Roof inspections used to be a quick-look item. Walk the roof, eyeball the shingles, write 'roof appears to be in serviceable condition,' move on. That changed when Florida's insurance market got serious about wind mitigation in the mid-2000s and again after Sally and Michael. Now the inspection is the document that decides whether you get an insurance policy at all, what you pay for it, whether your lender will close, and what a buyer is willing to pay for your house. The stakes on a one-page form are higher than they sound.
We do inspections in-house with a FL-certified wind mitigation inspector who's been on Northwest Florida roofs for years. That matters because a wind mitigation report is only as good as the inspector's documentation: the photos of the truss-to-wall connection, the underlayment, the roof deck attachment, the secondary water resistance. A report with weak documentation gets rejected by the carrier or sets you up for a denial later. We do the form the way the carrier wants to see it.
This page covers the four kinds of inspections we run most: wind mitigation, 4-point, pre-purchase real-estate inspections, and annual maintenance walks. The pricing is straightforward, the timelines are short, and the report you get back is the document you can hand to your insurance carrier, your lender, or your buyer without needing to explain it.
Why inspections matter so much on the panhandle
Florida's homeowner insurance market has been in turmoil for over a decade: carriers leaving the state, premiums climbing 30-50% in single renewal cycles, the assignment-of-benefits reforms changing how claims work. The wind mitigation report is one of the few levers a homeowner has to pull premium down. A well-documented report with credits for roof deck attachment, secondary water resistance, gable end bracing, and opening protection can knock 20-50% off the wind portion of the premium, which is the biggest line item on most panhandle policies. That's real money, every year, for the life of the policy.
Lenders run on 4-point inspections (roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC) to confirm the major systems have remaining useful life. Florida carriers now require 4-point reports on most policies for homes older than 30-40 years (some carriers want them on anything over 20). If your roof comes back marked as 'less than 5 years of useful life' on a 4-point, you can lose the policy at renewal regardless of whether the roof actually leaks. The inspector's call matters.
Real-estate transactions on the panhandle live and die on the roof condition. A 15-year-old shingle roof on a Pensacola home was insurable five years ago and now might not be — carriers have tightened roof-age underwriting significantly since 2022. Buyers come in with a roof inspection in hand, sellers come in with a roof inspection in hand, and the negotiation that follows is grounded in what those reports say. A vague inspection report ('roof in generally good condition') doesn't survive scrutiny in a tight market. A specific one ('3-tab shingles installed 2008, Atlas Sovereign, minor granule loss at south slope, no active leak, 4-7 years of remaining useful life') does.
The inspections we run
- Wind mitigation inspection (OIR-B1-1802 form): the report that determines your insurance wind credits
- 4-point inspection: roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, for insurance underwriting (we do the roof; we coordinate the other three with partners or your inspector of choice)
- Pre-purchase real-estate roof inspection, for buyers, sellers, and listing agents who want a roof-specific report alongside the general home inspection
- Annual maintenance inspection: visual walk, condition documentation, photos of any issues, recommended action list
- Post-storm inspection: documentation for an insurance claim, with photos and a written scope of damage
- New-construction final roof inspection, for builders, GCs, and owners closing on a new build
- Insurance carrier reinspection support: when your carrier sends their own inspector and the call doesn't match reality, we re-document and push back
How an inspection works
- 01
Scheduling and what to send us in advance
Call or use the quote form. Tell us which inspection type you need (wind mit, 4-point, real estate, etc.) and any deadline you're working against: closing date, policy renewal, carrier reinspection. Send any prior reports if you have them, and the year the roof was installed if you know it. We schedule within a few days; if it's a closing-related rush we can usually move faster.
- 02
On-site inspection
The inspector arrives, walks the roof, accesses the attic to document the underside of the deck and the truss-to-wall connections, and photographs everything the form requires. A wind mit inspection in the attic takes longer than people expect. The truss-to-wall connection has to be documented at multiple points, and on older homes the inspector is crawling through insulation to get the shots. We don't skip the attic.
- 03
Documentation and form completion
The report gets written promptly. Photos are labeled, the OIR-B1-1802 form is completed with every credit the roof actually qualifies for, and any deficiencies are noted with photos and recommended action. We don't pad the credits: false credits get caught on carrier reinspection and the homeowner ends up worse off. We do claim every credit you're entitled to, which is often more than a quick-look inspector finds.
- 04
Report delivery and carrier submission
You get the report as a PDF as soon as it's written. If you've authorized us to send it directly to your insurance carrier or agent, we do that too. The report is signed by the certified inspector and is in the format the carrier expects to see. No back-and-forth on whether the documentation is sufficient.
- 05
Follow-up and action items
If the inspection found issues (a deficiency the carrier will flag, a remaining-useful-life concern on a 4-point, a roof that needs work before a real-estate closing) we walk you through what the options are. We don't auto-quote repair work; we tell you what needs addressing and you decide whether to have us bid it. Inspections and repair work are separate services and we keep them separate.
Roof Inspections jobs around the panhandle
What inspections cost
Inspection pricing is flat-rate by type, not by the hour. A wind mitigation inspection runs in the low hundreds of dollars depending on the home size and access difficulty; a 4-point roof portion runs similar; a real-estate pre-purchase roof inspection is slightly more because the report depth is greater. We quote the specific price when you call. There are no surprise fees, no upsells on the inspection, and no 'free inspection' that's really a sales pitch for a re-roof.
The financial case for a wind mitigation inspection is straightforward: for most panhandle homes it pays for itself quickly. The wind-credit savings on the wind portion of a premium can be substantial. We've inspected homes where the homeowner was paying full wind premium for years because no one had done the wind mit; the first inspection unlocked real annual savings.
- Inspection type: wind mit, 4-point, real estate, maintenance, post-storm
- Home size and number of stories
- Attic accessibility: sealed attics or crawl-only access take longer
- Roof complexity: number of slopes, valleys, dormers
- Whether photos need to support a specific insurance carrier's documentation standard
- Rush turnaround: closing-related rush jobs have a small premium; standard turn is a few days
Why call us for inspections
In-house FL-certified wind mitigation inspector
Florida's wind mitigation inspection has to be performed and signed by a qualified inspector: a licensed general contractor, building contractor, roofing contractor, certain engineers, building inspectors, or a Florida-licensed home inspector with the proper endorsement. We have the certification in-house, not contracted out. The inspector who walks your roof is the inspector who signs the form.
We document every credit the roof qualifies for
Wind credits aren't optional opinions. They're determined by what the roof actually has: roof deck nail size and spacing, truss-to-wall connection type, secondary water resistance, opening protection. A quick-look inspector skips the attic crawl and gives partial credit by default. We document what's actually there, which often means more credits and a lower premium.
We don't sell inspections to sell roofs
Some contractors offer 'free roof inspections' that are really sales calls. We charge for the inspection, the inspection is the service, and whether you hire us for repair or re-roof work later is a separate decision. The report we hand you is what we'd write whether or not we ever sold you anything else.
Nearly 40 years of context on what panhandle roofs actually look like
Whitrock Associates has been doing roof work in Northwest Florida for nearly 40 years. The inspector knows what a 2003-built Pensacola subdivision home is supposed to look like in the attic, what underlayment got installed in Destin spec homes during the 2005-2008 boom, where the 1985 East Hill houses tend to leak. Local context is the difference between a generic inspection and a useful one.