Every roof inspection is somebody's inspection.
Steep-slope and residential low-slope · owner-occupied, rental, and pre-purchase
The word covers five different products with five different clients. Knowing which one is standing on your driveway is most of the skill.
What does a roof inspection actually cover?
Five different things get called a roof inspection: a home inspector's visual observation, a paid independent assessment, a contractor's free sales visit, an insurance adjuster's loss inspection, and a municipal permit inspection. Each has a different scope, a different client, and a different incentive. What separates a useful one from a worthless one is a written scope, dated photographs, and a statement of what was not examined.
Five inspections, one wordSection link
The differences below are structural, not moral. An honest inspector working inside a limited scope still hands you a limited answer.
- Kinds of inspection
- Five, with five different clientsHome inspection, paid independent assessment, contractor's free inspection, insurance adjuster's inspection, municipal permit inspection.
- Walking the roof
- Not automatic, and edition-dependentInterNACHI's standard exempts walking any roof surface. ASHI's standard in force does not: its published interpretation says walking is required where the roof is readily accessible and it is the only way to see all the surfaces. The ASHI edition approved for 2026, not yet effective, adds a flat exemption. Every version requires the method used to be described in the report.
- Tools a home inspection includes
- Eyes, and whatever the inspector chooses to bringThe ASHI edition approved for 2026 — not yet effective — states the inspector is not required to use a moisture meter, thermal-imaging equipment, a drone, or a ladder reaching more than one storey above grade. The edition in force does not require them either. Any of those is an extra you ask for and pay for.
- What a report must tell you
- The method, and the not-inspected listThe ASHI standard in force requires the report to describe the method used to inspect the roofing, and to state which systems were present at the inspection but not inspected, and why. Read those two lines first.
- Service-life statements
- An opinion, not a measurementInterNACHI's standard says the inspector is not required to predict service life expectancy, and ASHI's excludes determining remaining life expectancy. Where a number appears anyway, it is a planning range built from age and observed condition — not a warranty and not a measurement.
| Kind of inspection | Whose client the inspector is | What sets the scope | What you should end up holding | What it is not |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home inspection, during a sale | Whoever paid — usually the buyer. Not the seller, not the lender, not the agent. | A general-home standard of practice covering a dozen systems. The roof is one section of it, examined visually from readily accessible positions. | A written report naming the method used on the roof and listing what was present but not inspected, with reasons. | Not a roof-specific evaluation, not a leak prediction, not a warranty or certification. |
| Paid independent roof assessment | You, if — and only if — the assessor is not also bidding the repair. | Whatever you write into the engagement. This is the only one of the five where you set the scope. | A dated photo set, a defect list sorted by urgency, a stated method, a stated limits section, and an invoice. | Not free, not a code determination, and not binding on an insurer or a seller. |
| Contractor's free inspection | The contractor. An honest free inspection is still a sales call, and its cost is recovered in the jobs that close. | The contractor, and in practice the proposal it is meant to support. | The photographs and a written proposal with a defined scope. Ask for the photographs even if you do not buy. | Not independent, and not a second opinion on the proposal its own author wrote. |
| Insurance adjuster's inspection | A company adjuster is the insurer's employee. A public adjuster works for you, must be licensed in states that regulate them — Illinois does — and is paid a percentage of the claim. | The policy language, the reported loss, and the insurer's estimating platform. Wear, age, and maintenance sit outside it. | The adjuster's scope sheet or estimate and the photographs taken. Request both in writing. | Not a condition assessment. The question being answered is whether a covered loss occurred, not whether the roof is sound. |
| Municipal permit inspection | The jurisdiction. The inspector enforces the adopted code, not your interests and not the contractor's. | The permitted work and the code edition that jurisdiction has adopted, plus its local amendments. | An inspection record on the permit and, where the jurisdiction issues one, a final approval. | Not an assessment of the parts of the roof outside the permit, not a workmanship guarantee, not a promise it will not leak. |
Read this table one item at a time
Home inspection, during a sale
- Whose client the inspector is
- Whoever paid — usually the buyer. Not the seller, not the lender, not the agent.
- What sets the scope
- A general-home standard of practice covering a dozen systems. The roof is one section of it, examined visually from readily accessible positions.
- What you should end up holding
- A written report naming the method used on the roof and listing what was present but not inspected, with reasons.
- What it is not
- Not a roof-specific evaluation, not a leak prediction, not a warranty or certification.
Paid independent roof assessment
- Whose client the inspector is
- You, if — and only if — the assessor is not also bidding the repair.
- What sets the scope
- Whatever you write into the engagement. This is the only one of the five where you set the scope.
- What you should end up holding
- A dated photo set, a defect list sorted by urgency, a stated method, a stated limits section, and an invoice.
- What it is not
- Not free, not a code determination, and not binding on an insurer or a seller.
Contractor's free inspection
- Whose client the inspector is
- The contractor. An honest free inspection is still a sales call, and its cost is recovered in the jobs that close.
- What sets the scope
- The contractor, and in practice the proposal it is meant to support.
- What you should end up holding
- The photographs and a written proposal with a defined scope. Ask for the photographs even if you do not buy.
- What it is not
- Not independent, and not a second opinion on the proposal its own author wrote.
Insurance adjuster's inspection
- Whose client the inspector is
- A company adjuster is the insurer's employee. A public adjuster works for you, must be licensed in states that regulate them — Illinois does — and is paid a percentage of the claim.
- What sets the scope
- The policy language, the reported loss, and the insurer's estimating platform. Wear, age, and maintenance sit outside it.
- What you should end up holding
- The adjuster's scope sheet or estimate and the photographs taken. Request both in writing.
- What it is not
- Not a condition assessment. The question being answered is whether a covered loss occurred, not whether the roof is sound.
Municipal permit inspection
- Whose client the inspector is
- The jurisdiction. The inspector enforces the adopted code, not your interests and not the contractor's.
- What sets the scope
- The permitted work and the code edition that jurisdiction has adopted, plus its local amendments.
- What you should end up holding
- An inspection record on the permit and, where the jurisdiction issues one, a final approval.
- What it is not
- Not an assessment of the parts of the roof outside the permit, not a workmanship guarantee, not a promise it will not leak.
Association standards of practice are voluntary trade standards, not law. Many states license or register home inspectors and some set their own statutory scope and mandatory report content; where a licensing statute and an association standard conflict, the statute governs — the ASHI edition approved in January 2026 says so in terms. Check what your state requires before assuming any row above describes what you will get.
When a paid assessment earns its fee — and when it does notSection link
This page's advice is that an independent, paid assessment is usually worth its fee. Here is where that advice is wrong.
