What a Roof Inspection Should Cover

A roof inspection should produce a written report with photos, not a verbal summary and a quote. Here’s what a proper inspection covers and what shortcuts look like.

What a Roof Inspection Should Cover — practical guidance from the team running roof inspections on the Garden Route. Below is the checklist a real inspection works through, what the report should contain, and how to tell an inspection from a sales visit with a ladder.

What an inspection is for

An inspection answers three questions: what condition is the roof in, what needs doing now, and what needs budgeting for. It is a diagnostic exercise, and its output is information.

That is a different job from a quote, which prices a scope somebody has already decided on. The two get conflated constantly, and the conflation is where the problem starts — because if the inspection is free and the inspector only earns anything by selling the repair, the incentive runs in one direction.

There are four common reasons to have one done. Before buying a property, where the roof is one of the larger unknowns in the transaction. After a storm, where the damage may be more or less than it looks from the ground. As routine maintenance, particularly on the coast. And when something is leaking and nobody knows why.

Each of those wants a slightly different emphasis, but the underlying survey is the same, and it should be systematic rather than a look at whatever is obviously wrong.

An inspection report should name what it found, not describe it generically. Sheeting profile and brand where it is identifiable, coating type — plain galvanised, Chromadek, Zincalume or Colorbond — tile manufacturer where it can be read off the underside, fastener type and condition, and whether any asbestos-cement sheeting from the Everite era is present. That specificity is what lets you price a repair without a second visit, and it is what an insurer wants to see when a storm claim is assessed against the SANS 10400 wind requirements for the area.

The roof space, which is where the inspection should start

A surprising number of “inspections” never go inside the roof. That is the wrong way round — the interior tells you more about what is happening than the exterior does, and it tells you where to look when you get on top.

The underlay. Torn at fixings, sagging into troughs between rafters, brittle, crumbling, or absent. Daylight visible through the covering. On older roofs the underlay condition is often the single most important finding in the whole report.

Timber. Rafters, purlins, battens and truss members checked for rot, insect damage, splits, and any member that has been cut or notched by someone running a cable or a pipe. Cut truss members are more common than they should be and they matter.

Water evidence. Staining, tide marks, active drips, mould, damp insulation. Old staining that is dry tells you where a leak was; wet staining tells you where one is. Both are useful.

Structure and fixings. Truss connections, hangers, bracing, wall plate strapping. Missing or partial bracing is a real finding on coastal roofs where uplift is a live load rather than a theoretical one.

Insulation and ventilation. Compressed, displaced or wet insulation, and whether the roof space can breathe. A sealed roof space in a humid climate produces condensation that looks exactly like a leak and is diagnosed as one surprisingly often.

The covering, junction by junction

On the roof itself, the survey should be systematic rather than opportunistic, and it should concentrate where roofs actually fail.

Tiles or sheets. Cracked, slipped, broken or missing units. On tiles, the condition of the surface — chalking, moss, exposed aggregate. On metal, the coating condition, any corrosion, and particularly the condition around the fixings, which is where corrosion usually starts.

Fixings. On sheeting, whether the screws are still tight and whether the washers have perished. Perished neoprene washers are one of the most common and most easily missed causes of persistent minor leaks on a metal roof.

Ridges and hips. Cracked or missing bedding mortar, loose or displaced ridge tiles.

Valleys. Debris, corrosion, whether the lining is adequately sized, and whether the tiles have been cut back far enough to let it work.

Flashings and abutments. Every junction with a wall, chimney or parapet. Cracked mortar fillets, lifted or corroded metal flashings, chases that have opened up.

Penetrations. Vents, flues, aerials, and any solar or PV mounting. Retrofitted solar is a frequent cause of new leaks on previously sound roofs and it deserves specific attention.

Gutters, box gutters and downpipes. Falls, blockages, corrosion, sagging brackets, whether the downpipes discharge somewhere sensible. Box gutters get their own line because they behave like a small flat roof and fail like one.

The coastal items that do not appear on a generic checklist

A roof inspection template written for a dry inland climate misses several things that matter a great deal between Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay.

Metal component condition, specifically. Nails, clips, brackets, valley linings, flashings and fixings all corrode faster in salt air, and they frequently reach end of life while the covering above them is still sound. An inspection that reports on the tiles but not the metal has missed the thing most likely to fail first.

Fixing adequacy for wind uplift. Whether the sheeting gauge, the fixing centres and the clip type suit the exposure. Roofs specified to an inland standard and built at Herolds Bay or Glentana are not unusual, and the finding matters more than a cracked tile does.

Organic growth. Lichen and moss hold moisture against the surface, block valleys and gutters, and accelerate surface erosion. The humidity here suits them.

Evidence of previous storm repair. Patch repairs, mismatched tiles, silicone where a flashing should be. These tell you the history of the roof and often where it will fail next.

Salt deposition and staining patterns on the exposed elevations, which indicate which faces are taking the weather and where to concentrate maintenance.

What the report should actually contain

This is the part that separates an inspection from a visit. If you get a phone call and a quote, you have not had an inspection, whatever it was called.

Photographs of every finding, in context, so you can see what is being described and where it is. Photographs are also your baseline for the next inspection and your evidence for an insurer.

A written description of the roof as built: covering type, apparent age, pitch, underlay type and condition, structure type.

