Roof
Inspection

Roof Inspection Process

Before a roof inspection, the most common question is, “I don’t have any leaks. Why would I need an inspection?”

The answer to that is simple, Preventative roof maintenance can save you thousands of dollars down the road, and can extend the lifespan of your roof tremendously.

The average homeowner will only replace 1 or 2 roofs in their lifetime. As a result, homeowners only think about their roof when there is a leak or some other major issue. Your roof is the single most expensive maintenance item on your home that nobody budgets or plans for. When is the last time you looked closely at your roof?

Hardly anyone does anything about their roof until it starts leaking, and then they worry about the inevitable mold and mildew. If you DO get leaks and mold, the repair costs will be significantly higher.

During the Roof Inspection

We inspect roofs to detect any kind of shingle failure, leaking or weather damage. The most common storm damage is from wind and hail. Our inspectors are also looking to ensure the previous installation is correct and no repairs are needed.

The Odyssey team knows about recalls, discontinued shingles, or defective roofing products and can quickly identify your roofing materials. If you have a defective roofing product, even minimal wind damage can lead to a full roof replacement.

A thorough inspection inside and outside is important to get a full understanding of the roof’s condition. While on the exterior, our roof inspectors may not find any noticeable issues; however, when they get into the attic, they may discover rotten boards and leaks.

The easiest ways for water to infiltrate a roof are through exposed nail heads and degraded flashing (AKA Pipe Jack) on your plumbing exhaust piping. We find that builder grade pipe jacks often fail within the first 10 years, which leads to costly leak repairs. The silicone around these pipe jacks needs to be replaced roughly every five years as it wears away. It’s an easy fix but an important one.

All of this information will help us develop an idea of the general lifespan remaining for your roof.

Roof Ventilation

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The roof inspector checks the roof’s ventilation to ensure it was set up correctly. It would be best to have an equal ratio of intake and exhaust in your home. Your roof is like a living organism, and as such it breaths just like you do.

Having a well-balanced roof ventilation system is particularly important. If you have too much exhaust and not enough intake, your home’s warm air will be pulled into the attic in the winter, and the cool air will do the same in the summer. Too much intake and not enough exhaust can lead to hot air being pushed into your conditioned space in summer, and cool air doing likewise in the winter. This can put a much heavier load on your HVAC system, which will shorten its lifespan.

We find that many roofers will add ridge ventilation to homes without closing off the gable vents, when replacing the roof. The philosophy that “every roof is better with ridge ventilation” is not always true. If ridge ventilation is added without eliminating the other sources of exhaust, or adding additional intake ventilation, you will have an unbalanced system.

Beyond the effects on your HVAC system, having unbalanced roof ventilation will cause excessive heat buildup in the attic, causing blistering and thermal cracking to occur on the shingles. As you can imagine, this shortens the roofing systems lifespan.

About Our Roof Inspectors

Odyssey Contracting has a team of highly trained and qualified inspectors, who are supervised by OSHA-30 certified managers. We are safety conscious and have copious amounts of safety equipment on hand to ensure your inspections are done as safely as possible from start to finish.

Our inspectors utilize the Ridge Pro System along with ropes and harnesses to access all areas of your home safely and in a non-invasive way.

Roof inspection garner 1 Roof Inspection CostTo give our clients extra peace of mind, and to protect our employees, Odyssey Contracting carries $1 Million in General Liability, $1 Million of true Workman’s Compensation (no ghost policies here), and an additional $1 Million umbrella policy. Feel free to ask your inspector for a copy of our policy.

Roof inspections are free for homeowners and business owners, but a detailed report of what we find will cost a one-time nominal fee.

If we are chosen to complete any needed roof repairs, the report cost will be applied to the repairs fee, making the roof inspection report free.

We utilize drones with high-quality cameras to inspect hard-to-reach areas and take clear images. We then create a customer profile in our company CRM system where the photos will be stored indefinitely.

We inspect the following types of roofing; Asphalt shingles, metal roofs, synthetic slate roofs, real slate roofs, cedar shakes, rubber (EPDM roofs), and TPO roofs.

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What is the average age of a roof when it needs its first inspection?

Within 5-8 years of being built, and from then on it needs to be inspected once per year.

What’s the most common issue you come across when doing roofing inspections?

The most common problem we see is the failing plumbing exhaust pipes. Generally, they will last ten years, but we’ve seen them fail and crack apart in as little as 2-3 years. Because of this, we advise our customers to upgrade their pipe flashing to the “Permaboot”. Which carries a lifetime warranty.

Will my insurance company cover the roof replacement/repair?

This depends on a few different factors; is there damage related to a storm event that happened within the coverage period? Are there any exclusions listed on your policy? Did you have your current insurance provider at the time the damage occurred? These are all questions we take into consideration when conducting a roof inspection.