Best when
- You are buying, and the home inspection flagged the roof — a roof-specific assessment answers a question the general inspection was never scoped to answer.
- A contractor has recommended full replacement and you have no independent read on whether that is right.
- The roof is over ten years old, you have no photographic baseline, and you want one before the next storm rather than after it.
- An insurance claim is in progress and you need your own dated record of condition that does not come from a party to the claim.
- The building is a rental or an investment and someone will eventually ask you what you knew and when.
Think twice if
- The failure is obvious and localized — a visible hole, a branch through the deck, a section blown off. Pay for the repair, not for a second opinion about whether there is a problem.
- The fee approaches the cost of the repair itself. On a small roof with one suspected flashing failure, a paid assessment can cost more than fixing the flashing.
- You have already decided to replace for reasons an assessment cannot change — a planned addition, a solar install, a sale requirement.
- You cannot find an assessor who does not also sell roofing work. In thin markets, an independent assessor may not exist; a contractor with a long local record and a willingness to document may be the honest option available.
- An active leak is running. Stop the water first. Diagnosis after mitigation is still diagnosis; a soaked ceiling during a report-writing week is not.
What changes the answer
- Whether the assessor also bids the work. That single fact converts an assessment into a sales call, whatever it is called.
- Roof age and whether any photographic record exists. The first assessment on an undocumented roof buys a baseline; the fourth on a documented one buys very little.
- Whether an insurance claim is open. Once a claim exists, an independent dated record is worth more than it was the week before.
- Access. A two-storey roof at 10:12 pitch with no safe staging limits every inspection, paid or free, in the same way.
- Your jurisdiction. Home-inspector licensing, public-adjuster licensing, and contractor rules on deductibles all vary by state and change what any of these parties may legally do.
Where the evidence actually livesSection link
An inspection is not a place you stand. It is a sequence of vantage points, each of which answers a different question and none of which answers all of them.
The popular image of a roof inspection is a person on the ridge. That image is wrong in both directions: standing on the covering is neither necessary for most findings nor sufficient for the ones that matter most. Water damage often announces itself from below before anything is visible from above, and the two vantage points that most reliably distinguish a wet roof from an old one — the attic side and the interior ceilings — require no ladder at all.
The numbers on the drawing correspond to the list below. Each entry says what that position can establish and what it cannot.
- Ground and perimeter. Plane count, slope, sag, obvious missing or lifted units, staining below flashings, granules washed onto splash blocks, debris on the ground that came off the roof. The DOE Building America Solution Center makes the blunt version of this point about existing roofs: a roof surface that is not flat where it should be flat can indicate a structural problem. Cannot establish anything about attachment, underlayment, or the condition of the deck.
- Gutter and downspout outlet. Accumulated granules, fastener heads, sealant crumbs, and standing water tell you what the roof has been shedding. Cannot distinguish the normal granule shedding of a new roof’s first season from end-of-life loss without knowing the roof’s age.
- Eave and edge, from a ladder set at the gutter. Drip edge presence, first-course condition, ice-barrier evidence at the eave, soffit and fascia rot, gutter pitch, and the underside of the first few courses. Cannot see the field, the ridge, or anything above about the first few feet of the slope.
- The field of the covering — from a walked roof, a drone flight, or purchased aerial imagery. Course alignment, exposure, blistering, creasing, punctures, prior repairs, patched colour mismatch, mechanical damage from foot traffic. Cannot see what is under the covering, and a walked roof can create the damage it then records — on tile, slate, aged asphalt in heat, and any brittle covering, walking is itself a damage mechanism.
- Penetrations and their flashings — chimney, plumbing vents, exhaust terminations, skylights, and every roof-to-wall intersection. Every one of these is a deliberate hole or a joint in an otherwise continuous surface, which is why they are examined one at a time rather than scanned. The DOE guidance describes correct practice as step flashing integrated in a layered manner with the roofing and topped with counterflashing; where you see a bead of sealant doing that job instead, you are looking at a repair with a service life measured in seasons. Cannot confirm that concealed flashing exists or is correctly lapped without removing covering.
- The attic side — underside of the deck, framing, insulation, and the daylight test. Staining, delamination, rust trails on fasteners, mould growth, compressed or displaced insulation, blocked soffit baffles, and daylight at penetrations. This is the single highest-yield vantage point and it is indoors. Cannot be reached in every house, and both major home-inspector standards exclude attics that are unsafe or too tight to enter, and do not require an inspector to move insulation to see what is under it.
- Interior ceilings and wall heads. Stain shape, stain edge (hard-edged and dry versus soft and damp), position relative to penetrations above, and whether the stain reappears after painting. Cannot tell you where water entered: water travels along rafters, sheathing seams, and pipes before it appears, so the stain marks the exit, not the entry.
Why the method statement is the most important line in the report
Two inspections of the same roof, one from the ground and one that included the attic and the eave, produce reports that read almost identically to a non-specialist and mean entirely different things. This is precisely why the standards require the method to be recorded. ASHI’s standard of practice — the edition in force and the edition approved for 2026 alike — requires the inspector to describe in the written report the method used to inspect the roofing, and to state which systems specified for inspection were present but not inspected and why. ASHI’s own published interpretation on the question goes further: where the roof is readily accessible and walking it is the only way to observe all the surfaces, walking it is expected — and where it is not walked, the reason belongs in the report.
So the first thing to read in any roof report is not the findings. It is the sentence describing how the inspector looked, and the list of what they did not look at.
What a thorough assessment actually examinesSection link
Six subsystems, in the order water encounters them. A report organized any other way is harder to compare against a second one.
1. The covering
Material and profile, approximate age, course exposure and alignment, and the condition-specific failure signs for that material: granule loss and mat exposure on asphalt; creased, curled, or cupped units; split or fractured slate and tile; blistering, ridging, or seam separation on low-slope membrane; fastener back-out, oil-canning, and washer degradation on exposed-fastener metal. Prior repairs matter as much as damage does, because a patch is a record of a past problem and a colour mismatch is a record of when.
2. Flashing
Flashing is sheet material that bridges a joint between two things that move independently — a roof plane and a wall, a roof plane and a chimney, two roof planes meeting in a valley. It is a joint rather than a surface, which is why a covering can be sound while the roof leaks, and why an inspection earns its fee here. What is being looked for: step flashing present and layered with the courses rather than a continuous strip of metal or a bead of sealant; counterflashing let into or lapped over the step flashing; kickout flashing where a roof edge dies into a wall above a gutter; valley treatment; drip edge at eaves and rakes; and the condition of any sealant that is doing structural duty it was never meant to do.
