How to buy a roof online in Charleston: what is fixed before work starts, what can change, and who it suits

A roof is one of the few large home purchases where almost everything that sets the price can be measured from the sky. Area, pitch, facets, ridge and valley lengths, and penetrations all show in aerial imagery, and roofers have ordered material from that kind of measurement for years. The in-home sales visit added a presentation, a set of options, and a price that depended on how the conversation went.

Oyster publishes its four packages and their prices for a typical 1,800 square foot home, and the online quote applies those packages to your roof. There is no separate number for the person who asks for a discount and no higher number for the person who doesn't. The quote you see online is the quote in the contract.

Most Charleston-area homes also fall into a few roof types: a ranch with a hip or gable roof, a two-story with a garage, an elevated island house, or a peninsula single house with a piazza roof. The online quote handles all of them, and it tells you when yours is the rare roof that needs a set of eyes first. That is what the booked appointment is for.

The online path runs in three parts: a satellite estimate on the quote page, a free inspection at your house, and a written estimate within 24 hours of the inspection.

Step one is your address. A street address is all the page needs to find your roof on satellite imagery.

Step two is the measurement. The page locks onto the roof and reports roof area, pitch, the number of facets, and squares of material with waste.

Step three is the package. Lowcountry Classic, Peace Of Mind, High Wind, and The Pearl Metal appear with their full prices, the same whether you pay cash or finance. Any of the four is yours to pick.

Step four is details: your name, a phone number, and an email, and then you book a free inspection. Pick a time on Jeff's calendar, or we call or text you to set one.

Step five is the inspection. We walk the roof, check the layer count, the decking and anything the satellite cannot see, and photograph what we find. Your written estimate follows within 24 hours of the inspection. No payment is taken online, there are no card fields on the page, and there is no deposit: you pay nothing until the roof passes final inspection.

After that we confirm the permit, prepare any HOA, ARB, or review board submission your address needs, order material, and set the date. Plan on one day on site for most shingle roofs and two to three for standing seam.

The written price you accept fixes the package and everything it lists on the Home page: the shingle or panel product and the color you chose, underlayment, drip edge, sealed valleys, and tear-off and disposal; the ice and water barrier, ridge ventilation, and annual tune-up on Peace Of Mind and above; the six-nail attachment and TAMKO HailGuard shingle on High Wind; the aluminum panels, salt-air-rated finish, and marine-grade trim on The Pearl Metal. It fixes the roof area and pitch we measured and the workmanship warranty that goes with the package. For most homes that is the whole roof, and it does not move.

It also fixes what you're not paying for: no sales commission, no charge for a measurement, and no fee for the review board or HOA paperwork we prepare with your order. If your address needs an approval first, the install date waits for it.

A satellite sees the top of your roof and nothing under the shingles, so a short list of conditions is priced in the written quote with a unit price stated up front. If one turns up during tear-off you already know the cost.

Decking is the big one. Decking that has rotted around a chimney, a valley, or an eave has to be replaced before a new roof goes on it, and the quote states a per-sheet price for it. On most homes it is zero to a few sheets; a long-running leak or split plank decking can need more, and we photograph every sheet we replace.

Layers are the second. Two layers of shingle make tear-off and disposal slower and heavier. When we confirm your price we ask how many layers you have, tell you what a second layer adds before you accept, and confirm it on the roof before we start.

Pitch and complexity are measured, so they're already in your fixed price. They change only when the imagery is stale, say when a new porch roof is not yet in the aerial photo, which is why we ask about recent changes before the price is confirmed.

Access is the last. A roof reachable from one side only, a driveway that won't take a dumpster, or nowhere to stage material can add a modest amount for labor or a smaller container. We ask before the price is confirmed.

The starting price on the quote page comes from the satellite measurement. Before it becomes a fixed price, a person at Oyster checks the measurement of your roof, and a roof the imagery cannot resolve, such as one under heavy tree cover, is measured another way first. If the checked figure is smaller, the confirmed price is lower. If it is larger, we tell you the difference and why. Nothing is owed until you accept the confirmed written price, so you decide with the corrected number in hand.

Aerial measurement is accurate on the great majority of roofs. The check is there so the unusual roof never produces a surprise.

Absentee owners. If you own a house in Charleston and live somewhere else, you can measure and price the roof from anywhere, and you do not need to be home for the inspection. The photos, the written estimate and the rest of the transaction live in writing. Ask us for photos at tear-off, deck inspection, and completion.

Rental and investment property owners. If you manage two or ten roofs, you already know what a roof should cost and you don't need a presentation. You get a fixed number per address, the same package ladder on every property, and paperwork you can hand to an accountant.

Anyone who doesn't want a sales pitch. Plenty of homeowners don't want a stranger at the kitchen table for two hours of back-and-forth on price. You see the price range before anyone comes out, the inspection is about the roof, and the estimate doesn't change if you close the tab and come back next week.

Homeowners who know their roof. If you know the layer count and the house is not in a review district, the satellite range will land close to the written estimate.

Book the inspection first if you have an active leak and want someone on the roof before you look at prices, if you suspect the deck is bad, if your roof sits under heavy tree cover, if you want to see shingle and panel samples in person before choosing a color, or if you'd rather meet the people who will be on your house.

The price is the same either way. Every inspection uses the same published package ladder, and the written estimate follows within 24 hours. The phone number on this site is for questions, scheduling, and storm calls; pricing happens in the quote or at the house.

Financing at 7.99% to 15.99% APR on approved credit. Same price whether you pay cash or finance. You apply after you choose a package and before material is ordered, and your lender sets your rate within that range based on your credit.

We print full prices with an approximate monthly range beside each one, from the payment at the lowest APR to the payment at the highest, with the full financing terms printed beside it. Your actual payment depends on the APR your lender approves you for.

• Your address as it appears on the tax record, so the measurement finds the right parcel.
• The number of shingle layers on the roof now, if you know it. One is typical on homes roofed since the 1990s.
• Whether the house is in an HOA, an ARB community, or a historic district. If you're not sure, we confirm it.
• Any recent changes to the house, such as an addition or a new porch roof, that aerial imagery may not show yet.
• A sense of what you want the roof to do: the least expensive sound roof, a longer warranty and better ventilation, a hurricane-season roof with six-nail attachment, or standing seam aluminum that outlasts shingle.
• About three minutes. That gets you from address to a price range on the screen; the written estimate follows within 24 hours of the inspection.