What a roof inspection covers

An inspection is worth having because most roof failures announce themselves months before they leak. The point is to find the flashing that has opened up, not to wait for the ceiling stain that tells you it opened up in January.

We look at:

• The roof surface, for missing, cracked, curled or lifted shingles and granule loss in the gutters
• Flashing, at chimneys, sidewalls, dormers and skylights, which is where most leaks actually start
• Penetrations, the pipe boots, vents and anything else coming through the deck
• Valleys, which carry the most water on the roof and fail first
• The gutter line and drip edge, where water transitions off the roof
• The attic side where access allows, for daylight, damp decking, compressed insulation and blocked soffit vents

You get an inspection report with photographs of anything we flag, so you can see the condition yourself rather than taking our word for it, and a plain description of what needs doing now versus what to keep an eye on.

Seasonal maintenance

In the Capital Region the roof year has two pressure points.

Autumn, and winter prep. Clear the gutters and valleys so meltwater has somewhere to go. Check that flashing, sealant joints and pipe boots are sound, because they will be under snow for months. Look at the attic: ventilation and insulation are what decide whether you get ice dams, and autumn is the last comfortable time to fix them.

Spring, after the winter. Freeze-thaw is hard on roofing. Check the eaves for damage from ice build-up, look for shingles lifted or cracked by ice, and check flashing joints that have been through a few dozen expansion cycles.

Between those, the useful habit is looking after a big storm rather than on a schedule. Wind damage is the kind that gets worse quietly.

Winter issues specific to this climate

Ice dams are the big one. Heat escapes into the attic, melts snow on the deck, the meltwater refreezes at the cold eave, and the resulting ice ridge backs water up under the shingles. The visible ice is the symptom; the cause is warm air where it should not be.

Snow load matters on low-slope and flat roofs more than on steep ones, particularly where drifting piles snow against a wall or parapet, or where one roof sheds onto another.

Freeze-thaw works on every joint and fastener, which is why older flashing tends to fail in late winter rather than mid-summer.

Commercial roof maintenance

Flat and low-slope commercial roofs need looking at more often than pitched residential roofs, because ponding, seam failure and blocked drains do not show inside the building until they are significant.

A maintenance plan makes sense on most commercial buildings, with scheduled visits rather than waiting for a call. We can inspect a commercial roof and give you a written report with photographs suitable for budgeting and planning, which is usually what a property manager or owner actually needs when deciding between another year of repairs and a replacement. That work is covered under commercial roofing.

Buying a house

A pre-purchase inspection is worth having as a separate piece of work. A general home inspection usually reports the roof from the ground or from a ladder at the eave, which tells you very little about flashing, valleys or the state of the decking. We get onto the roof where it is safe and tell you what you are actually buying.

Then what

An inspection should end with a clear answer, not a sales pitch. Either the roof is sound and you have a list of small things to watch, or it needs specific repairs, or it is far enough through its life that planning a replacement makes more sense than repairing it twice more.

We inspect roofs across Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Saratoga County and the surrounding towns. Get in touch and tell us how old the roof is and what you have noticed. That is usually enough to know whether an inspection is worth your time.