Storm

Roof Inspections After a Murfreesboro Storm: What’s Really Free

By Murfreesboro Roof Repair · September 29, 2026 · 5 min read

Within a week of any big storm in Rutherford County, a homeowner can have four different people offering to inspect the roof: a roofer they called, a roofer who knocked, the insurance adjuster, and sometimes a public adjuster or a "claims consultant." Each inspection costs something different and is for something different. Here is how to tell them apart.

The roofer you called: usually free

If you call a roofing contractor because there are shingles in the yard and you want the damage fixed, the look is free. We are quoting work; the inspection is how we quote it. You get photos from the roof, a written price, and an honest read on whether the damage is a $500 repair, a claim, or nothing at all.

What you do not get for free is a formal written report for someone else's purposes — a real estate transaction, a dispute with an insurer, a landlord who wants documentation for six properties. That is a different product, and it is priced separately.

The written report: $150–$300

A standalone roof inspection with a written photo report is $150–$300 in Murfreesboro, depending on the size and pitch of the roof. It covers the whole roof, not just the storm damage: shingle condition, seal strip adhesion, every boot and flashing, valleys, decking, and the attic. It gives you a remaining-life estimate and a price for each item found.

After a storm, this is the version you want if:

• You are going to dispute an adjuster's finding and need something on paper
• You are selling or buying and the buyer's inspector flagged the roof
• The roof was a 2008–2014 builder-grade install and you want to know what else is wrong while someone is up there

If you go ahead with the repair or replacement we quote from the report, the fee comes off the job.

The adjuster: free, but not on your side

Your insurer sends an adjuster after you file. The adjuster's inspection is free to you, and the adjuster is generally competent and generally in a hurry. They may walk the roof, or they may use a ladder and a drone. They will look for the storm damage they were sent to evaluate — creased and missing shingles, hail bruising, wind-lifted seal strips — and they will note pre-existing wear, because pre-existing wear reduces what the policy owes.

Two things help you here. First, have your roofer's photos ready before the adjuster comes, ideally with creased shingles chalked so they show up. Second, ask your roofer to be there. Most adjusters do not mind; it is when the two of them are looking at the same shingle that the estimates stop disagreeing.

If the adjuster's estimate misses a slope your photos show, you request a re-inspection. That happens regularly and it is not a fight; it is the process.

The door-knocker's "free inspection": free, and that is the point

After a storm the subdivisions off Blackman Road, Veterans Parkway and Sam Ridley Parkway get canvassed. The offer is always the same: a free roof inspection. It is free because the inspection is a sales call, and the sale is a contingency agreement — a document that says if the insurer approves a claim, this contractor does the work at whatever price the insurer pays.

Sometimes the roof really is damaged and the contractor really is licensed in Tennessee, and it works out. Often the "inspection" finds damage on every roof on the street, the paper is signed on the doorstep, and the homeowner discovers they cannot get a second quote without breaching a contract. Ask for the Tennessee license class and check it on the state lookup before anyone goes up your ladder. Our post on questions to ask before hiring has the rest.

Public adjusters and claims consultants

A public adjuster works for you, not the insurer, and takes a percentage of the claim, commonly 10–20%. On a large, disputed claim after a tornado, that can be worth it. On a one-slope wind claim on a 2012 roof in Barfield, it is not; the roofer's photos and a re-inspection request do the same job for nothing. Anyone calling themselves a claims consultant who is not a licensed public adjuster is a roofer's salesperson with a different title.

What a storm inspection should actually cover

Whoever does it, a real post-storm inspection includes:

1. Every slope walked, not just the one you can see from the street
2. Creased shingles identified by hand, by lifting the tab — a drone cannot do this
3. Seal strip adhesion checked on each slope
4. Metal checked: drip edge, ridge vent, roof vents, chimney cap, gutters
5. Soft-metal test for hail on vents and flashing
6. The attic, for daylight and wet insulation
7. Photos with something in frame for scale
8. A written statement of what is storm damage and what is wear

The short version

The storm damage page covers what happens after the inspection, from the tarp to the check.