Insurance & payment options
Paying for a roofyou did not plan on.
Almost nobody budgets for a roof. This is an honest map of how the homeowners we work with actually pay for one — starting with insurance, because in Michiana that is where most of it comes from, and because it is where the money is most often left on the table.
What you will not find on this page.
No APR. No monthly payment. No “as low as” figure. We are a roofing and exterior construction company — not a lender, not an insurance agency, and not a public adjuster — and we are not going to advertise terms we cannot guarantee on your particular project.
What we can do is explain exactly how each route works, tell you which one usually makes sense for a situation like yours, and arrange what fits once we have seen the roof. Everything below is general information about how roofing money normally moves. It is not legal, tax, or insurance advice, and your own policy document beats anything written here.
Four realistic routes
How people actually pay for it — in order of how often.
Most roofs in Michiana are paid for by one of these four, and plenty are paid for by two of them at once — a claim covering the storm damage and a homeowner covering an upgrade on top of it.
Most common after a storm
An insurance claim
If wind or hail damaged the roof, this is where the money usually comes from and it is a large share of the work we do. A covered claim typically leaves you paying your deductible plus anything you chose to upgrade beyond what the policy covers. The catch is that the process has several places where homeowners quietly lose money by not knowing how it works — which is why the section below is the longest thing on this page.
- Free inspection and photo documentation before you file
- We meet your adjuster on the roof
- Written scope the carrier can price against
- Supplements filed with photographs when the tear-off finds more
Simplest, when it is possible
Paying outright
Cash, check, or card. No application, no interest, no lien on the house, and no third party in the middle of the job. If you are close to being able to do this but not quite there, say so — sometimes the honest answer is to make the roof watertight now and schedule the full replacement for a season when the money is easier, which is a conversation we are happy to have.
- Cash, check and card accepted
- Payment tied to milestones, never a large deposit up front
- Repairs can often hold a roof safely for a season or two
Usually the cheapest borrowing
Home equity through your own bank
A home-equity loan, a line of credit, or a cash-out refinance arranged through your own bank or a local credit union is usually the least expensive way to borrow for a project this size, because you are the one shopping the terms rather than a middleman being paid to place you. It also means you are pledging your house, so the person you take advice from should not be the person selling you the roof.
- Shop at least two lenders, including a credit union
- Compare the total cost of the loan, not the monthly payment
- Ask about closing costs, draw periods, and prepayment terms
Arranged per project
Contractor-arranged financing
We are roofers, not lenders. When a project calls for it we arrange financing through a third party case by case, and you see the actual terms — rate, length, total cost — before you commit to anything. We do not publish an advertised rate, because a rate we cannot guarantee on your particular project is bait rather than information.
- Terms in writing before you sign
- No advertised “as low as” numbers we cannot honour
- We will tell you plainly if your own bank is the better deal
There is a fifth option nobody sells you: not replacing yet. If the roof has years left and the problem is a valley, a pipe boot or a length of flashing, a repair is the right spend and we will tell you so — even though the other invoice would have been larger.
The long version
A storm claim, end to end.
This is the route most of our storm work takes, and it is where homeowners lose the most money simply by not knowing how the numbers work. Every policy is different and yours is the authority — but the mechanics below are close to universal, and knowing them is worth real money.
- Claim step01 / 10
Get the roof inspected before you file
A claim on your record for damage a carrier was never going to cover does you no good. We inspect at no cost, photograph every slope by hand and from the air, and tell you honestly whether there is enough damage for a carrier to write it. If there is not, do not file — that is the whole advice.
- Claim step02 / 10
You file the claim, not us
Only the policyholder can open a claim, and no contractor should be doing it in your name. You will need a date of loss — the date of the storm, not the date the ceiling stain appeared — which can usually be pinned down from weather records for your address. Many policies require the claim inside a year of the date of loss and some allow less, so a storm from last season is worth checking now rather than next spring.
- Claim step03 / 10
The adjuster inspection
The carrier sends an adjuster, either staff or independent. Ask for the appointment time and tell us, because we will meet them on the roof with our own documentation in hand. This matters more than it sounds: after a widespread hail event an adjuster may be working through several properties a day, and bruising that is obvious to a roofer standing on the slope is genuinely easy to miss from the top of a ladder.
- Claim step04 / 10
The scope and the estimate come back
What you receive is a line-item estimate, most often written in Xactimate and priced with regional unit costs. Read it against the actual roof. Omitted steep or high charges, missing ice-and-water shield where code requires it, no drip edge, one layer of tear-off where there are two — these are ordinary, correctable errors rather than bad faith, but nobody will correct them if nobody reads the document.
- Claim step05 / 10
RCV, ACV and your deductible — the part that confuses everyone
Replacement cost value (RCV) is what it costs to put a new roof on today. Actual cash value (ACV) is that figure minus depreciation, which is the service life your old roof had already used up before the storm. On a replacement-cost policy the carrier pays the ACV first, holds the depreciation back, and releases it after the work is finished and invoiced. Your deductible comes out of that first payment. So the first check is smaller than the estimate by both the depreciation and the deductible — which is the exact moment most homeowners think they are being short-changed. Usually they are not. The rest is recoverable.
- Claim step06 / 10
Check whether your depreciation is recoverable at all
This is the single most expensive thing to discover late. Replacement-cost policies pay the withheld depreciation once the work is complete. Actual-cash-value policies never do — and many carriers now apply a roof surfacing payment schedule to older roofs, which converts the roof alone to ACV even when the rest of the policy is replacement cost. On an ACV settlement the gap between the payout and the cost of the roof is yours to cover. Read the declarations page and any roof endorsement before you sign a contract, not after.
