ReplaceCost
Replacement cost, itemized

Home replacement cost calculators

Estimate what it costs to replace a roof, windows, HVAC or another home system. Start with an itemized project range, then explore how depreciation and your deductible could affect a covered insurance claim.

Contractor quotes $16,805
vs
First check $4,652

An 18-year-old architectural shingle roof, 1,800 sq ft footprint, on an actual cash value policy with a $1,350 deductible. That is a $12,153 gap. Worked example — run your own below.

All 9 tools rotate automatically · Pause anytime · Illustrative AI-generated photos

Mantu Kumar, founder and editor of ReplaceCost
Written and maintained by Founder and editor · not a contractor, adjuster or licensed insurance professional
Published Last reviewed

This page was last checked against current NAIC coverage definitions and BLS producer-price movement on 23 August 2026. Ranges are reviewed quarterly and after any material federal rule change — the editorial policy sets out what triggers a rewrite rather than a date bump.

Bar diagram: a $16,805 roof quote split into $10,803 depreciation, a $1,350 deductible and a $4,652 first insurance check, leaving a $12,153 shortfall.
The whole problem in one bar. The insurer is not disputing the $16,805 — it is subtracting $10,803 for the roof’s age and then your deductible. What is left is the check. Original ReplaceCost figure · worked example, not a real customer file
Seven seconds, same arithmetic. The quote builds, depreciation and the deductible come off, and the first check lands at $4,652. Captions included; no audio track, so nothing is lost with sound off.

Pick what needs replacing

Each estimator asks for the measurements a real contractor would take, then shows the cost broken into line items — not a single averaged number you cannot check.

Roof
$6,800 – $32,000
By square, pitch and material, with the insurance payout split
Solar panels
$15,000 – $40,000
Cost, payback and what the expired credit changed
HVAC system
$4,000 – $19,000
Furnace, AC and heat pump, sized by tonnage
Windows
$650 – $1,900 each
Per window and whole house, insert or full-frame
Water heater
$1,300 – $7,500
Tank and tankless, by capacity and fuel
Siding
$8,700 – $32,000
By wall area — vinyl, fiber cement, wood
Gutters
$1,900 – $5,500
Per linear foot, sectional or seamless
Flooring
$3 – $22 per sq ft
Material, removal, subfloor repairs and water-claim matching
Insurance claim gap
ACV vs RCV
Turn replacement cost, age and deductible into the check you may receive
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Horizontal bars breaking a $16,805 roof quote into labor $5,880, materials $5,210, tear-off and disposal $1,905, underlayment and flashing $1,420, decking allowance $1,150, steep pitch and access $760, and permit $480.
What a single quote number is actually made of. Every estimator on this site itemizes the same way. If a written quote you receive is missing one of these rows, that is the row to ask about before you sign. Original ReplaceCost figure · illustrative line split for the worked example

Why the two numbers differ

Homeowners policies come in two shapes, and which one you hold changes the math entirely.

Policy typeWhat it paysWho it suits
Replacement cost value
RCV		 The full cost to replace, less your deductible. Depreciation is held back and released once the work is finished. Almost everyone, if it is offered
Actual cash value
ACV		 Replacement cost minus depreciation for age and wear. On an older roof that can be most of the value. Cheaper premium, far bigger bill at claim time
Which one you hold is printed on your declarations page. It is worth checking before you need it.
A roof buyback is not the same thing Some carriers offer to pay you a lump sum and then exclude the roof from future cover altogether. That is a buyback, and it ends your roof coverage. It is not the same as switching from ACV to RCV.
Line chart of a roof's actual cash value falling from $16,805 when new to $10,804 at year 10, $7,801 at year 15, $6,002 at year 18 and $1,801 at year 25 on a 28-year lifespan.
Age is the variable that moves the check, not the quote. The replacement cost is identical at every point on this line. Only the insurer’s share changes, and it changes fast. Straight-line depreciation on the 28-year expected life used for architectural asphalt
Six-stage claim timeline: damage, claim filed, adjuster visit, $4,652 first check, work invoiced, then $10,803 of recoverable depreciation released on RCV policies only.
Two payments, not one. The second one is the reason people think their insurer underpaid. On an RCV policy it arrives after the invoice; on an ACV policy it never existed. Original ReplaceCost figure · general claim sequence, carrier procedures vary

Check the gap on your own numbers

Four inputs, no email, nothing sent anywhere. The arithmetic runs in your browser and is the same arithmetic printed above — you can check it on paper.

