Roof Inspections done right.

An inspection is not a glance from the driveway. On a shingle roof I am up close, looking at whether the shingles are still held down or lifting and where. I look at the nails, because rusted nails mean water has been getting under the shingle. I look at where it is leaking, because a leak near a wall often points at a window, bad stucco or bad vinyl rather than the roof itself. And I look at how much granule is left. Shingle roofs near the coast lose granules fast to the wind off the water, and a hurricane season strips a lot at once. Once the granules are gone the underlayment underneath is getting cooked, and once you can see fiberglass the shingle is past its life.

Tile and metal get the same walk on the same visit. On tile I am looking for broken tile, broken mortar, and mortar that has not been maintained and has cracked, and I will ask how long it has been like that, because the longer mortar has been cracked without repair, the worse the underlayment under it turns out to be.

Then the attic. That is where I get a real read on the plywood, roughly how many sheets will need replacing and how bad the damage is, before anyone is surprised by it on tear-off day. It is also where I check for spray foam insulation, because that changes the plan. With spray foam we cannot cut in ventilation products without exposing it, and any plywood we replace has to be foamed again after we leave so the heat barrier stays whole.

You get the findings straight, with photos of what I saw. If the roof is fine, I say so. If it needs work, you get the repair price and the re-roof price side by side, so the decision is yours and it is an easy one to make.