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Roofing Inspection – Starts in the Attic?

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 Just as the title suggests, why would a roofing salesperson want to look in my attic – the roof is on the other side. By examining the crawl space above your living area there are several things that will help in bidding and designing a new roof system. First, it allows the inspection for leaks that are not large enough to make it into your living space, but can play havoc with your wood surfaces. The second reason is to inspect for proper ventilation flow – that the soffit vents are clear and working properly and the outflow vents are correct.

 Just as the title suggests, why would a roofing salesperson want to look in my attic – the roof is on the other side. By examining the crawl space above your living area there are several things that will help in bidding and designing a new roof system. First, it allows the inspection for leaks that are not large enough to make it into your living space, but can play havoc with your wood surfaces. The second reason is to inspect for proper ventilation flow – that the soffit vents are clear and working properly and the outflow vents are correct. We also want to inspect the ducting for the bath and kitchen to make sure they are not just blowing warm wet air into the attic and that they are correctly connected to dedicated exhaust vents.

Next comes evidence of mold –  if we find areas of the roof underdeck that show signs of mold we need to figure out why it’s happening and offer suggestions on how to fix the problem. We also want to inspect for electrical, computer, cable or phone lines that may be running just under the roof deck and could be damaged by roofing nails.

But don’t stop inspecting yet, we can also get a good feel for the layout of the attic and how it may be compartmentized and the effects on our venting system. This is also a great time to determine if a skylight or SolaTube is a good option and the challenges they may face in specific location installations.

The roof attic inspection is more important than most folks realize. A professional roofing contractor will always make the roof attic one of his stops before putting together a roofing proposal.