(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentInspection guide
A residential inspection is mostly about the covering. A commercial one is mostly about everything that interrupts it. Membrane in the open field rarely fails first. The failures gather at curbs, drains, pipe penetrations, parapet tie-ins and around equipment that other trades service without telling anyone. A scheduled inspection is an audit of those interruptions, in the same order, every time.
In short
Every pipe, conduit, vent, curb and equipment mount is a separate detail with its own service life. A useful inspection numbers them, photographs them against a roof plan, and reports the same numbers next visit so change is visible rather than remembered.
01
Manufacturer system warranties — no dollar limit and material-only alike — carry maintenance, inspection and notification obligations. The common failure is not a dispute over coverage; it is an owner who never knew the obligations existed. An inspection should be run against the actual warranty document on file, because that document names what must be recorded and how often.
02
Walking a surface cannot tell you whether the insulation below it is wet. Infrared, capacitance or nuclear surveys map suspected moisture across the roof, and a small number of test cuts confirms what the survey suggested. That evidence is what separates a repair decision from a replacement decision, and it belongs before either is priced.
03
A folder of defect photographs is not an inspection. The output is a marked roof plan, a condition note against each area and detail, a priority order that separates active water entry from deterioration from items being monitored, and the same document carried forward and updated at the next visit.
Questions
Twice a year is the common pattern, usually spring and autumn, plus after severe weather and after any significant rooftop work. Age, system type, rooftop activity and the requirements written into a manufacturer warranty all change the interval.
Site staff clearing drains and reporting visible change is genuinely valuable and should be part of the plan. Judging seam condition, terminations and concealed moisture needs roofing-specific observation, and mechanical, electrical and gas connections belong to the specialist trades that service them.
Rarely on a schedule, and never in place of you. Manufacturer involvement is typically concentrated at issuance, with any later inspection carried out on request or once a claim has been made. The maintenance and notification obligations in the document run the other way: they are things the owner has to do and to have recorded. The usual failure is an owner who assumed for years that the warranty was being looked after by someone else.
Buy the inspection as its own deliverable rather than as a preamble to a quotation, and say so at the outset. A report standing on photographs, a marked plan and a priority order is useful whoever ends up doing the work. Then ask a question that costs something to answer: what on this roof would you leave alone this year, and why. An inspection that finds only chargeable work has told you about the inspector.
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Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.