3. Penetrations
Every object that passes through the roof plane: plumbing vent stacks, exhaust terminations, chimneys, skylights, satellite mounts, solar standoffs, and abandoned penetrations that were capped rather than removed. Pipe boots are a consumable — the elastomeric collar degrades under ultraviolet exposure long before the covering does, which is why a roof well short of the end of its life frequently leaks at a stack while the field is still sound.
4. Drainage and edges
Where the water goes after it leaves the covering: valley capacity, gutter size and pitch, downspout count and discharge, scupper and internal drain condition on low-slope areas, and evidence of ponding. On a low-slope roof, water still standing well after the weather has cleared is a finding, not a curiosity. At the edges: fascia and soffit condition, drip edge, and whether the gutter is pulling away from the fascia because the fascia behind it is rotten.
5. Attic-side evidence
The underside of the deck and the framing supporting it. Staining and its pattern, delamination of sheathing plies, rust trails at fasteners, mould growth and where it is concentrated, daylight visible at penetrations, insulation that is compressed, displaced, or wet, and whether soffit baffles are open or buried under blown insulation. The attic is also where an exhaust fan discharging into the attic instead of outside gets discovered — a common cause of “roof leaks” that are not roof leaks.
6. Deck and structure
Sheathing type and thickness, span and support, evidence of rot or delamination, and any deflection in the plane of the roof. This is the part of the roof most likely to change the price of a job after work has started, because it is invisible until the covering comes off. A written deck-replacement allowance in a proposal — a stated unit price and a stated number of sheets included — is the difference between a surprise and a line item.
What no inspection can determine from outside the assemblySection link
These are not gaps in effort. They are gaps in physics and access, and an inspector who claims otherwise is guessing confidently.
The list below is worth reading before you commission anything, because it is the list of questions you should not expect an answer to — and the list you can use to test whether the answers you did get were honest.
- Fastener placement and count. Whether shingles were nailed in the manufacturer’s nailing zone, at the right count, at the right depth, and not overdriven is invisible once the course above is laid. InterNACHI’s standard states outright that the inspector is not required to confirm proper fastening or installation. This is a manufacturing-warranty-relevant fact that simply cannot be recovered after the fact without lifting units.
- Underlayment type, extent, and condition. Whether self-adhered ice barrier was installed, how far up the slope it runs, and whether the field underlayment is intact are concealed. Where an ice barrier is required at all, and how far it must extend, is a function of the code edition and amendments a jurisdiction has adopted and of local climate designation — there is no universal answer to import.
- Whether a dry stain is active. A stain records that water was there. It does not record when, or whether the path is still open. Distinguishing the two takes either a moisture meter reading during or immediately after wetting weather, a return visit, or a controlled water test — and no home-inspection standard requires any of the three.
- Wet insulation inside a low-slope assembly. Trapped moisture between a membrane and a deck can be extensive with no visible surface symptom. Locating it takes infrared imaging, nuclear or capacitance moisture survey, or test cuts, each of which has its own false-positive modes. None is part of a residential home inspection.
- Remaining service life. Age plus observed condition supports a planning range and nothing tighter. InterNACHI’s standard says the inspector is not required to predict service life expectancy at all. A number stated to the year is an opinion wearing a lab coat; a warranty term is a contractual period, not a prediction of how long the roof will last. That distinction has its own page: roof service life.
- What is under a second layer. Where a covering has been laid over an existing one, the original covering and the deck beneath it are unobservable, and so is any rot that developed between them. Whether an additional layer was permissible at all depends on the code edition adopted where the building is, and on the existing conditions at the time — not on a general rule.
- Design wind and snow performance. Whether an assembly is appropriate for the wind or snow conditions at a specific site is an engineering determination for that building, using site exposure, height, geometry, risk category, and the tested assembly. An inspection observes what is there; it does not determine what should be.
The aerial-imagery question
Purchased aerial or satellite imagery and drone photography have made the field of the covering genuinely observable without anyone climbing. That is real progress, and it is why remote measurement and remote photography now appear in ordinary residential work. What they have not changed is the list above: imagery resolves the plane of the covering and almost nothing beneath it. A drone photograph of a chimney will show you whether counterflashing is visible; it will not show you whether step flashing is layered correctly behind the courses, because that is what “behind” means.
How to read an inspection reportSection link
Report language is compressed, hedged, and legally shaped. Six sentences you will actually encounter, and what each one is and is not asserting.
The sentences in the table below are constructed examples in the style of real residential reports, written by Understanding Roofing to illustrate the pattern. They are not quotations from any inspector or any report. Read them as a decoding exercise, then apply the same four questions to whatever document you actually receive.
| The sentence in the report | What it actually asserts | What it does not assert | The question it should trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Roof covering: asphalt shingles. Appears to be original to the 1998 construction.” | The inspector identified the material and estimated its vintage from appearance and from information supplied about the building. | That the covering is original, that it is the only layer, or that it is at or near the end of anything. | Is this one layer or two? What was the basis for the age — a document, the owner, or the look of it? |
| “Granule loss observed. Roof is near the end of its useful life. Recommend evaluation by a licensed roofing contractor.” | That granule loss was observed, that the inspector formed an opinion about remaining life, and that the inspector is referring the question onward. | How much life is left, whether the loss is uniform or localized, or whether the roof currently leaks. Loose granules are common after a new installation and a different signal entirely on an aged one — the word alone does not separate them. | Where was the loss, how widespread, and was mat exposed? Is the recommendation to evaluate replacement, or to evaluate a specific defect? |
| “Unable to walk roof due to pitch. Roof inspected from ladder at eave and from ground with binoculars.” | That the covering was observed from the eave and from the ground, and that the inspector recorded how — the method statement the standard requires, and the most valuable sentence in the document. | That the field, ridge, and upper slopes were observed at close range. They were not. Binoculars resolve missing units and gross damage, not fastener condition or flashing laps. | Which findings rest on close observation and which rest on distance observation? Should a roof-specific assessment with proper access follow? |
| “Attic: not entered — insufficient clearance. No apparent moisture staining observed at accessible areas.” | That the attic was not entered, that a reason was recorded as the standard requires, and that whatever was visible from the access point showed no staining. | That the attic is dry. The highest-yield vantage point on the whole roof was not used, and insulation was not moved. | Can access be improved and the attic re-checked? Is there any other interior evidence — upstairs ceilings, closet ceilings, around chimneys? |
| “Flashing at chimney: sealant repair noted.” | That someone previously applied sealant at the chimney, which is evidence of a past leak or a past concern. | That the flashing itself is sound. Sealant at a chimney is very often a substitute for correct step and counterflashing, and it has a service life measured in seasons. | Is there actual step flashing behind the sealant, or is the sealant the flashing? What would correcting it involve, and does it require masonry work? |
| “Ventilation appears inadequate.” | That the inspector compared what they saw against an assumed vented-attic model and found it short. | That the assembly is wrong, that more ventilation is the fix, or that any specific ratio applies. Vented and correctly designed unvented assemblies are both legitimate, and requirements depend on the adopted code edition, amendments, the assembly, and the climate zone. | Is this a vented or an unvented assembly by design? Is intake blocked, or is exhaust genuinely undersized? Is there a moisture symptom, or only a measurement against an assumption? |
Read this table one item at a time
“Roof covering: asphalt shingles. Appears to be original to the 1998 construction.”
