What Home Inspectors Most Often Miss & What A Home Inspectors Typical Roofing Checklist Includes...

The No. 1 culprit to slip through a home inspection is a roof leak, says Reggie Marston, president of Residential Equity Management Home Inspections in Springfield, Va. That's because a home inspector doesn't go onto the roof to check on its condition, he explains. Instead, an inspector generally examines the roof from ground level with binoculars or looks out higher windows to get a view of roofing below. This is not true of the vast majority of  Inspectors in Texas, who will note torn or missing shingles and nail pops that may or may not indicate a full-fledged problem. To guarantee that you are buying a house with a durable roof, Marston suggests hiring a licensed roofing contractor to provide a full evaluation.  Call us at 817 381 6855....below you find a home inspectors' typical checklist.

Amazingly, the eyeball rule applies even to the roof. The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), a professional organization with around 5,000 members whose guidelines have been adopted as the industry standard, says its member inspectors must "observe" the roof, but it doesn't say they actually have to go up there.

Even some veteran home inspectors think inspectors should closely check the roof. "A really bad roof can look good from the ground. When you see it at an acute angle, you don't always see the defect. But when looking straight down, you can see it better," Stone says. An inspector can make excuses for not getting to the roof, saying it's fragile or slippery. But there are often ways around those hurdles. Stone says you could set up a ladder to look at the roof without actually stepping on it. Or if you stand far enough away from the house, you can get a better perspective by using high-powered binoculars.

Stone recommends asking an inspector how he checks the roof before hiring him. If he won't go up, for whatever reason, you might want to try someone else.

A Typical Home Inspectors Roof Inspection list 

 ____ Composition shingles: no curling, no cupping, no loss of granulation particulate, no broken, damaged or missing shingles, no more than two layers of roofing

 ____ Wood shingles or shakes: no mold, rot or decay, no cracked/broken/missing shingles, no curling 

 ____ Flat roofs: no obvious patches, no cracks or splits, minimal blisters/"alligatoring" and wrinkles, no silt deposits (indicates improper drainage), sealed tar at flashings

 ____ Flashing around roof penetrations

 ____ No evidence of excess roofing cement/tar/caulk

 ____ Soffits and fascia: no decay, no stains 

 ____ Exterior venting for eave areas: vents are clean and not painted over 

 ____ Gutters: no decay or rust, joints sealed, attached securely to structure, no bending or sagging, no sections of gutter or downspout missing, gutters clean, no mud deposits

 ____ Chimneys: straight, properly flashed, no evidence of damaged bricks or cracked joints, mortar/cement cap in good condition