Reasons to request an inspection
- Active or intermittent roof leak
- Recurring repairs or an aging roof
- Missing, lifted, cracked, or damaged roofing material
- Storm, wind, branch, or tree impact
- Home purchase or sale planning
- Annual or preventive commercial-roof maintenance
- Attic frost, condensation, ice dams, or roof-deck moisture
- Planning an asphalt, metal, solar, renovation, or insulation project
What may be inspected
- Roof covering, slopes, valleys, ridges, eaves, and transitions
- Chimney, wall, skylight, vent, pipe, and penetration flashings
- Gutters, drains, scuppers, ponding, and visible drainage concerns
- Deck indicators and attic moisture or ventilation where safely accessible and within scope
- Visible storm damage, previous repairs, sealants, fasteners, and material compatibility
- Measurements, photographs, access limitations, and recommendations
What the inspection should produce
Ask in advance whether the visit includes photographs, written findings, repair pricing, a replacement proposal, maintenance recommendations, measurements, or a separate report. Inspection scope varies, and hidden deck or insulation conditions may require opening the roof assembly.
Inspection limitations
A roofing inspection is not automatically a structural-engineering report, indoor-air or mold assessment, hazardous-material survey, or insurance coverage determination. Those services require the appropriate specialist and defined scope.
What an inspection can establish, and what it cannot
Being clear about that boundary is what separates a useful report from a sales document. An inspector can tell you that granule loss is advanced, that step flashing has been surface-sealed rather than integrated, that a valley is worn, that the attic shows frost or staining, and what those observations usually imply. An inspector cannot tell you with certainty how much sheathing is soft under an intact roof, and any report that implies otherwise is overreaching.
Ask what access was actually achieved. A report based on walking the roof, entering the attic and photographing details is a different instrument from one based on drone imagery or a look from the driveway — all three are legitimate, but they support different conclusions and should be labelled accordingly.
- How the roof was accessed — walked, ladder-edge, drone, or ground observation
- Whether the attic was entered and what was visible from inside
- Dated photographs of each reported condition, not generic examples
- A distinction between observed conditions and inferred conclusions
- What was inaccessible and therefore not assessed
Inspections tied to a decision
An inspection is most valuable when it is answering a specific question. Before buying a property, the question is what condition is being inherited, what remaining service life is plausible, and what will need budgeting in the next few years — and that is worth commissioning independently rather than relying on a report supplied by a party to the sale. Before a repair-or-replace decision, the question is whether another repair is likely to hold. After a storm, the question is what changed. For a maintenance plan, the question is what is trending.
Independence is worth paying attention to. An inspection performed by a company that would also perform the resulting work is not disqualified by that fact, but it is worth knowing which you have, and worth getting a second opinion before a large replacement commitment.
- State the decision the inspection is meant to inform
- Ask whether the inspection is free, priced, or credited against work
- Ask for the report and photographs in a form you can share with another company
- For a purchase, commission the inspection independently of the sale
Service information last reviewed August 16, 2026. Project acceptance, scheduling, and recommendations are confirmed by the roofing company.