What an inspection is for
People order roof inspections for four fairly different reasons, and the reason shapes what the report needs to say.
- Buying a property. A general home inspector looks at the roof, but usually from the ground or a ladder at the eave, and their report language is deliberately cautious. If the roof is a material part of the purchase decision, a dedicated inspection tells you remaining service life and likely replacement cost — numbers you can negotiate with.
- Selling. Knowing the roof's condition before a buyer's inspector reports it puts you in a much better position. Repairs made in advance cost what they cost; the same repairs discovered during a contingency period get negotiated at a multiple.
- Insurance. Insurers increasingly require roof condition documentation at binding or renewal, particularly on older roofs. After a storm, dated pre-loss documentation is the strongest evidence available that damage was caused by the event rather than by age.
- Budgeting and maintenance. For commercial property and for owners of multiple buildings, scheduled inspection converts an unpredictable emergency expense into a planned capital line. This is where inspection produces the clearest return.
What we look at
The covering
- Field condition across every plane: granule loss, cracking, cupping, curling, blistering, splitting, and thermal or impact damage.
- Missing, lifted or displaced units, and whether the pattern suggests wind, impact, fastener failure or a sealant strip that never bonded.
- Fastener condition where visible — backing out, corrosion, failed gaskets on exposed-fastener metal.
- On tile, cracked and slipped units, and the condition of the underlayment beneath, which governs the roof's actual remaining life.
- On low-slope membrane, seam integrity, terminations, punctures, shrinkage at edges, and evidence of ponding.
The details
- Every penetration: pipe boots, vents, exhaust terminations, mounted equipment, solar attachments.
- Chimney flashing — whether counterflashing is let into a mortar joint or surface-sealed — and the condition of the crown and masonry.
- Valleys, wall transitions, step flashing and kickout diverters at eave terminations.
- Drip edge, rake edge and the condition of the eave, fascia and soffit.
- Skylight curbs and their flashing kits.
Ventilation and the attic side
- Intake and exhaust ventilation, measured against attic area — including whether soffit vents are open or have been blocked by insulation.
- Mixed exhaust types on a single attic space, which short-circuit airflow and are a common finding.
- Sheathing underside: staining, delamination, rusted fastener tips, mould growth, daylight at penetrations.
- Moisture meter readings on decking and framing.
- Insulation depth and coverage, and bath or kitchen exhaust fans terminating into the attic rather than through the roof or wall — a frequent cause of what gets reported as a roof leak.
What the report tells you
| Section | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Roof identification | Covering material and profile, estimated installation date, layer count, measured area and pitch, and the general complexity of the roofline. |
| Condition findings | Every defect observed, located on a roof diagram and photographed. Each is graded as immediate, near-term or monitor. |
| Remaining service life | An estimated range in years, with the reasoning stated — because the number is a judgement and you are entitled to see how it was reached. |
| Ventilation assessment | Existing intake and exhaust against the area requirement, and what would need to change to meet it. |
| Recommended actions | Repair, maintenance or replacement, each with an indicative cost range so the report is usable for budgeting. |
| Limitations | Anything not inspected and why — inaccessible attic areas, snow cover, a pitch too steep to walk safely, finished ceilings with no access. Stated explicitly, because an unstated limitation makes the whole report less trustworthy. |
Reports are delivered with the photographs embedded, which matters more than it sounds. A finding described in words is an assertion; the same finding with an image is evidence you can show an insurer, a buyer's agent or a second contractor.
How often
- Annually for roofs past roughly ten years, and for any low-slope commercial roof regardless of age.
- Twice yearly for roofs with heavy tree cover, where debris accumulates in valleys and at penetrations between visits.
- After any severe weather event — hail, high wind, falling limbs. Damage is frequently invisible from the ground, and most policies impose a time limit on reporting it.
- Before buying, on any property where the roof is not obviously new.
- Before listing, so that anything found is repaired at cost rather than negotiated under time pressure.
- Before installing anything on the roof — solar, HVAC equipment, satellite mounts. Putting a twenty-five-year system on a roof with six years left is an expensive sequencing error.
Two things worth knowing about storm claims
First, hail damage to asphalt shingles is often not visible from the ground and sometimes not obvious even from the roof to an untrained eye. It presents as bruising — soft, granule-depleted circular marks where the mat has fractured beneath the surface. The shingle may not leak for years, but its service life has been cut short. Identifying it requires someone physically on the roof marking test squares.
Second, most policies require damage to be reported within a limited window after the event. Waiting until a leak appears frequently means waiting past the deadline. If a significant hail or wind event has passed over the property, the inspection is worth ordering then, not later. The storm and hail damage process is covered separately.
Before the inspector arrives: clear access to the attic hatch and move stored items away from it, unlock gates and any outbuildings to be included, note where you have seen stains or drips even if they are old, and have the roof's age and any prior repair paperwork to hand if you have it. Prior work records materially improve the accuracy of a service-life estimate.
If the inspection finds nothing needing attention, that is what the report says, and it is a useful document to hold. Sunny San Luis Roofing does not manufacture findings to justify a visit.