Your $250 Imager Needs 15 Degrees
The $250 imager a federal building-science guide points homeowners to does not see through a wall; it reads the heat of the wall's own surface, which is why…
Home Diagnostic Tools Oct 24, 2026
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Run the number before you sign.
A quote is a price, not a return. WellRoost turns your cost, your resale lift and your savings into the one figure that decides whether the project is an investment or a cost.
What the quote leaves behind
Live
$18,000
you never get back at resale
Recovers 60% of cost
Savings close it in 38 years
$45,000
$27,000
$1,200
Lift starts at 60% of cost as a placeholder. Replace it with the number your agent or appraisal gives you.
Two prices, one decision.
The gap between what a project costs and what it lifts the value by is the real price of it.
- Cost
- The contractor quote, the permits, the three change orders that arrive after the wall opens.
- Lift
- What an appraiser or a buyer will pay for the finished work. It is smaller than the quote more often than it is larger.
- The gap
- What you carry in cash and get back in daily use, or never get back at all. This is the number to argue about.
Three questions that cost the most to get wrong.
Each one answers in a single number you can quote back to a contractor, an agent or a lender.
5 yr Move or improve Sell and relocate, or stay and expand Selling takes 8–10% of the price in commissions and fees before you own anything new. This models that friction against the cost of expanding in place, across five years of ownership.
Open 6 Remodeling ROI Decide whether one project is worth it Cost, resale lift, stay horizon and savings return value during your stay, the recovery rate, a payback figure and a verdict: worth it, maybe, skip.
Open 70% Remodelytics Underwrite a whole property After-repair value, ADU income, combined loan-to-value and the 70% maximum allowable offer on one sheet, for buyers and landlords moving faster than a spreadsheet.
Open
A house, and the energy moving through it.
Three things in this drawing decide most real home budgets: the envelope you heat, the car you charge, and whether you stay long enough to open the place up.
Generative illustration, drawn in the browser with p5. Hairlines follow a noise field around a house and its car; energy runs from the roof through the wall connector and along the sagging cable into the pack. Move the cursor and the field leans toward it; cross the house and the windows warm; click and a pulse travels the cable. It reads nothing from your inputs.
- Windows
- Warm when the cursor crosses the house.
- Connector
- A click sends a pulse down the cable.
- Chimney
- The plume curls with the wind it is given.
The formulas, published.
Four equations run every answer on this site. They are here so you can check the output instead of trusting it.
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recovery = lift ÷ cost
The share of the spend an appraisal hands back. At 80% or better the engine calls the recovery strong.
-
payback = cost ÷ savings a year
How long running costs take to return the money. It counts upkeep and utility savings, never enjoyment.
-
value = lift + savings × years + enjoyment × 0.35
The enjoyment credit is a share of cost, scaled by how much the upgrade matters and how long you stay. Only 35% of it is counted as value.
-
score = 45% recovery + 20% timeline + 15% savings + 20% enjoyment
Seventy or above returns worth it. Below 45, or under 35% recovery with three years left, returns skip.
Test them on your project
The full engine prints every assumption it used, next to the answer.
The archive, by subject.
Four subjects, one per kind of expense a house hands you. 38 pieces so far, each worked through the same arithmetic the calculators run.
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Energy & Efficiency Lower your utility bills and optimize your home’s baseline performance. Explore practical, high-ROI strategies for lowering electricity costs—covering everything from solar panel installations and smart thermostats to insulation upgrades, energy monitors, and efficient HVAC systems. 20 pieces -
Home Cost Decisions Make smart, data-driven financial choices for your property. From navigating first-time homeowner expenses and mapping out long-term maintenance costs to weighing the ROI of "repair vs. replace" and "buy vs. upgrade," this section breaks down the true cost of homeownership so you can invest your budget wisely. 4 pieces - Home Diagnostic Tools Thermal imagers, moisture meters, borescopes, and acoustic leak detectors that pay for themselves in one prevented call-out. What each instrument actually finds, and where a $90 tool beats a $900 one. 1 piece
- Outdoor Power & Snow Equipment Two-stage battery snow blowers, heated driveway mats, cordless mowers, and pressure washers rated by torque, runtime, and five-year ownership cost, including what the fourth tool on a shared battery platform really costs. 1 piece
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Smart Home & Security Build a secure, automated, and private living space without getting drained by hidden fees. We evaluate smart cameras, locks, sensors, and whole-home monitoring systems, with a strict focus on data privacy, system interoperability, and the long-term impact of ongoing subscription costs. 7 pieces -
Tools & Equipment Gear up with the right equipment for every maintenance and DIY project. Find objective evaluations of power tools, lawn equipment, snow blowers, and essential DIY gear, with a dedicated focus on choosing the right battery ecosystems to power your garage or workshop efficiently. 4 pieces - Yard Robots & Automation Robotic mowers, autonomous snow blowers, and modular yard robots compared by navigation tech (LiDAR vs RTK vs vision), slope limits, and payback against a landscaping or plowing contract. 1 piece
Recent work.
All guides 
Sign after the number.
Three calculators, six inputs at most, every formula published on this page. No account and no sales call at the end of it.