Roof inspection
Roof condition is one of the largest numbers hidden inside a Florida house price, and it is invisible from the driveway. An hour settles what a listing photo cannot: how the underlayment, the metal and the deck are actually doing, and how many years a buyer is really purchasing.
The timing that matters here
Late spring, before a seasonal house is closed, is the appointment worth more than any other on this coast. It catches the openings that would otherwise take four months of daily rain unobserved, and it costs a fraction of what those four months cost. The same visit in October reports on what the summer did.
Before buying, second, and for a specific local reason. The age of a covering is routinely unknown here because the record of the last job left with the previous owner, and on a tile roof the visible layer says nothing about the layer that fails.
What a real inspection covers
It starts in the attic where access allows, because the deck tells the truth about where water has been and how long it stayed. Then the plane itself, walked rather than photographed from the street. Then the places roofs on this coast actually open: every penetration, the valleys, the perimeter, and the line where the lanai and enclosure meet the house.
Within reach of the water, add the metal. Fastener heads, drip edge and valley metal are checked for the corrosion that salt air writes into them, because that is where these roofs usually fail first. A report worth paying for names each item, photographs it, and gives remaining life in years rather than in adjectives.
What it costs and what it saves
An inspection is priced in the low hundreds and moves decisions priced in the tens of thousands. Buyers use it to negotiate, owners use it to time a replacement on their own calendar rather than the roof’s, and sellers use it to take the roof off the table before it becomes the argument.
On a street where the roofs share a birthday, it does one more thing: it tells you where you sit in a queue that is about to form.
Quick answers
- The tile looks perfect. Does the roof still need looking at?
- Yes, and that is precisely the case worth checking. Concrete tile can look new for decades while the underlayment beneath it reaches the end of its life.
- How often, on a house that sits empty half the year?
- Twice a year is the pattern that fits this coast: once before it closes, once after it reopens. The gap between the two is when everything happens.
- Is a drone inspection enough?
- It is a good start and a poor finish. The attic, the fastener heads and the enclosure junction tell the parts of the story a lens cannot reach.
- 1 The ridge. The highest, hottest course, and the one the sun works on all day.
- 2 The field. Tile or shingle above, and the underlayment that actually keeps water out below.
- 3 Valleys. One channel carrying what two slopes shed, at the pace this coast rains.
- 4 Flashing. Where the lanai and the enclosure meet the house, and where neither trade owns the seam.
- 5 Penetrations. Every vent and curb is a hole the underlayment has to seal, and the first place it stops.
- 6 Eaves and metal. Drip edge and fasteners, which salt air reaches years before it touches the covering.