Inspection
Roof inspections
A proper look at the flashing, valleys, penetrations and field, photographed and documented, whether you are chasing a leak or checking after a storm.
Chapter 01
What we are actually looking at
Not the middle of the roof. The interruptions: the valleys, the flashing where the roof meets a wall or a chimney, the boots around plumbing vents, the ridge, and the perimeter edge. That is where roofs let water past, and it is where an inspection earns its keep.
On the field itself we are reading granule loss and bruising rather than looking for holes. Hail damages a shingle by knocking granules loose and shortening its life, often without making anything you would recognise as a hole from the ground.
Wind damage is similar. It lifts and creases shingles and breaks the seal without necessarily taking anything off the roof, so from your driveway nothing looks different at all.
Close detail of new architectural shingle courses showing the granule surface and the alignment of the shingle lines
After hail or high wind, book it early
This is the single most useful piece of timing advice we can give a homeowner in this part of Texas.
Storm damage is real whether or not you can see it, and insurance claims generally have time limits. A roof inspected shortly after the storm gives you options. The same roof inspected two years later, when a ceiling stain finally appears, often does not.
The inspection costs you nothing and the photographs are yours to keep, which means the decision about whether to file anything stays with you.
Chapter 03
Photographs, and what they are for
Everything we find gets photographed. That is partly so you can see it yourself rather than take our word for it, and partly because it is what an insurer will ask for.
Claims are rarely one exchange. The adjuster reviews what was sent and comes back wanting a different angle or a different elevation. We have gone back out to a property more than once on a single claim to get an insurer the additional photographs it kept requesting, over a period of more than thirty days, until the claim went through.
If your roof is going through a claim, tell us at the inspection and we will record it accordingly from the start.
The honest outcome
A good proportion of inspections end with us telling somebody their roof is fine, or that the problem is somewhere else entirely.
We would rather do that than sell a replacement that was not needed, because the only thing that keeps a roofing company alive in one city since 2014 is being believed the next time.
Estimates are free. If the roof is sound, that is what we will tell you.