Roof inspection
An inspection earns its cost when it answers a decision. In a region where a building can carry a pitched front roof, a flat rear one and a porch roof nobody has looked at in twenty years, the most valuable thing it produces is simply knowing what is up there and which part is on which clock.
When it earns its price
Before buying, especially on a multi-family — roof condition is one of the largest numbers hiding in a purchase here, and a general home inspector’s note rarely distinguishes between a membrane with ten years left and one that is finished. When a flat roof passes twenty years, because that is when the covering starts making the decision rather than the owner. And when ice returns to the same eave every February, since the useful question is whether the problem is the roof or the attic — and the answer changes what you buy.
What gets checked
On a pitched section: the covering and its apparent age, granule loss, the difference between the sunny and shaded slopes, the valleys and what sits in them, and step and counter-flashing at every wall and chimney. On a flat section: the seams, the parapet junction, the base of every penetration, the condition of the drains or scuppers, and whether water is standing anywhere after rain. And on any multi-family, the rear porch roof and its tie-in — the part most likely to be leaking and least likely to have been looked at.
Then the attic, which on housing this old carries half the story. Is there any ventilation at all? Was the soffit intake buried under blown insulation years ago? Are the boards overhead continuous or spaced? Rusted nail tips and staining mean moisture is condensing under the deck, and a bath fan discharging into the attic instead of outdoors is a roof problem disguised as a plumbing one.
What the report is good for
Photographs are what turn an opinion into something you can hand to someone else. On a three-family, where the gap between « fine » and « finished » runs to tens of thousands, that evidence is what a purchase negotiation actually rests on. A dated report also puts a season on the work instead of a vague « soon », which is how you end up quoting in February for a June job rather than calling in September. And it fixes the scope: three bidders pricing the same sections, the same materials and the same porch roof are finally comparable.