- What it actually asserts
- The inspector identified the material and estimated its vintage from appearance and from information supplied about the building.
- What it does not assert
- That the covering is original, that it is the only layer, or that it is at or near the end of anything.
- The question it should trigger
- Is this one layer or two? What was the basis for the age — a document, the owner, or the look of it?
“Granule loss observed. Roof is near the end of its useful life. Recommend evaluation by a licensed roofing contractor.”
- What it actually asserts
- That granule loss was observed, that the inspector formed an opinion about remaining life, and that the inspector is referring the question onward.
- What it does not assert
- How much life is left, whether the loss is uniform or localized, or whether the roof currently leaks. Loose granules are common after a new installation and a different signal entirely on an aged one — the word alone does not separate them.
- The question it should trigger
- Where was the loss, how widespread, and was mat exposed? Is the recommendation to evaluate replacement, or to evaluate a specific defect?
“Unable to walk roof due to pitch. Roof inspected from ladder at eave and from ground with binoculars.”
- What it actually asserts
- That the covering was observed from the eave and from the ground, and that the inspector recorded how — the method statement the standard requires, and the most valuable sentence in the document.
- What it does not assert
- That the field, ridge, and upper slopes were observed at close range. They were not. Binoculars resolve missing units and gross damage, not fastener condition or flashing laps.
- The question it should trigger
- Which findings rest on close observation and which rest on distance observation? Should a roof-specific assessment with proper access follow?
“Attic: not entered — insufficient clearance. No apparent moisture staining observed at accessible areas.”
- What it actually asserts
- That the attic was not entered, that a reason was recorded as the standard requires, and that whatever was visible from the access point showed no staining.
- What it does not assert
- That the attic is dry. The highest-yield vantage point on the whole roof was not used, and insulation was not moved.
- The question it should trigger
- Can access be improved and the attic re-checked? Is there any other interior evidence — upstairs ceilings, closet ceilings, around chimneys?
“Flashing at chimney: sealant repair noted.”
- What it actually asserts
- That someone previously applied sealant at the chimney, which is evidence of a past leak or a past concern.
- What it does not assert
- That the flashing itself is sound. Sealant at a chimney is very often a substitute for correct step and counterflashing, and it has a service life measured in seasons.
- The question it should trigger
- Is there actual step flashing behind the sealant, or is the sealant the flashing? What would correcting it involve, and does it require masonry work?
“Ventilation appears inadequate.”
- What it actually asserts
- That the inspector compared what they saw against an assumed vented-attic model and found it short.
- What it does not assert
- That the assembly is wrong, that more ventilation is the fix, or that any specific ratio applies. Vented and correctly designed unvented assemblies are both legitimate, and requirements depend on the adopted code edition, amendments, the assembly, and the climate zone.
- The question it should trigger
- Is this a vented or an unvented assembly by design? Is intake blocked, or is exhaust genuinely undersized? Is there a moisture symptom, or only a measurement against an assumption?
Report language is written to be accurate about observations and non-committal about consequences. That is a defensible drafting choice, not evasion — but it means the reader has to convert observation into decision, and that conversion is where money is lost.
The four questions to ask of any roof report
- How did you look? Find the method statement. If there is not one, the report is incomplete against the standard its author most likely subscribes to.
- What did you not look at, and why? Find the not-inspected list. An empty one on a two-storey house is not a sign of thoroughness.
- Which findings are safety, which are active water, which are deterioration, and which are cosmetic? If the report does not sort them, sort them yourself before you show it to anyone who sells roofs.
- For each “further evaluation” line, what specific question is the next person supposed to answer? A referral without a question is a referral to a salesperson.
Photographs and video: the reasonable middle pathSection link
Between climbing yourself and taking someone's word for it sits a documented record. It is cheap, it is safe, and it is the single highest-value thing you can insist on.
Almost every dispute in this subject — with a contractor, with an insurer, with a buyer — is a dispute about the condition of a surface nobody can see any more. Photographs settle those disputes, and they only settle them if they were taken before the argument started and can be tied to a date and a place.
What to require of someone else’s photographs
- A wide shot for every close shot. The close-up shows the defect; the wide shot shows that the defect is on your roof, on which slope, and near which feature. Without it, a photograph proves nothing about your building.
- Dates, not just files. Ask for the images with their original file dates intact, transferred as files rather than as screenshots pasted into a proposal. Screenshots discard the metadata that makes a photograph evidence.
- A complete set, not a curated one. Ask for photographs of every slope and every penetration, including the ones with nothing wrong. A set consisting only of defects cannot show you the proportion of the roof affected — which is the number that decides repair against replacement.
- Video for continuity. A single continuous walk-around or a continuous pass over the roof is harder to assemble from somewhere else than a folder of stills, and it shows the relationship between findings.
- Written permission to use them. Confirm you may share the images with other contractors, with your insurer, or with a buyer. This is not usually contentious. It is occasionally revealing.
What you can safely document yourself
From the ground, with a phone and — if you have one — an inexpensive zoom or a pair of binoculars: each elevation of the house from a consistent distance; each roof slope you can see; the gutter line; the ground under each downspout; the fascia and soffit; and anything on the ground that came off the roof. From inside: every ceiling, especially upstairs and in closets, and — without entering, and without a ladder — whatever is visible at the attic scuttle from the floor below it. Do this once a year and once after any severe storm, and keep the folders dated. Establishing a baseline before damage is worth more than any inspection after it, because it is the only thing that can date a defect.
