Roof Inspection
One inch is the National Weather Service's threshold for severe hail, and it is roughly where asphalt shingles begin to bruise. Concrete and clay tile generally hold until stones reach an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half. Metal panels dent at well under an inch and usually keep the building dry regardless. Those three numbers are why a roof inspection after a storm is not a formality: the same hailfall can total one roof, damage the next and leave the third cosmetically marked and functionally perfect. APC Roofing inspects roofs throughout Florida, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.
Three vantage points, and the one most often skipped
From the ground, at a distance, the planes are read for sagging, uneven wear and missing pieces, and the gutters are checked for shed granules and rust. On the roof, the surface is walked wherever it is safe: fasteners, seams, laps, covering, and every point where something comes through — vent pipes, chimneys, skylights, curbs, satellite mounts. The great majority of leaks begin at penetrations and wall intersections, so flashing earns more attention than open field. The third is inside. The attic tells the truth the surface hides: daylight through the sheathing, rust rings on protruding nail points, damp or matted insulation, staining down the rafters, mould where air is not moving. An inspection that never went into the attic saw half the roof.
Who is actually doing the looking
Worth knowing, because the industry is vague about it: on most residential inspections the person on your roof is a roofing consultant or sales representative, not a separately employed inspector, and the same person would typically carry your job through if you proceeded. That is a normal arrangement rather than a problem, but it is a reason to ask for findings in writing with photographs attached rather than accepting a verbal summary at the truck. Documentation is what makes an assessment checkable by somebody else later.
What the report should contain
Photographs tied to locations. Each finding named, with a clear line between "this is a defect now" and "this is a watch item" — two categories that get blurred whenever a report is written to justify a sale. It should also record what is in good condition, because a baseline is only worth having if it covers the whole roof. Keep it. Two inspections a few years apart show the direction a roof is heading, which is far more informative than either one alone.
When it is worth doing
Before buying or selling, since the roof is one of the largest single items in any negotiation. After severe weather, even when nothing looks wrong from the yard — bruised shingles and lifted seams routinely go unnoticed until a ceiling stain appears months later. Before hurricane season on the Florida coast, and before spring along Colorado's Front Range, which sees large hail more often than anywhere else on the continent; the May 2017 storm over the Denver metro remains the costliest insured catastrophe in the state's history at around 2.3 billion dollars. And any time an insurer, a lender or a material warranty asks for current condition in writing.
An inspection is documentation you can use
Most insurance disagreements are disagreements about when damage happened, and a dated inspection with photographs settles that far better than anyone's recollection. It also works in the other direction, as a defence against being sold a roof you do not need. Customers here repeatedly describe inspections that concluded there was nothing worth claiming and nothing to sell — that is a documented pattern rather than a promise, and the way to hold anyone to it is simply to ask for the pictures behind the finding.