Straight-line depreciation, capped at 80% so the item keeps a 20% residual value — the same model used by the full claim gap tool. Planning estimate only. Your policy language, your carrier’s depreciation schedule and any roof-age payout cap control the real settlement. Full working is in the methodology.

Worked case study

An 18-year roof, from storm to final check

This is the example used throughout the page, followed end to end so every figure above can be traced back to an input.

Replacement cost$16,805
Roof age18 years
Depreciation64.3%
Deductible$1,350
  1. The quote. Three local roofers price a 1,800 sq ft footprint at a 6:12 pitch in architectural asphalt. The middle written quote is $16,805, itemized as in the figure above.
  2. The age adjustment. At 18 years against a 28-year expected life, straight-line depreciation is 64.3%, or $10,803. Actual cash value is $6,002.
  3. The deductible. $1,350 comes off the ACV figure, not the replacement cost. The first check is $4,652.
  4. The fork. On an ACV policy that is the end of it: $12,153 is the homeowner’s. On an RCV policy the $10,803 is recoverable, so the total settlement reaches $15,455 — but only after the work is completed and the final invoice is submitted.
  5. The lesson. The decision that moved $10,803 was made years earlier, on the declarations page, when ACV was chosen over RCV to lower the premium.

Illustrative worked example built from published pricing ranges and the depreciation model documented in the methodology. It is not a real customer file, a quote, an appraisal or a coverage determination.

Illustrative overhead view of a home and its roof.
One home contains several separate replacement projects. Match the measurement and scope to the calculator you are using.AI-generated illustration for explanation.

Project replacement cost is not your home's rebuild value

These calculators estimate individual home projects. Adding a roof, windows and HVAC does not produce a complete dwelling reconstruction estimate: structure, demolition, design, code upgrades and other work may still be missing.

For dwelling insurance, ask your insurer for a reconstruction estimate using your home's features. A sale price includes location and land value; it is a different number. For a specific project, start with the relevant calculator and compare written local quotes.

See calculation assumptions · Compare ACV and RCV

What this site does and does not do

Every estimate here shows its own working: the measurements used, the multipliers applied, and the depreciation assumption. If a number looks wrong you can see exactly which input produced it and change it.

What it cannot do is bind coverage or replace a written quote. Insurers use their own depreciation schedules and some cap payouts by roof age. Contractors price by what they see on the roof. Treat these figures as a way to judge whether the numbers you are being given are reasonable — not as the numbers themselves.

Evidence and update policy

Checkable assumptions, not a mystery score

Calculator results separate measurements, unit costs, labor, depreciation and deductibles so each assumption can be compared with written quotes and policy documents.

Guides and worked examples

Understand the number before you act on it

Use the calculators for a planning range, then use these plain-language guides to check scope, permits, assistance, financing and coverage.

Insurance guideWhat homeowners insurance actually pays ACV, RCV, deductibles, recoverable depreciation, matching and the claim timeline. Cost guideRoof cost by house size Worked ranges by footprint, pitch, waste and roofing square. Texas guideTexas roof cost and insurance payout Regional planning, wind or hail deductibles, contractor law and coastal windstorm checks. Planning guidePermits and regulations What is commonly permitted, who pulls it and why it belongs in the quote. Assistance guideGrants and repair help Where homeowners can look for legitimate local and federal assistance. Money guideTaxes and financing Repair versus improvement, planning options and questions to ask before borrowing. Worked exampleRun the $12,153 claim gap See how the $16,805 contractor quote can become a $4,652 first check.
Built to be checked

Who made these calculators?

Mantu Kumar maintains the formulas, source trail, result explanations and corrections. Each calculator now shows its review date and relevant public references.

Reader reports

Reader feedback and our testimonials policy

Homeowners write in with the written quotes and carrier worksheets that sit behind the ranges on this site. Those messages, and the corrections that come out of internal review, are the only things that will ever appear in this section. Corrections are published whether or not anyone else noticed them.

Homepage quick-check disagreed with the full claim gap tool. The inline checker on this page applied straight-line depreciation without the 80% cap that the full tool and the published methodology both use. For items past 80% of their expected life it therefore returned a first check that was too low — a 25-year roof on a 28-year life was understated by about $1,560. Found in internal review, corrected the same day. Younger items were unaffected.