Drones, and the question worth asking about them
A drone flight is now a routine way to observe the field of a roof without anyone on it, and it is a genuine safety improvement over a person on a 12:12 slope. Two practical points. First, the credential: business use of a small unmanned aircraft falls under FAA Part 107, and 14 CFR 107.12 requires the person manipulating the controls to hold a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating, or to be directly supervised by someone who does. Asking is reasonable and takes ten seconds. Second, the limits: a drone sees the plane of the covering extremely well and everything beneath it not at all, so a drone-only inspection is a field inspection, and the report should say so rather than implying whole-roof coverage.
What an independent assessment costs, and why there is no number hereSection link
Understanding Roofing has not collected a fee dataset for independent roof assessments. Rather than invent a range, here are the variables that set one.
Fees for independent roof assessments are quoted as flat fees or hourly rates, are set by local labour markets, and are not published in any transparent dataset we have been able to verify. Publishing a national “typical” figure would mean fabricating one, and a fabricated figure is worse than none — you would negotiate against it. When a sourced dataset exists, it will be published with its scope, geography, date, and confidence, under the same rules as every other figure on this site. Those rules are set out in the cost methodology.
What actually moves the number, in roughly descending order of effect:
- Access and staging. A roof reachable from a ladder costs a fraction of one that needs scaffolding, a lift, or rope access. This is usually the largest single term.
- Roof area and plane count. Not just square footage — a complex roof with eight planes, three valleys, and two dormers takes far longer to document than a simple gable of the same area.
- Whether attic entry is included. It should be, where it is possible. It adds time and it is where the findings are.
- Instrumentation. Moisture meter readings, infrared imaging, or a drone flight are add-ons, not defaults. No home-inspection standard requires them, and the ASHI edition approved for 2026 says so explicitly.
- Deliverable. A verbal opinion, a one-page letter, and a photo-documented report with a sorted defect list are three different products at three different prices. Specify which one you are buying.
- Whether the assessor also sells roofing work. A fee of zero has a price attached; it is just not on an invoice.
- Local market and season. Assessment fees track local roofing labour rates, and both rise in the weeks after a regional storm event.
One thing that is not a variable: an assessment fee should not be contingent on the findings. A fee that is waived if you sign a replacement contract is not an assessment fee. It is a discount on the replacement, and it prices the finding you were hoping to buy.
What changes an inspection on a real buildingSection link
The same inspection produces different answers on different buildings. These are the variables that move it.
- Access and site conditions
Access is the variable that quietly sets the ceiling on every inspection in this page. A single-storey 4:12 roof with a clear perimeter can be examined thoroughly from a ladder and the ground. A three-storey 12:12 slate roof with landscaping against the foundation cannot be, by anyone, without staging or a lift — and the cost of that staging is why some assessments are quoted high and some are quoted low for what sounds like the same service. If the pitch notation above is unfamiliar, roof pitch defines it and explains why slope gates access.
If an inspector reaches a roof you were told could not be reached safely, that is not thoroughness. It is an unmanaged fall hazard on your property.- Climate
Snow, ice, standing leaves, and moss cover the evidence, and no standard of practice requires an inspector to remove them. InterNACHI’s standard states plainly that the inspector is not required to remove snow, ice, debris, or other conditions that prohibit observation. A February inspection in a snow-belt state can be conducted competently and still tell you very little about the covering. Heat matters in the other direction: asphalt shingles soften in high roof-surface temperatures, and walking them at midday in summer scuffs and dislodges granules.
A seasonally limited inspection is not a bad inspection. It is a partial one, and the report should say so. If it does not, ask.- Structural weight
A sagging ridge or a deflecting deck is a structural observation, not a roofing one, and it moves the question to a different profession. The DOE Building America guidance for existing roofs says to confirm the roof surface is flat because sagging can indicate structural problems, and directs the work to a licensed and insured professional roofing contractor. Where deflection is real, the next call is a licensed structural engineer for that building, not a second roofing estimate.
No inspection report, at any price, is a load determination. Load capacity is calculated for a specific building by a qualified engineer.- Moisture and ventilation
Attic-side findings are the most commonly misread part of a roof report, because moisture arriving from inside the house looks a lot like moisture arriving through the roof. Frost on nail points in winter, staining that follows the rafter bays rather than a penetration, and mould concentrated near a bath fan are interior-moisture patterns, not roof leaks. The fix for those is air sealing and exhaust ducting, and re-roofing will not touch them. What balanced intake and exhaust actually means, and when an unvented assembly is the right answer, is covered in ventilation.
A report line reading “ventilation appears inadequate” is an observation against one assumed assembly. Vented attics and correctly designed unvented (conditioned) attic assemblies are both legitimate approaches, and required ventilation depends on the adopted code edition, local amendments, the assembly, and the climate zone. There is no universal ratio that settles it.- Maintenance
EPA lists roofing and siding shingles, and patching compounds, among the products in a house that may contain asbestos. On an older building — as a screening rule, anything installed before about 1990 — an inspection that involves cutting, coring, scraping, or lifting units can disturb it, and only laboratory analysis of a sample can establish whether a given material contains asbestos at all. EPA’s guidance is that material in good condition and not going to be disturbed should be left alone, that sampling should be done by a properly trained and accredited asbestos professional, and — a point worth borrowing for roofing generally — that homeowners should avoid a conflict of interest by using separate firms to assess the material and to repair or remove it.
Do not collect your own sample from an older roof or from suspect debris. Testing is the only way to know, and the sampling itself is the disturbance.- Code and jurisdiction
A municipal inspection on a re-roofing permit is a code compliance check on the permitted work, performed against the code edition and local amendments that jurisdiction has adopted. It is not a condition assessment of the whole roof and it is not a workmanship guarantee. There is no nationwide building code for site-built construction in the United States: states and local governments adopt and amend model codes on their own schedules, so what is inspected, when, and against which edition differs from one municipality to the next. Requirements that readers most often assume are universal — ice-barrier extent, whether a second layer may be laid over the first, and ventilation provisions — are all edition- and amendment-dependent. Where the permit inspection sits in the sequence of a job is set out in the roof replacement process.
Any general statement about code on this site, including this one, is about model provisions. Only the authority having jurisdiction for your address can tell you what is adopted there, in which edition, with which amendments, and on what effective date.- Fire
Reports and proposals frequently carry hazard language that reads as a property of the shingle in the box. It rarely is. A fire classification is a property of a tested roof assembly — deck, underlayment, and covering together — and can be affected by what is beneath the covering, so a report line naming a covering’s class is not a determination about the assembly on your building.
Fire class applies to a tested assembly, not to a covering in isolation. Verify against the listing for the assembly and the code adopted where the building is.- Wind
Wind findings after a storm are where reasonable people disagree most sharply, and where the words matter. A creased shingle that is still fastened, a lifted-but-sealed tab, and a missing tab are three different findings with three different consequences. What a report cannot do is convert a marketing wind figure into a statement about your building: wind performance depends on basic wind speed at the site, exposure, building height and geometry, the pressure zone the damage sits in, enclosure, risk category, the attachment used, and the tested assembly.
