Cost Home Book is written and edited by the Cost Home Book editorial team. The team builds the site's cost models from publicly available US wage statistics, supplier price lists and permit data, and updates each guide as those sources change. It has no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer or lead-generation service. Figures on this site are estimates for reading a quote, not quotes.
How the figures are built
Every cost band starts as a national figure with a date on it. Where a guide is priced from published data, the labor leg follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the trade that does the work, and the materials leg follows a Producer Price Index series for what it is made of. Once a guide's sources section is published, both are named and linked at its foot, with the release they were read from.
The one number no dataset supplies is how much of a job is labor and how much is materials. That split is a judgement, it is stated on the page, and it is the difference between a roof price that moves with roofers' wages and one that moves with asphalt. How we calculate costs sets out the arithmetic, and the editorial policy is explicit about which figures are derived and which are estimates.
Independence
We have no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer, marketplace or lead-generation service. The site is funded by display advertising and nothing else — no referral fees, no commissions, no paid placements. No advertiser sees a figure before a reader does. How the site is funded.
Corrections and contact
If a figure here does not match what you were quoted, that is worth knowing and we would rather hear it. Send the page, the figure and what you were actually quoted to corrections@costhomebook.com, or see the corrections policy for what happens next. Anything else: hello@costhomebook.com.
Guides by the Cost Home Book editorial team
244 in total, page 19 of 25.
Roof decking replacement cost$70 to $150eachReplacing roof decking costs $70 to $150 per 4x8 sheet. It is the line that most often makes a final invoice beat the estimate, and nobody can quote it honestly in advance.
Roof leak repair cost$300 to $1,500eachRepairing a roof leak costs $300 to $1,500, typically $700. Most of that spread is finding the leak: water enters in one place and appears somewhere else entirely.
Emergency roof repair cost$300 to $700per projectEmergency tarping costs $300 to $700, and after-hours rates run 25% to 40% above scheduled work. An emergency is water entering the house; everything else costs less on Tuesday.
Roof cleaning cost$15 to $60per sq ftCleaning a roof costs $0.15 to $0.60 per square foot soft-washed, so $300 to $1,200 on a typical house. Never pressure wash asphalt shingles: it strips the granules permanently.
How long does a roof last$386 to $749per squareArchitectural asphalt lasts 25 to 30 years, metal 40 to 70, slate 75 to 150. Most roofs fall short of their rating, and the gap is almost always ventilation.
Roof replacement timeline$386 to $749per squareThe work takes one to three days. The calendar from signing to finishing is two to eight weeks, and almost all of that is waiting for permits, materials and weather.
Roof warranty explained$386 to $749per squareA roof carries two warranties people mistake for one. The manufacturer covers the shingles, the contractor covers the installation, and most roof problems are installation.
How to pay for a roof$386 to $749per squareA roof is usually a $14,000 bill arriving without notice. How it is paid changes the total by thousands, and contractor 0% offers are often deferred interest rather than free money.
Foundation repair cost$350 to $30,000per projectFoundation repair costs $350 for one injected crack and $7,000 to $30,000 for underpinning a settling house. The same visible crack can mean either, which is why the first $400 should buy an independent engineer.
Foundation crack repair cost$350 to $1,000eachInjecting a foundation crack costs $350 to $1,000, typically $600. The expensive question is not the injection: it is whether the crack is the problem or a symptom of something moving.