What the visit leaves behind
A commercial roof inspection is only worth what its report lets you do afterwards. Ours is written for a reader who was not on the roof: a colleague approving a budget, a board voting on a spend, a contractor pricing the work, a lender asking what condition the building is in. That reader needs findings that are located, dated and explained, not a list of adjectives.
So the order of the repair list carries most of the value. A roof almost always has more findings than budget, and the question is never whether everything should be fixed. It is which items cannot wait. A lifted lap beside a drain and a rusting fastener in the middle of the field are both defects. Only one of them is about to put water into the building this winter.
What we will not do
We will not write a finding we did not see. If an area could not be walked, it is recorded as not inspected, with the reason.
We will not open the assembly without asking. Core samples make holes, the holes are patched, and the patching is part of the price. Where a core or a moisture survey is the only way to answer a question your decision depends on, we say so, explain what it would add and let you decide.
We will not tell you a roof is finished because it is old. Age narrows the range of likely answers and settles nothing on its own. Roofs of the same age in the same town come apart at very different rates depending on how they were detailed, how much traffic they take and whether the drains were ever cleared.
When owners book one
The usual triggers are a purchase or a refinance where somebody wants the roof characterized, a budget cycle where a capital line has to be defended with evidence, a warranty that requires documented inspections, a storm that may or may not have done something, and a leak that has already started.
The last one is the most expensive place to begin. By the time water shows on a ceiling tile it has usually been inside the assembly for a while, travelled some distance from where it entered and soaked insulation on the way. The defect that let it in may still be small. The repair no longer is.
Common questions
Will you quote the repairs you find?
We can, and often do, but the inspection and the repair are separate pieces of work and we keep them separate on paper.
- The person deciding what needs doing would be the person paid to do it
- That does not make findings wrong, but you should be able to test them
- Every finding is numbered, photographed, located on a plan and given a reason
- Another contractor can walk the roof and agree or disagree in front of you
- The report alone is a complete piece of work and we will not chase you
If you want a price we quote the items in the order the report ranks them, and we tell you which we would leave until next year. You are free to hand the report to anybody else and ask them to price it instead.
What happens to the parts of the roof you cannot reach?
They go in the report as not inspected, with the reason written next to them.
- A lower roof with no safe way down onto it, or a fragile deck
- A section behind live equipment, or an area under standing water
- Wind that makes walking unsafe is a real limit, not an excuse
- Rating a section from the parapet is the worst habit in this trade
- We say what it would take to see the area properly
That might be a lift on a scheduled day, or a hatch screwed shut for years. A flight can give a usable view of a surface nobody should stand on, though a photograph of a lap is not the same as lifting it. You decide whether a second visit is worth it.
Can the inspection happen while the building is occupied?
Yes, and most of them do. The work is above people rather than among them, so tenants normally notice nothing beyond someone crossing a corridor to reach a ladder.
- Access and notice are the parts that need planning
- If the route runs through a leased space, tell us who holds the key
- Where leases set a notice period for entry, we work to it
- Escorts, sign in, permits or a security briefing often decide the day
- Over a quiet floor with water testing, agree what is covered and who moves it
Work outside normal hours is possible where the building demands it. It adds cost, so it is better as a decision made in advance than as a surprise on the invoice.
Do you need drawings or old reports before the visit?
Not to book it, but send whatever you have, because old paperwork frequently answers a question the surface cannot.
- A roof plan saves us drawing one
- Previous reports show whether a defect is new or has sat there for years
- Repair invoices show which details have been worked on already
- A detail repaired twice is telling you about the design, not the workmanship
- Install paperwork settles the roof type and build up without cutting a hole
Warranty documents matter because some set out what the owner must do to keep them alive, and an inspection written in the wrong form may not satisfy that. If you have none of this, it is common and not an obstacle: establishing what is on the building is part of the job.
What if the building has several roof systems on it?
Then it is several inspections and the report treats it that way.
- Buildings acquire roofs in pieces: extensions, failures, tenant fit outs
- Areas of different ages, materials and remaining life sit side by side
- Averaging them into one rating hides the thing you needed to know
- Each area gets its own boundary, description, condition rating and list
- Junctions get particular attention, because often nobody owns them
A joint between two systems installed years apart is a common leak point. Splitting the roof out shows its value in budgeting: replace one area this year, hold another for three years and keep repairing the third, rather than deferring one big number.