A wind speed printed on a product wrapper is a product claim, not a code determination for a site. Design wind conditions are determined for a specific building and location.- Hail and impact
Hail findings split into functional damage — fractured mat, displaced granules exposing the mat, punctured membrane — and cosmetic marking. The distinction drives whether a claim is paid, and it is exactly the distinction most contested at an adjuster visit. Photograph what you can see from the ground before anyone arrives, with the date recorded.
An impact-resistance class, including Class 4, is a result from a defined laboratory impact test. It is not a statement that the roof is hail proof, and it does not mean a real hailstone at a real angle and temperature will do nothing.
What a report warrants, and what can actually be repairedSection link
An inspection is an opinion recorded on a date. Almost every disappointment in this area comes from treating it as something more binding than that.
- What an inspection report warrants
It does not. InterNACHI’s standard of practice states the inspector is not required to warrant or certify the roof, and ASHI’s states that an inspector is not required to offer warranties or guarantees at all. Both also exclude concealed conditions and future performance. A report describes what was observed on one date from stated positions, which is a genuinely useful thing and a different thing from a promise.
- “Roof certifications” are a separate product
A “roof certification” is a commercial product, usually a contractor’s letter stating that a roof is sound and free of leaks for a stated period, sometimes required by a lender or a buyer. It is backed by the company that signed it and by nothing else. Read who is bound, for how long, to do what, and whether it survives a change of owner — and note that the same company often sells the repairs that make the certification issuable.
- Inspection during installation is worth more than after
Manufacturer warranties on covering products are conditioned on installation in accordance with the manufacturer’s published instructions, and enhanced or system warranties usually add registration, certified-installer, and component-set conditions. An inspection can document that a condition was met — fastener pattern, starter course, ventilation provision, accessory products — but only if the inspection happened while those things were still visible. After the covering is on, most of it is not.
- Repairability
A finding is not a scope. “Flashing at chimney requires repair” can mean re-bedding counterflashing into a raked mortar joint, or it can mean rebuilding the chimney crown. Before you accept a price, the document should name the repair, the materials, and what happens if opening it up reveals more.
Repairability
The practical question a report should let you answer is whether a defect is repairable in isolation. Three things decide it: whether the failed component can be reached without disturbing sound work around it, whether a matching replacement is obtainable, and whether the failure is local or a symptom of a system-wide condition.
A single fractured slate is repairable. Widespread fastener corrosion under otherwise sound slate is not, because every repair disturbs neighbours. A lifted ridge cap is repairable. Ridge cap lifting across an entire ridge because the fastener length was wrong is a re-do. A useful report distinguishes these; a weak one lists defects without saying which category each falls in, and leaves you to be sold the answer.
If you are at the point of asking whether repair still makes sense, that decision has its own page: repair or replace.
A warranty is a contract between a reader and whoever wrote it. What it covers, what voids it, whether it transfers, and how it is enforced are set by that document and by the law where the reader lives. Read the actual warranty and the actual inspection agreement in front of you — not a summary of either, including this one.
Questions to ask whoever is inspectingSection link
Ask these of whoever is inspecting — home inspector, roofing contractor, or independent assessor. The answers are more informative than the report.
Who is your client on this job, and who is paying you?
Every other answer depends on this one. A clean answer is instant and specific. Hesitation, or “we work for the homeowner” from someone who is paid only when a job closes, tells you which document you are about to receive.
Will you walk the roof? If not, how will you examine it, and will the report say which you did?
Neither answer is wrong. Not walking a steep, brittle, wet, or high roof is a professional judgement, and both standards recognise it — InterNACHI’s exempts unsafe surfaces outright, and ASHI’s interpretation of its standard treats a roof that is not readily accessible the same way. What is wrong is a report that does not say. ASHI’s standard requires the method used on the roofing to be described in the report.
Will you enter the attic, and what will you do if the access is too small or blocked?
The attic side is the highest-yield vantage point, and it is also the one most often skipped for legitimate reasons — clearance, stored belongings, no scuttle. You want it attempted and you want the outcome recorded either way. FHA appraisal protocol treats head-and-shoulders entry as the minimum acceptable observation where full entry is not possible; that is a reasonable floor to ask for.
Do you or your company sell the repairs you are about to recommend?
This is not an accusation and it should not be delivered as one. Many contractors do honest, careful free inspections and say openly that they hope to win the work. That is a fair arrangement. It is only a problem when it is concealed, or when the same party is presented to you as an independent opinion on its own proposal.
If you are flying a drone, do you hold an FAA remote pilot certificate?
Under 14 CFR 107.12, no person may manipulate the flight controls of a small unmanned aircraft system in an operation covered by Part 107 unless they hold a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating or are under the direct supervision of someone who does. Business use of a drone falls under Part 107. A firm that cannot answer this quickly has not thought about the rest of its documentation either.
What will you not be able to tell me after this inspection?
The single best question on this list. A competent inspector has a fluent answer — deck fastening, underlayment condition, concealed flashing laps, whether a dry stain is active, remaining service life as anything better than a planning range. Anyone who claims no limits is telling you about themselves, not the roof.
Are you asking me to sign anything today, and what does it commit me to?
Inspection agreements, contingency contracts, assignments of insurance benefits, and work authorizations are different documents and some of them commit you to buy. Several state consumer-protection offices publish warnings about post-storm door-knocking and about paperwork presented at the moment of inspection. Nothing has to be signed on the driveway.
Require these in writing, before the inspection
- The fee, and whether it changes if the roof cannot be safely accessed on the day.
- A method statement: which of the vantage points above were used, and which were not.
- The not-inspected list, with the reason for each item, as the standards already require.
- Dated photographs of every defect cited: one wide shot establishing where on the roof it is, one close shot showing the defect.
- A defect list sorted into immediate safety, active water intrusion, functional deterioration, cosmetic, and monitor — not one undifferentiated list.
- A plain statement of whether the inspector or their company will bid on any recommended work.
- For any recommendation of further evaluation, who should do it and what specific question they should answer.
- Confirmation that the photographs and report are yours to share with other contractors, insurers, or a buyer.
What people believe, and how inspections actually go wrongSection link
Most of these are not fraud. They are ordinary structural consequences of who is paying, applied to a document readers treat as neutral.
Common misconceptions
Common belief
The home inspector checked the roof, so the roof is fine.
