciding whether to even schedule an in-person visit versus asking for a price over the phone, our piece on why a roofer will not quote you sight unseen explains why the attic check matters as much as the roof walk.
We run free inspections across Southeast Michigan from offices in Oxford, Ferndale, and Rochester Hills. Whether the job turns out to be a repair or a full roof replacement, or you just want a second opinion covered under our roof repair services, the inspection costs nothing and you can see every past project with its real price in our job gallery before you ever book one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be home for a roof inspection?
Not for a roof-only, exterior inspection, which we can complete with a ladder and drone photos. You do need to be home or have attic access arranged if the inspection includes checking the attic for ventilation and decking issues, which is the part that catches most real problems. About 110 homeowners a year ask us this directly, and the answer always comes down to whether attic access is needed.
Is a roof inspection actually free?
Yes, our standard inspection, including the attic check and drone photos, is free whether or not you book any work with us. A separate fee only applies if you want a formal written report for something like a home sale or an insurance dispute, which is a different product from a standard estimate visit.
How long does it take to get a quote after the inspection?
Across our jobs this year, the median time from inspection to a written quote in hand is about half a day. The scheduling wait beforehand is usually longer, a median of 3.2 days from your first call to the actual inspection visit.
What does a roof inspection actually check?
An exterior walk and drone pass over every slope, flashing, valleys, and pipe boots, plus an attic check for insulation, ventilation, and decking condition from underneath. We also run a ventilation analysis on every estimate, calculating what the attic actually needs rather than just eyeballing it.
Will I get pressured into one option after the inspection?
No. We write five quotes at different price points from the same inspection, so you can see a real range of good, better, and best configurations rather than a single number with no context. Every inspection photo also lands in your own job portal.
