For Some Home Inspectors, It Can Be a Roof Life

Every week, the detail-oriented folks at Green Scene Home Inspections will give CandysDirt.com readers an education in inspection. Want to see what they see? Tune in  for “Upon Closer Inspection.”

When you’re buying a home, we advise people that the major areas of consideration are the roof, plumbing, electricity, HVAC, and the foundation. These are your bigger ticket items, so if something is amiss, you may have costly repairs on your hands at some point.

If you’re buying a home in North Texas, you’ll want to look out for storm damage, as big Texas weather can really wreak havoc on a roof. Also, since the roof can be a major expense, be on the lookout for shoddy DIY repair or esthetic “fixes” meant to cover up damage.

Here are a few examples from the field:

Worried about your tin roof blowing away? Simply add a concrete block.

A little backyard target practice? Shooting in the air on a holiday? Glad this bullet ended up in a roof and not a person! 

Someone has some extra shingles. (Yeah. You’re not supposed to shingle the chimney.)

In this shot you can see an example of shoddy roof repair. There’s a double layer of shingles. The old, worn layer underneath may have been leaking, so someone patched over the top of it. This may fix the leak short-term, but it creates an unlevel surface on the roof which will age the shingles faster and unevenly, causing more damage in the long term.

In this video, a Green Scene inspector shows you some common issues a home inspector might find while inspecting a roof.