Decision Tool
Maintenance Budget Planner
In development. This tool does not yet produce budget ranges — its cost rates are still pre-validation placeholders. The methodology is published below so it can be examined before anyone is asked to trust it.
The Maintenance Budget Planner is not currently available, and it will not produce a budget range. Its per-square-foot maintenance rates are pre-validation placeholders drawn from commonly published planning figures, not from validated data. A tool that returns a confident dollar figure from data we have not validated would be worse than no tool at all, so it returns nothing.
We publish the methodology anyway, in full, below. That is deliberate: you should be able to examine and challenge how a tool works before deciding whether to trust its output — not after. It is here to be audited, not used.
What to use instead: a real maintenance budget starts from a condition assessment of the specific roof — not from a population-level rate table. If you are planning maintenance spending now, start with Commercial Roof Inspections, which is published and sourced.
Methodology (published for scrutiny — not in operation)
This is the method the planner will use once its inputs are validated. No part of it is running today. The rates below are placeholders: they are plausible, they are not yet evidence.
The planner multiplies roof area by a per-square-foot annual maintenance rate range, adjusted for system and age:
- Base rates (placeholder, pre-validation): single-ply $0.10–$0.25/sf·yr; asphalt multi-ply $0.12–$0.30; metal $0.05–$0.15; coated $0.08–$0.20.
- Age: 0–5 yrs ×0.7 · 6–15 yrs ×1.0 · 16+ yrs ×1.5.
- Reactive posture: one-time first-year catch-up allowance of 50–100% of the annual figure, shown separately.
- Results round to sensible increments; ranges are wide by design at v0.1.
These rates are drawn from commonly published industry planning figures and are explicitly unvalidated placeholders until the CRI cost benchmark dataset (v1.0) replaces them — the same standard, and now the same gating, as the Life Expectancy Estimator.
What this budget will cover — and won't
The proactive program: scheduled inspections, drain and housekeeping work, and minor repairs. It will not fund capital events (coating cycles, section replacement, storm damage) — those are planned separately.
Limitations
- National planning ranges; regional labor rates shift them meaningfully.
- Excludes capital events, storm response, and warranty-required specialist work.
- Roofs with chronic defects need a condition assessment before a budget means anything.