Roof Inspections in Lawnside, NJ

Three lists, and only one of them has a price

The first is what is failing now: anything letting water in or about to. That is the list the written estimate covers. The second is what is ageing and will want money, with a rough year against each line so it can be budgeted rather than reacted to. The third covers everything in good order that wants nothing doing to it, which on most houses is the longest of the three lists and the one nobody is ever shown.

What the hour takes in

• Every junction

  Chimneys, sidewalls, dormer cheeks, skylights: where roofs actually fail.

• The edges

  Rakes, ridge, drip edge and the first course, checked for lift and for fastening.

• Valleys

  Wear, debris, and whether an earlier repair ran covering over the metal.

• Penetrations

  Boots, vents and anything somebody has pushed through the deck since.

• The loft

  Deck staining, daylight, damp timber and whether the fans discharge outside.

• Intake and exhaust

  Whether the roof can breathe, which decides how long the covering above it lasts.

Why we do not charge for it

Because a figure given without seeing a roof is a guess, and a guess always moves in one direction afterwards. An hour of our time is cheaper than a quote that has to be revised twice. There is nothing attached to it. People take the three lists, do the first one, and ring about the second three years later. That is a completely normal outcome.

Sensible times to book one

After a storm with wind behind it. Before you buy a house, or before you sell one and a buyer's surveyor gets there first. After any work that put somebody on the roof — an aerial, a satellite dish, a new vent. And once every few years on an older covering, simply so the second list stays current.