- Claim step07 / 10
The mortgage company has to endorse the check
If there is a mortgage on the house, the claim check is very often made out to you and the lender jointly and has to be endorsed by them before the money is usable. Lenders normally release it in stages against their own inspections, and their processing takes real time. Start that paperwork the day the first check arrives — it is the most common reason a job that has been approved for three weeks still has not started.
- Claim step08 / 10
Supplements, when the tear-off finds more
Some things cannot be known until the old roof is off: rotted decking, a second layer nobody could see from above, a code requirement the original scope missed. A supplement is a formal request to the carrier to add those line items, supported by photographs taken as the work happens. It is a normal part of a properly handled claim, it is not a change order aimed at your wallet, and it is a large part of why we photograph everything as we go.
- Claim step09 / 10
Completion, final invoice, and the second check
When the roof is finished we send the carrier the final invoice and completion documentation. The withheld depreciation is released, and that is the second check. Added up across the whole process you should end up paying your deductible plus anything you chose to upgrade beyond the policy scope — a heavier shingle line, a colour change, work the carrier was never covering — and nothing else.
- Claim step10 / 10
If you disagree with the outcome
A denial or a thin scope is not always the end of it. You can request a re-inspection and walk the roof alongside the adjuster, which is the point at which hail bruising and wind creasing tend to get found. Most policies also contain an appraisal clause — a contractual route for settling a disagreement about the amount of loss using independent appraisers. What a roofing contractor can properly do is document and explain the damage technically. Negotiating your claim or interpreting your policy for you is licensed work in most states, and any roofer who offers to do it should worry you.
Found at tear-off
Why we photograph everything
Documentation is not paperwork. It is the money.
The photograph beside this text is decking that nobody could see until the old roof came off. Rotted sheathing around a chimney is not something an adjuster can scope from the ground, and it is not something you should be arguing about after the fact from memory. Photographed in place, with the date and the address attached, it becomes a line item on a supplement instead of a conversation about who pays for it.
That is the whole reason our inspections end with images rather than an opinion. Hail bruising, creased tabs, lifted nail heads, failed pipe boots, the second layer nobody declared — a claim is decided on evidence, and the evidence has to be captured while the roof is open. We fly the roof where the pitch makes that safer, and you get the imagery whether or not you hire us.
The mechanics of the inspection itself, and what a post-storm walk actually looks for, are on the storm damage & insurance restoration page.
Two offers that should end the conversation.
“We'll cover your deductible”
Absorbing, discounting or rebating a homeowner's deductible is fraud against the carrier, and it is expressly prohibited in many states. In practice it is funded by inflating the invoice the carrier sees. A contractor willing to falsify that document for you will falsify one about you just as easily, and you are the one whose name is on the claim.
“You qualify for a free roof”
Nobody can promise a claim outcome before an adjuster has stood on the roof — not us, not the crew knocking doors two days after a hailstorm. What they are usually after is a signature on a contingency agreement that binds you to them if the claim is approved. Do not sign anything on your porch. There is more on vetting a contractor on our reviews page.
One conversation, no obligation
Tell us what you are working with. We will tell you what is possible.
A claim already in progress, a repair you would rather stage across two seasons, a replacement you need to borrow for, or a number you simply have to stay under — every household is different and we would rather hear the real constraint than guess at it. We will lay out the options for your project plainly, including the ones that make us less money. The inspection and the conversation are both free and neither obligates you to anything.
Common questions
Money questions, answered straight.
If your question is not here, ask it on the phone. We would rather spend ten minutes explaining a settlement than have you sign something you did not follow.
Do you offer in-house financing?
We are not a lender, so nothing is financed in house. When a project calls for it we arrange financing through a third party case by case and put the actual terms — rate, term length, total cost of borrowing — in front of you before you commit. We deliberately do not advertise a headline rate on this page, because a rate we cannot guarantee for your particular project is marketing rather than information.
Will my insurance pay for a whole new roof?
It depends on the cause of the damage, the type of policy, and the age and condition of the roof. Sudden storm damage from wind or hail is usually a covered peril; gradual wear, poor maintenance and old age never are. A replacement-cost policy on a repairable roof may fund a repair rather than a replacement. The only way to know is to get the roof inspected and read your declarations page — both of which cost nothing.
What is recoverable depreciation?
It is the part of the claim your carrier holds back at first payment and releases once the work is done. They pay actual cash value up front — the replacement cost minus the wear the old roof had already used — then pay the withheld remainder after you complete the work and submit the final invoice. On a replacement-cost policy that money is yours to recover. On an actual-cash-value settlement it is not, which is why it is worth confirming which one you have before you sign anything.
Will filing a claim raise my premium?
Carriers treat weather and catastrophe claims differently from liability claims, and rate-setting varies by carrier, by state and by your own claim history — so anyone who gives you a confident yes or no is guessing. The person to ask is your own agent, and you can ask before you file. We would rather tell you that than pretend a roofer knows how your carrier prices your policy.
Can you waive or cover my insurance deductible?
No, and you should walk away from anyone who offers to. Absorbing, discounting or “taking care of” a homeowner’s deductible is fraud against the carrier, it is expressly prohibited in many states, and it usually shows up in the paperwork as an inflated invoice. A contractor willing to falsify that document is telling you what else they are willing to falsify.
Do I have to pay a deposit before you start?
Not a large one. Shingles are delivered on supplier credit shortly before the job, so there is rarely a legitimate reason for a roofer to need a big share of the contract before work begins. We structure payment around milestones instead — materials on site, work complete, final inspection passed. On insurance work the timing normally follows the carrier’s own payments.
Free inspection & written scope
Find out what the roof needs. Then work out the money.
Every one of these routes starts the same way: someone standing on the roof with a camera, telling you honestly what is up there. Storm damage? We answer after hours for emergency tarping.