A worked-example figure was mislabelled. A card in the guides grid described the claim gap as $10,804. That figure is the depreciation holdback; the gap between the $16,805 quote and the $4,652 first check is $12,153. The label was wrong, not the calculation. Corrected.

No reader quotes published yet. No reader has given permission to be quoted so far. When that happens it will appear here with a name, a state and a date — and not before.

Empty by choice Status as of

How reader quotes and testimonials are handled

  • Published only with explicit permission. Nothing from an email appears here until the sender has been asked and has said yes, in writing.
  • Never paid for, never traded. No discount, gift, entry or link is offered in exchange for a quote, because that would make the quote worthless as evidence.
  • Trimmed for length, never edited for meaning. If a reader disagrees with something on the site, that stays in.
  • Never invented. No composite readers, no representative examples, no rewritten praise. If this section is empty, it is because it is genuinely empty.
  • Corrections outrank compliments. A message that proves a range wrong gets published with the date the range was changed. That is worth more to you than a kind word.
  • No review markup. This section carries no Review or AggregateRating structured data. Self-issued review markup is against Google’s rules and would not be honest here anyway.
Send yours to contact@replacecost.com A redacted written quote or a carrier worksheet is the most useful thing you can attach — it goes straight to the assumption that produced the number you disagree with. Say whether you are happy to be quoted, and with what name. If you would rather not be, the correction still gets made.

Replacement cost questions

Do I need to give an email address?

No. Nothing is stored and nothing is sent. The calculation runs in your browser.

Where do the cost figures come from?

Published contractor pricing and materials data, adjusted by region. Each estimator lists its assumptions underneath the result so you can check them against quotes you have been given.

Will filing a claim raise my premium?

It can, and it depends on the carrier, the cause of damage and your claims history. A storm claim is generally treated differently from a wear-and-tear claim. Ask your agent what a claim of this size would do to your renewal before you file — they can usually tell you.

Which calculator should I use first?

Start with the physical item being replaced: roof, solar, HVAC, windows, water heater, siding, gutters or flooring. Then take its midpoint or your contractor’s written replacement figure to the Claim gap calculator to compare an ACV first check with an RCV settlement.

Why does age change the insurance result?

Actual cash value subtracts depreciation for age and condition. An older item can therefore produce a much smaller first check even when today’s labor and material cost is high. The calculators show the assumed lifespan and depreciation percentage instead of hiding that step.

Are the animated charts part of the calculation?

No. The animation helps explain the result: line items arrive in order, figures count up, and the payout bar separates the insurer’s share from yours. The arithmetic is the same when reduced-motion is enabled, and the final numbers remain visible without animation.

Does the estimate include a deductible?

Every insurance-aware estimator includes a deductible input. It is applied after depreciation to the first ACV check and remains your share on a completed RCV claim. Your policy language controls the real settlement.

Can I use these tools before getting contractor quotes?

Yes. That is the best time to use them. The itemized range gives you a scope checklist and helps you spot a quote that omits removal, disposal, permits, access or related repairs. Always compare it with two or three local written quotes.

Every estimator, one method

All replacement cost tools

Each tool itemizes the work, shows a planning range, and explains how age, depreciation and your deductible can change the insurance check.

Roof$6,800–$32,000Squares, pitch, material and the ACV/RCV payout split. Solar$15,000–$40,000System size, installed cost, savings and payback period. HVAC$4,000–$19,000Furnace, AC and heat pump costs sized by tonnage. Windows$650–$1,900 eachInsert or full-frame replacement, per window and whole house. Water heater$1,300–$7,500Tank and tankless systems by capacity, fuel and access. Siding$8,700–$32,000Wall-area estimate for vinyl, fiber cement and wood. Gutters$1,900–$5,500Linear-foot estimate for sectional, seamless and guards. Flooring$3–$22 / sq ftMaterial, removal, subfloor repair and water-claim matching. Claim gapACV vs RCVSee the first check, depreciation holdback and your final share.

Planning summary: Start with the physical replacement estimator, then run the Claim gap tool with the replacement figure, item age, expected life and deductible from your declarations page. The result is a planning estimate — not a contractor quote or coverage decision.