What is actually true
The home inspection examined the roof visually, from readily accessible positions, as one section of a whole-house standard that also had to cover the electrical service, the heating plant, the plumbing, and the structure in the same visit. The inspector was not required to walk it, not required to use a moisture meter or a thermal camera, not required to use a ladder reaching more than one storey above grade, and not required to predict service life. All of that is normal and disclosed. It is a genuine, useful screening. It is not a roof evaluation.
Common belief
A free inspection is worthless because it is a sales call.
What is actually true
No. Plenty of contractors do careful, well-documented free inspections, decline work that is not needed, and build a business on it. The problem is not that the inspection is free; it is that an assessment and a bid arriving from the same party cannot check each other. The fix is not suspicion, it is documentation: photographs you keep, a written scope, and a second opinion when the recommendation is expensive.
Common belief
If the inspector did not get on the roof, it was not a real inspection.
What is actually true
InterNACHI’s standard states that the inspector is not required to walk on any roof surface, or on any surface that would be unsafe or that walking would damage; the ASHI edition approved for 2026 adds the same exemption in terms. The ASHI standard in force asks more of the inspector than that: ASHI’s published interpretation says walking the roof is required where the roof is readily accessible and it is the only way to observe all the surfaces — and not required where those surfaces can be seen otherwise, or where the roof is too high, too steep, too slippery, or too fragile. Steep, wet, brittle, or high roofs are exactly those surfaces, and a walked slate or aged-asphalt roof can leave in worse condition than it started. What you are entitled to is not a walked roof; it is a stated method and a stated list of what could not be observed.
Common belief
The insurance adjuster is a neutral referee.
What is actually true
A company adjuster is the insurer’s representative and, as the Illinois Department of Insurance puts it in describing the alternative, does not charge you a fee because they are an employee of the insurer. A public adjuster is the other direction: the Illinois department describes a public adjuster as someone who works for you to prepare, present, and settle the claim, must be licensed with the department, charges a percentage of the claim paid, and must give you a written contract on a form the director of insurance has approved. Neither is neutral. Both are doing a defined job for a defined client, and public-adjuster licensing, fees, and solicitation rules vary by state.
Common belief
The appraiser looked at the roof for the mortgage, so it has been inspected.
What is actually true
For an FHA-insured mortgage, HUD’s Handbook 4000.1 requires the appraiser to observe the roof, identify the material and condition, and notify the mortgagee where the covering does not prevent moisture entry or does not have a remaining physical life of at least two years — and to make the appraisal subject to inspection by a professional roofer where remaining life is under two years. That is a lending threshold, not a condition report, and “two years of remaining physical life” is a very long way from “in good condition.” Conventional appraisals apply their own investor requirements, which differ.
Common belief
No stain on the ceiling means no leak.
What is actually true
Water that enters at a flashing can travel along the top of a rafter, across the underside of the sheathing, and down a plumbing stack before it either evaporates in a ventilated attic or soaks insulation without ever reaching finished ceiling. Absorbent insulation can hold a substantial amount of water before anything shows below. A dry ceiling narrows the possibilities; it does not close the question, which is why the attic side matters.
How it actually fails
- The photo set with no wide shot
- Close-up photographs of damage with no wide shot establishing where on the roof — or on which house — the damage sits. The photographs may be entirely genuine and still prove nothing, because nothing in them ties the defect to your building.What you can see: Every image is a tight crop. No image shows a ridge line, a chimney, a street, or any feature you recognise as yours. Ask for a wide shot of each defect and for the file dates.
- The further-evaluation loop
- “Recommend evaluation by a qualified roofing contractor” appended to every roof finding. Used appropriately it is exactly right — the standards contemplate referral for further evaluation. Used as a default it converts the report into a referral slip and transfers the judgement back to someone who sells the remedy.What you can see: The same sentence appears under six unrelated findings with no statement of what the further evaluation should determine.
- Damage created during the inspection
- Damage created during the inspection itself. Georgia’s Attorney General’s consumer protection division states directly that some roofers have used a free inspection as an opportunity to cause damage in order to justify repairs. It is a minority behaviour, and it is why unaccompanied access matters.What you can see: Fresh, sharply defined breakage clustered where someone would kneel; damage that does not match the storm direction; a report that appears only after the inspector has been alone on the roof for a while. Ask to have your own dated photographs taken first, from the ground.
- The inspection with no document
- The verbal inspection. Someone looks, tells you what they found, and hands you a price. There is nothing to compare, nothing to show a second contractor, and nothing to show an insurer.What you can see: A proposal arrives with a total and a one-line scope, and no findings document exists at all.
- The deductible offer
- An offer to absorb, waive, discount, or rebate your insurance deductible, made at the inspection. Several states have made this unlawful for contractors: Texas, for example, enacted HB 2102 in 2019, effective 1 September 2019, making it an offence for a roofing contractor to pay, waive, or rebate all or part of an insurance deductible, with penalties the Texas Department of Insurance describes as up to a $2,000 fine and up to six months in jail.What you can see: “We’ll take care of your deductible.” Whether it is unlawful depends on your state; that it changes the number the insurer was given does not.
- The obscured-surface inspection
- An inspection conducted through snow, wet leaves, or heavy moss, reported as if the covering had been observed. No standard of practice requires an inspector to clear those conditions, and InterNACHI’s says so explicitly.What you can see: A confident condition rating on a roof photographed under snow. The honest version of that report says the covering could not be observed and why.
Sources and further readingSection link
Understanding Roofing / Published
Scope and limitations
- It cannot tell you the condition of your roof.
- Nothing written for a general audience can, and any page that implies otherwise is selling something.
- It cannot tell you whether a particular inspector, contractor, or adjuster is competent or honest.
- It can only tell you which documents make that easier to judge afterwards.
- It carries no fee figures.
- Understanding Roofing has not collected a dataset of independent roof-assessment fees, and will not publish a number it cannot source.
- The variables that set that fee are described in the fee section instead.
- Home-inspector standards of practice cited here are voluntary trade standards, not law.
- Licensing, permitted scope, and mandatory report content vary by state, and where state law conflicts with an association standard the law governs.
- ASHI has two documents in circulation: the standard in force, and a revised edition approved in January 2026 that is not yet effective.
- They differ on walking roofs and on specialized tools.
- This page names which edition it is quoting each time it matters, but an inspector's own report may follow either, or a state statute instead.
- Insurance, claims, adjuster licensing, contingency contracts, and assignment of benefits are jurisdiction-specific and fact-specific.
- Nothing here has had legal review, and nothing here promises coverage, rights, or enforceability.