Findings ranked by urgency, and honestly. Something like: needs attention now because water is getting in; needs attention this year before it becomes the first category; and monitor, with an indication of the likely horizon.

The cause, not just the symptom. “Leak in bedroom” is a symptom. “Cracked mortar fillet at the chimney abutment on the southern elevation, water tracking along the purlin and appearing at the bedroom ceiling” is a finding you can act on and check.

What was not inspected, and why. Areas that could not be safely accessed, or that were concealed. An honest limitation statement is a marker of a real report.

Recommendations separated from pricing. The report says what needs doing. The quote, separately, prices it. Keeping them apart is what lets you take the report to somebody else.

How to tell an inspection from a sales call

Some patterns are reliable, and they are worth knowing before you let anyone onto your roof.

No written report. The most common shortcut. A verbal summary cannot be checked, compared, or referred back to in a year.

No photographs. If nobody photographed the roof, you have no way of knowing what was looked at, and neither does the next contractor.

The roof space was never entered. Half the diagnostic information is inside. An exterior-only survey should be described as one.

Everything is urgent. A report where every finding requires immediate action, from a contractor who can start on Monday, is a sales document. Real roofs have a mix of urgent, soon and monitor.

Pressure and same-day discounts. Particularly after a storm, when door-to-door operators appear in the affected suburbs. A legitimate roofer will let you get a second opinion, because they expect to still be there when you come back.

Damage nobody can show you. If a finding cannot be photographed and located, treat it as unproven. This is a well-worn tactic after storms.

The counter-move is simple: pay for the inspection. A paid inspection with a written report costs a fraction of an unnecessary repair, and it changes what the inspector is being paid to produce.

After the storm, and after the report

Storm inspections have their own rhythm and it is worth knowing it, because insurance sits in the middle of it.

Photograph everything before anything is touched, including from ground level and including the interior damage. Do what is reasonably necessary to prevent further damage — a temporary cover over an opening — and keep the receipts, because most policies require you to mitigate and most will pay for reasonable mitigation.

Then get an independent inspection with a written report before agreeing to any repair scope. The report is what supports the claim, and it is also what protects you from the two failure modes on either side: a scope that is smaller than the actual damage, and a scope that quietly includes pre-existing wear the storm did not cause.

Be careful with any operator who offers to handle the claim, cover the excess, or work directly with the insurer on your behalf without your involvement. Some of that is legitimate assistance. Some of it is not, and the homeowner is the one who carries the consequence of a claim that is later disputed.

For a routine inspection, the useful output is a maintenance plan rather than a one-off list. Clear valleys and gutters ahead of the wet season, deal with slipped tiles promptly, replace perished washers as a batch rather than one at a time, and re-inspect annually. Roofs on the Garden Route reward maintenance more than roofs almost anywhere else in the country, because the environment is working on them continuously.

Frequently asked questions

What does a roof inspection cover?

A full inspection covers the roof space and the exterior. Inside: underlay condition, timber and truss members, bracing and fixings, water staining, insulation and ventilation. Outside: the covering and its fixings, ridges and hips, valleys, all flashings and abutments, every penetration, and the gutters, box gutters and downpipes. On the coast it should also specifically report on the condition of metal components and on whether the fixing regime suits the wind exposure.

What should a roof inspection report include?

Photographs of every finding, a written description of the roof as built, findings ranked by urgency, the cause of each problem rather than just the symptom, a statement of what could not be inspected and why, and recommendations kept separate from pricing. If you received a verbal summary and a quote, you received a sales visit rather than an inspection.

How much does a roof inspection cost?

It varies with roof size, access and how far the property is from George, so we quote it per property rather than off a list. What is worth saying is that paying for the inspection is usually the better arrangement. A free inspection is paid for by the repair that follows it, which puts the incentive in the wrong place; a paid inspection produces a report you own and can take to somebody else.

How often should a roof be inspected?

Annually on the Garden Route, plus after any significant storm. The coastal environment — salt air, driving rain, wind uplift and high humidity — works on a roof continuously, and the components that fail first are usually small metal ones that are cheap to replace when found and expensive to ignore. Also inspect before buying a property and before the wet season if the roof is older.

Should I get a roof inspection before buying a house?

Yes. The roof is one of the largest single unknowns in a residential purchase, and the two most expensive findings — a perished underlay and corroded structural fixings — are both invisible from the ground and from inside the house. An inspection with a written report gives you either peace of mind or a number to negotiate with, and it costs a very small fraction of either outcome.

Can a roof inspection find the source of a leak?

Usually, though it takes the right sequence. Water travels along the underlay, rafters, purlins and service pipes before it appears, so the visible stain is rarely below the entry point. A proper diagnosis starts in the roof space, traces the water path back up, checks the usual failure points, and confirms with a controlled hose test where necessary. Chasing the stain rather than the path is how people end up repairing the wrong part of the roof.

Do I need an inspection for an insurance claim?

It is not always formally required, but an independent inspection with a written report and dated photographs is the single most useful thing you can have. It supports the claim, it establishes the extent of the damage before repairs begin, and it protects you against both an under-scoped repair and a scope that includes pre-existing wear the storm did not cause. Photograph the damage before anything is touched, and keep receipts for any temporary protective work.

Want the report, not the sales pitch?

We inspect the roof space first, photograph every finding, and give you a written report with the urgent items separated from the ones you can budget for. Take it to whoever you like.

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