(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentAccess and method
Two assessments of the same roof can disagree entirely, and often the reason is not judgment — it is that one person walked the slope and the other looked at it from the driveway. A finding is only as good as the access behind it, which is why the method belongs in the report next to the observation rather than assumed.
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What this covers
The closest read available. Seal strips can be lifted by hand, soft decking is felt underfoot, mat condition and granule loss are assessed by touch as well as by eye. It is not always available: pitch, height, a wet or frosted surface, brittle tile and aged wood shakes are all reasons a slope is not walked, and heat is another — asphalt scuffs when it is soft.
A legitimate method on a roof that should not be walked. From the edge you can reach the first courses, the drip edge, the gutter and the fascia, and photograph up-slope. You cannot assess the ridge, the far plane or anything you cannot get a hand to. Said plainly, that is a useful partial result.
A drone resolves geometry, whole-slope patterns, ridge and valley lines and planes nobody can reach. It is the best tool available for what a roof looks like and it settles nothing about what a surface feels like. It cannot lift a tab, press a bruise or sound a soft deck.
What to know
A report saying the roof was inspected has said almost nothing. One saying which slopes were walked, which were reached from a ladder, which were flown, and which were not examined at all is a document that can be acted on and checked. It is also the honest way to describe a roof where half of it was accessible and half was not.
The underside. A wet deck, daylight at an unintended opening, rusted fastener points, staining on the sheathing and compressed or damp insulation are all attic findings, and they frequently explain an exterior that looks unremarkable. The attic is read alongside the roof, not instead of it.
Nobody should be on a wet, frosted, steep or storm-damaged surface, and no assessment is worth an injury. Where a slope cannot be reached safely, the output is a stated limitation and a plan to come back — not a guess written up in the same voice as an observation.
Choose a starting point
A short, non-diagnostic guide for working out what kind of assessment conversation to prepare for.
Decision support
Four situations, and the sensible next move for each. It does not diagnose a roof, decide insurance coverage, or stand in for somebody looking at the property.
Questions
For pattern, geometry and unreachable planes it is better. For anything requiring touch — seal strips, mat fracture, soft decking, boot condition — it is not a substitute. The right answer on many roofs is both, and the report should say which findings came from which.
It can, which is part of why method is chosen rather than defaulted. Asphalt scuffs when it is hot and soft, concrete and clay tile crack under foot traffic, and an aged or brittle covering is easily made worse. Where the covering is the reason for staying off it, that reason goes in the report.
No, though it helps at the end. What matters more is the history only an owner has: which rooms, which storms, which wind directions, what has been repaired before and by whom. That context changes where an assessment looks, and it is worth writing down before the visit.
Accept the statement; do not accept it as the end of the matter. A slope that was not reached is a gap in the evidence, and what should come with it is the reason — pitch, surface condition, weather, access — and a plan for closing it. Where the unexamined slope is the one the decision turns on, the honest next step is a second visit with the right equipment, not a conclusion written in the same voice as an observation.
Assessment request
Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.