On an insurance roof the first check is deliberately short. A replacement-cost policy pays actual cash value first, holds back the depreciation, and releases it only after the work is finished and the receipts are in. Miss the policy's completion deadline, often 180 days or a year, and the held-back money stops being recoverable. A replacement runs about $5,800 to $20,000 in asphalt.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Roof replacement, asphalt shingleNational range | $5,800 to $20,000 per job |
| Roof repairNational range | $395 to $1,966 per job |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
Which of these two your policy carries decides how much of a roof you are buying yourself. An actual cash value policy pays the repair cost minus depreciation minus your deductible. A replacement cost policy pays the repair cost minus your deductible, with no depreciation taken out.
The difference compounds with the age of the roof. On one insurer's worked example, a $15,000 roof depreciating $750 a year has no value left after twenty years, and an actual cash value policy on that roof pays the homeowner nothing toward replacing it. The same roof on a replacement cost policy is still covered in full, less the deductible.
On a replacement cost policy the money arrives in two payments, and the first one looks wrong. The insurer pays the actual cash value up front, holding back the depreciation. When the work is finished and you send receipts or a completion certificate, you claim the held-back amount, which is called recoverable depreciation.
A worked example: a twenty thousand dollar replacement cost, less eight thousand of depreciation, less a two thousand dollar deductible, produces a ten thousand dollar first check on a job costing twice that. A homeowner who reads that check as the settlement, and shops for a $10,000 roof, has cut their own roof in half.
And there is a deadline nobody mentions. Most policies require repairs to be completed within a set window, often 180 days or a year from the date of loss unless an extension is approved. If that passes without completed and documented repairs, the right to recover the depreciation can expire. Depreciation is also non-recoverable outright on an actual cash value policy, and can be lost by using materials of lesser quality than what was there.
The offer arrives after every storm, and it is the clearest signal in this trade. Your deductible is your contribution to the claim. It is subtracted from the payout in every structure above. A contractor cannot make it disappear; they can only be paid less than they billed the insurer, or bill the insurer more than the job costs so the difference covers it.
Several states have made the practice illegal outright. In Colorado, C.R.S. 6-22-101 to 6-22-105 makes it illegal for a roofing contractor to pay, waive or rebate a homeowner's insurance deductible. Oklahoma's HB 1940, effective 1 November 2022, prohibits a roofing contractor paid from insurance proceeds from advertising or promising to pay any part of a deductible, and requires contractors, adjusters and insurers to give the customer written notice of the restriction. Oklahoma adds a consequence with teeth: the insurer is not obliged to accept that contractor's estimate at all.
No federal law bans it, so the question of legality is a state one and belongs on your state page. What is true everywhere is the arithmetic. A waived deductible is being paid by someone, and if the answer is the insurer, the homeowner's name is on the claim.
Licensing here is state and local, and roughly a third of states issue nothing at state level. Around thirty states or more require a state roofing or contractor license, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. Fifteen to twenty defer entirely to local jurisdictions, among them Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming.
So checking one level is not checking. In a state that issues no roofing license, the credential that exists is municipal, and a contractor who says the state does not license roofers is telling the truth while answering a different question.
The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel a contract signed at your home, on a sale of twenty-five dollars or more there, or one hundred and thirty dollars or more at a temporary location away from the seller's permanent place of business. The seller must disclose that right. After a storm, when contracts are signed on driveways, that is the rule that applies everywhere.
Some states add a roofing-specific right on top of it. Colorado requires the contract to say the owner may rescind within 72 hours of being told by their insurer that the claim has been denied in whole or in part, and separately allows a full deposit refund within 72 hours of signing. That is a different clock from the federal one and it starts on a different event.
Get the insurer's scope document and the contractor's estimate side by side, and ask about every line where they differ. That comparison is the whole conversation, and both parties expect to have it.
Ask whether the policy is actual cash value or replacement cost before you sign anything. It is the single number that decides how much of the roof you are paying for.
Find the completion deadline in the policy, in writing, and put it in the contract. Recoverable depreciation is real money that expires.
Treat a waived deductible as a reason to stop. It is illegal in several states, and where it is not, it is generally accomplished by billing the insurer more than the job costs.
Check licensing at the state and at the municipal level, because in about a third of states there is nothing at state level to check.
Ask what happens if the decking is rotten. It is the most common change order on a roof, it runs two to five dollars a square foot, and nobody can see it until the old roof is off.
About $5,800 to $20,000 for asphalt shingle, on Angi's March 2026 data, at $4 to $11 a square foot. HomeGuide's November 2025 figures are lower, $3 to $6 a square foot. Both are published here because the gap is real.
Because a replacement cost policy pays actual cash value first and withholds the depreciation. You claim the withheld amount after the work is finished and documented. A $20,000 roof with $8,000 depreciation and a $2,000 deductible produces a $10,000 first check.
The part of the settlement your insurer holds back on a replacement cost policy and pays after you complete the repairs and send receipts or a completion certificate. On an actual cash value policy it is not recoverable at all.
Usually. Most policies require repairs completed within a set window, often 180 days or one year from the date of loss unless extended. If that passes without completed and documented repairs, the right to recover the depreciation can expire.
In Colorado and Oklahoma it is illegal for a roofing contractor to do so, and other states have similar laws. Nowhere is it free money. The deductible is subtracted from the payout, so a waived one is paid either by the contractor's margin or by an inflated bill to the insurer.
There is no national roofing license. Roughly thirty states or more issue one; fifteen to twenty leave it entirely to cities and counties. Check both levels, because in about a third of states the state issues nothing.
Until midnight of the third business day, under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule, on a sale of $25 or more at your residence. Some states add a roofing-specific right, such as Colorado's 72 hours after an insurer denies a claim.
Decking replacement, at $2 to $5 a square foot. Nobody can see the condition of the wood under the old roof until the old roof is off, so ask what happens and what it costs before work starts.