Roof Inspections and MaintenanceBased in Cleburne, TX

The Difference

What to know before you decide.

What sits under the shingles counts as much as what sits on top. Walking the roof reveals soft spots where the decking has taken on water and started to rot. In the attic, the signs are daylight through the boards, water stains on the rafters or the underside of the deck, damp or matted insulation, and nails rusted by condensation. The attic also shows whether the roof can breathe. Blocked soffit vents or too little exhaust let heat build up under the deck, and in a Texas summer that bakes shingles from below and shortens their life.

The edges of the roof finish the picture. Gutters that sag or pull away, downspouts that dump water against the foundation, and a missing or rusted drip edge all let water get behind the fascia. Stained or soft fascia boards are often the first visible sign that water has been getting in at the edge for a while. In a region where a spring storm can drop several inches of rain in an afternoon, gutters that cannot carry the flow send water over the edge and behind the trim, and that slow damage rarely shows up until the wood has started to give.

After hail or high wind, an inspection has a narrower job: find storm damage and tell it apart from ordinary wear. Hail leaves bruises, soft spots where the mat under the granules has fractured, often with granules knocked loose in a roughly round mark. It also dents soft metal, so gutters, vent caps and window screens give a good read on how big the stones were. Wind damage shows as creased, torn or missing shingles along the edges and ridge. Texas policies set deadlines for filing a claim, so get the roof looked at while the damage is fresh and the storm date is clear. When there is damage, we help with the insurance claim process from there.

Real estate inspections answer a different question. A general home inspector covers the whole house and may describe the roof in a sentence or two, sometimes from the ground. When you are buying or selling, a roofing inspection goes further, with an estimate of the roof's remaining life, the specific repairs it needs, and whether storm damage is present that could matter to an insurer. Some insurers in Texas look closely at roof age and condition before writing a new policy, so that information carries weight on both sides of a sale.

Maintenance keeps small problems from turning into leaks. Typical roof maintenance means replacing cracked pipe boots, resealing exposed nail heads and flashing, fastening down lifted shingles, and clearing debris out of valleys and gutters. Trimming branches back from the roof helps too, since limbs scrape off granules and give squirrels a path to the eaves. Compared with water damage to a ceiling, all of this is inexpensive, and on a roof with years left it protects those years.

A good rule is to have the roof inspected once a year and again after any hailstorm that dents cars or marks the fence. Add one before you buy or sell a home. Call (817) 558-6997 to schedule a free inspection, and you will come away knowing where your roof stands and what, if anything, it needs from you this year.