When is an inspection worth it?
Buying a house. A roof is one of the biggest jobs a house can need, and a general building report may only give it a paragraph. A roofer's own look, with photos, tells you what you're taking on.
After a storm or earthquake. Dated photos and notes help show your insurer what's sudden damage and what's wear. The Insurance Council says insurers don't treat rusting iron, weathered paint or blocked spouting as sudden.
Before painting or re-roofing. An honest inspection tells you whether paint will add years or just cover up a roof that's finished. Our guide to repaint or re-roof helps with that call.
Because the maker asks. Monier recommends a roofing professional inspect a tile roof ideally every five years, BRANZ says textured Gerard metal tiles need annual inspections, and Viking says its Butylclad membrane should be checked twice a year. The COLORSTEEL warranty depends on its maintenance programme being followed and documented.
A house from the leaky years. Timber-framed homes built from 1988 to 2004, especially those with flat roofs, minimal eaves or complicated roof shapes, are worth a closer look.
What should a roofer check?
- The roofing itself: rust, cracked or slipped tiles, lost stone chip, splits or ponding on membranes
- Fixings: popped nails, loose screws and perished washers
- Flashings, valleys, ridge and barge flashings
- Spouting and downpipes: rust, sagging, overflow marks and blocked outlets
- Everything through the roof: skylights, flues, vents, solar mounts and aerials
- The ceiling space: underlay, stains, timber condition and signs of condensation
- Old repairs, especially sealant patches and mismatched sheets
- Anything that could be asbestos, with a test recommended rather than a guess
- Whether the roofing suits the site's exposure to salt or geothermal air
- Any old brick chimney, and the flashing around it
Walked, ladder or drone?
Not every roof should be walked on. WorkSafe lists fibrolite, clear roofing, some old masonry tiles, skylights and badly corroded metal as brittle roofing that people shouldn't walk on. The metal roofing code warns that walking carelessly on metal tiles can do considerable damage, and both Gerard's and Monier's tile warranties exclude damage from foot traffic.
So on a fragile or steep roof, a drone or pole camera plus a look in the ceiling space can tell you more, with less risk to the roof and the roofer. The trade-off is that a camera can't feel a loose screw or lift a lap. Good inspectors mix methods and tell you which parts they couldn't reach.
What does a useful report include?
It's written and dated, and says who inspected and how. Each issue has a photo, its location on the roof, how urgent it is (now, within a year, or one to watch) and the fix the roofer suggests. It also lists what couldn't be seen.
Ask for the report to stand on its own, separate from any repair quote. It's fine if the same roofer offers to do the work, but you should be able to hand the report to someone else for a second opinion.
Buying? Check the paperwork as well as the roof
If the roof was replaced under a building consent, the owner should have applied for a code compliance certificate, with a Record of Work from each LBP who did restricted building work. If work that needed a consent was done without one, the owner can apply to the council for a certificate of acceptance.
Recent work can still carry protection. A later owner can enforce the Building Act's implied warranties, not just the person who paid for the job, within the 10-year limit for building claims. Ask the seller who did the roof and when, and for any warranties and maintenance records.
What should you ask before booking?
- Will you inspect from the roof surface, with a drone, or both?
- Will you look in the ceiling space?
- Will I get a written report with photos, and how soon?
- Is there a fee for the inspection or the report, and what does it include?
- If you also quote repairs, will the report be separate?
- Are you an LBP with a Roofing licence?
Checks you can do, and the ones that need a roofer
You can
- Walk around the house once a year and after storms, looking up from the ground
- Look over the roof from an upstairs window or the street, with binoculars
- Watch the spouting from inside during heavy rain, for overflow
- Check ceilings and the tops of walls for new marks
- Keep records of who did roof work, when, and any warranties
Leave to a roofer
- Anything on the roof itself
- The ceiling space, if the roof or ceiling might contain asbestos
- Judging how much life the roof has left
- Arranging an asbestos test when something looks suspicious
When we'd pay for one
Before buying any house with an older, tiled, decramastic or flat roof, and before saying yes to a paint job or a re-roof, we'd book an inspection and insist on a written report with photos. Then we'd file it with the house papers. It's a small step that heads off big surprises.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.