Roof Inspections During Home Inspections – You Won’t Believe What We Found

Roofs are exposed to all of the elements of nature – sun, heat, wind, snow, hail, rain, so it’s not uncommon for them to experience wear and tear.

Roof inspections are best performed from on the roof.  Before we climb up on the roof during a home inspection, we have performed other checks of the exterior of the home.  That’s where we can see issues such as the one above where the tree is too close to the house.  This can cause further problems with branches that grow too close to the roof, or possibly even into the house, or can provide easy ways for uninvited guests to have access to your home, like this squirrel we met on the home inspection above.

We can also see other potential issues from the ground before we ever set foot on the roof, such as the visible hail damage in the photo above.

These types of issues occur, and this is exactly why you have a home inspection.  These issues are often easily fixed, and knowing the state of the different systems in a home is helpful before you buy.

Once we are up on the roof, we make a closer inspection.  We are able to get closer to the shingles, to pipes and chimneys, check if any flashing is exposed in areas where it should not be, and also work to determine the age of the roof when possible.

Being physically on the roof allows us to view things that may not be visible from other angles – from the ground, from a window at roof height.  For example, we are able to get close to the chimney, and check the brickwork, actually testing to see if bricks or mortar are loose by actually touching the bricks.  It can also allow us to see something such as a bird’s nest built in the top of the chimney under the cap, which would not have been visible from any other vantage point.

And the thing you won’t believe we found during a roof inspection

  

    

Being physically on the roof also lets us get close enough to find things you may not otherwise expect to see on a roof, or even be able to find from a less thorough home inspection.  You can see in the photo above a bullet that we pulled out of the shingle.  Believe it or not, this isn’t so uncommon, especially in more rural areas.  And a bit less common but not completely unusual, the arrow sticking in the roof on the right.  We aren’t sure if either the bullet or the arrow hit their intended target!

What goes up must come down, and if a bullet or arrow is fired into the air for any reason, it can come back down onto a roof.   In this case we were able to see how deeply the bullet had penetrated and determine if it had only damaged the shingle, or the tar paper underneath as well, or even the roof deck.  In this case, it would have only required some shingle replacement to make sure that rainwater doesn’t make its way into the roof at some point in the future.

If you are in need of a home inspection, or know someone who is, book your inspection by calling 682-351-2267 or  schedule your home inspection online.

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