A free, written, no-pressure inspection.

A free, written, no-pressure inspection.

A roof inspection is a chance for an honest set of eyes on your roof from someone who isn’t trying to sell you something. We do them free because most of the time the answer is “your roof is fine, call us in five years.” When the answer is something else, you have a written report with photos and recommendations to act on.

Common reasons people call us for an inspection: insurance company is requiring one for policy renewal, you’re buying or selling a house and need a roof condition report, you had a storm come through and want to know if there’s damage worth filing on, the roof is older and you want to know how many years are left.

You get a full walk of every plane, photos of any issues, a one-page written summary with our condition rating, and a price for any work we’d recommend (zero pressure to do it through us). The whole thing takes about 45 minutes on most homes.

How often you should get a roof looked at.

The honest answer is more often than most people do, and there are a few moments when it’s worth picking up the phone whether or not anything looks wrong from the ground. The first is after any real storm. If hail came through your area or the wind was strong enough to take down limbs, get the roof checked within a week or two, because storm damage often doesn’t show up as a leak right away. A hailstone can bruise the shingle mat and break the granule seal without putting a hole in anything, and that bruise quietly fails six or twelve months later when the bare asphalt finally gives. Catching it early also keeps you inside the window most insurance policies allow for filing a storm claim, which closes faster than people expect.

The second moment is age. Once an asphalt roof passes about fifteen years it’s worth a look every couple of years, just to track how it’s aging and plan ahead instead of getting surprised by a leak in the middle of a January cold snap. The third is any time you’re buying or selling. A roof is one of the most expensive things on a house, and neither side of a sale should be guessing about it. A written condition report tells a buyer exactly what they’re getting and gives a seller a straight answer before it turns into a negotiation surprise. The last one is simple peace of mind. If you can’t remember the last time anybody actually got up there and looked, that’s reason enough. It costs you nothing to find out, and knowing where you stand beats wondering every time it rains.

What a real inspection looks at.

A drive-by glance from the driveway tells you almost nothing. When we get up on your roof we’re checking the things that actually predict how many years you have left. Granule adhesion comes first. We look at how much of the protective granule layer is still bonded to the shingle versus how much is sitting in your gutters. Heavy granule loss means the asphalt underneath is getting cooked by UV, and that’s the clock running out. We check for shingle cupping and curling at the edges, which tells us the mat is drying out and losing its seal.

Then we go after the spots that leak. Flashing gaps around chimneys, walls, skylights, and valleys are where most water actually gets in, so every joint gets a close look. We don’t stop at the roof surface either. We go into the attic when we can and look at the decking from underneath, checking for deflection, dark staining, or soft spots that mean water has already been getting through. Ridge alignment gets a look too. A sagging or wavy ridge line points to a structural or decking problem that a surface inspection would miss entirely.

Photo documentation is the part homeowners underrate. If you ever file a storm claim, the adjuster is working from a snapshot in time. Having dated photos of hail bruising, lifted shingles, and damaged flashing gives you a record of what the roof looked like and strengthens your position when the insurance company sends someone out. We photograph everything we flag, good and bad, so you have it on file whether you need it next month or in three years.

Our climate out here shapes what we prioritize. Southwest Missouri takes real hail, so we’re looking hard for the soft, bruised spots where a hailstone broke the granule seal even when the shingle isn’t visibly punctured. Our long, bright summers mean UV degradation is a constant, so brittleness and granule loss get extra attention. And the thermal cycling between cold nights and hot days works fasteners and flashing loose over time, so we check every penetration and every seam for movement. Those three forces drive almost every roof failure we see in these seven counties.