- Code statements are about model provisions and general practice.
- Only the authority having jurisdiction for a specific address can state which code edition and amendments apply there.
Residential Standards of Practice
International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI)
The roof section of a home inspection: what the inspector shall inspect, describe, and report, and the eleven-item list of what the inspector is not required to do — including walking on any roof surface, predicting service life expectancy, removing snow, ice or debris, moving insulation, performing a water test, warranting or certifying the roof, and confirming proper fastening or installation. Also the definition of a home inspection as a non-invasive visual examination of accessible areas.
A voluntary association standard, not law. Where a state statute sets a different scope, the statute governs.
ASHI's Home Inspection Standard of Practice for the Home Inspection Profession
American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) / Approved changes as of 8 January 2026
Section 6.1 (what the inspector shall inspect and describe for roofing, and 6.1.D, the requirement to state in writing the method used to inspect the roofing); section 6.3 (the inspector is not required to walk on roofs); section 2.4.B.5 (the report must state components specified for inspection that were present but not inspected, and why); section 2.1 (where the standard and the law conflict, the law takes precedence); section 15.2.B.4 (not required to offer warranties or guarantees); section 15.2.D.1 (not required to enter areas judged dangerous) and 15.2.D.4 (not required to move snow, ice, or debris); section 11.2.A (not required to disturb or move insulation); section 3.2.C (not required to enter attics with less than 30 inches of clearance or an undersized access opening); section 16.2.A (not required to use moisture meters, thermal imaging equipment, drones, or ladders capable of reaching surfaces over one storey above ground).
This document is the version approved 8 January 2026; ASHI states on its first page that the newly approved changes are not yet effective and that an implementation date will follow. It is not the standard in force. Sections 6.3 and 16.2 have no counterpart in the edition currently in force, and the text says so wherever a claim rests on them. Section numbering differs between the two editions throughout.
ASHI Standard of Practice for Home Inspections — edition currently in force
American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI)
The edition of the ASHI Standard of Practice currently in force. Section 5, Roofing: the inspector shall inspect the roofing materials, roof drainage systems, flashing, skylights, chimneys and roof penetrations, and shall describe the roofing materials and the methods used to inspect the roofing. Section 2.2.B: the written report states those systems and components designated for inspection that were present at the time of the inspection but were not inspected, and the reasons why. General exclusions: the inspector is not required to determine the remaining life expectancy of systems and components, is not required to offer warranties or guarantees, and is not required to disturb insulation. This edition contains no blanket exemption from walking roofs and no provision about moisture meters, thermal imaging, or ladder height.
A voluntary association standard, not law. ASHI's membership approved a revised edition on 8 January 2026 which is not yet effective; where the two editions differ — walking roofs, and the use of specialized tools — this page says which edition it is quoting.
Interpretation s010220: Should inspectors go on the roof to do roof system inspections?
American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) / 15 October 2001
That walking the roof is expected where the roof is readily accessible and walking it is the only way to observe all exterior surfaces, that it is not required where the surfaces can be observed otherwise or where the roof is unsafe to walk, and that the method used and any uninspected components must be reported.
An interpretation of an earlier edition of the standard; section numbers cited in it correspond to that edition.
Fall Protection in Residential Construction — compliance guidance
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
That workers in residential construction six feet or more above lower levels must be protected by guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest or restraint systems under 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), with equipment meeting 1926.502.
An employer obligation under federal OSHA construction standards. It does not regulate what a homeowner does on their own house, and some states operate their own OSHA-approved plans with additional requirements.
Asphalt Shingle Roofs — resource guide
U.S. Department of Energy, Building America Solution Center (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Correct flashing practice at penetrations and roof-wall intersections, including step flashing integrated in a layered manner with the roofing and topped with counterflashing; and the existing-roof guidance that the surface should be flat because sagging can indicate structural problems, with work directed to a licensed and insured professional roofing contractor.
Best-practice guidance for new and retrofit construction, not a code determination anywhere. Its ventilation recommendations are climate-specific and do not settle any jurisdiction's requirements.
Protect Your Family from Exposures to Asbestos
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
That asbestos-containing material in good condition and not going to be disturbed should be left alone, that sampling should be taken by a properly trained and accredited asbestos professional, and that homeowners should avoid a conflict of interest by using separate firms to assess the material and to repair or remove it.
General homeowner guidance. It is not a determination that any particular roofing product contains asbestos, and state requirements for accreditation and abatement vary.
Learn About Asbestos
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
That roofing and siding shingles, and textured paint and patching compounds used on walls and ceilings, are among the products in a house in which asbestos may be found.
A list of products in which asbestos may be present. It is not a statement that any particular product contains asbestos, and it carries no date range: only laboratory analysis of a sample establishes what a given material contains. The 'before about 1990' line used on this page is a screening rule for deciding when to be careful, not a boundary EPA publishes.
FHA Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / Effective 14 September 2015; last revised 14 August 2019
Section II.D.3 appraisal protocol: the appraiser must notify the mortgagee where the roof covering does not prevent entrance of moisture or does not have a remaining physical life of at least two years; must observe the roof and report material type and condition; must report if the roof has less than two years of remaining life and make the appraisal subject to inspection by a professional roofer; and, for attics, that where a scuttle limits access, insertion of at least the head and shoulders will suffice, with no requirement to disturb insulation or cut open finishes.
Applies to FHA-insured mortgages only. Conventional and other loan programs set their own appraisal requirements, and FHA policy is amended by mortgagee letters between handbook revisions. This PDF carries 'Effective Date: 09/14/2015 | Last Revised: 08/14/2019'.
Public Adjusters — consumer information
Illinois Department of Insurance
That a public adjuster does not work for any insurance company and is not a public employee, works for the policyholder to prepare, present and settle the claim, must be licensed with the department, charges a fee as a percentage of the claim paid, must provide a written contract approved by the Director of Insurance, and is restricted in when it may solicit; and that company adjusters are insurance employees who do not charge the policyholder a fee.
Illinois law and Illinois licensing. Public-adjuster licensing, fee limits, contract requirements, and solicitation restrictions differ in every state.
Beware of roofers scamming storm victims
Georgia Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division
That some roofers have used a free inspection as an opportunity to cause damage in order to justify repairs, that offering to cover a homeowner's deductible can implicate the homeowner in insurance fraud, and that homeowners should speak to their insurer before authorizing repairs or roof access after a storm.
A state consumer-protection office describing a pattern it has seen, not a statement about any particular contractor or about the trade as a whole.
State law cracks down on roof scams
Texas Department of Insurance / Texas HB 2102, effective 1 September 2019
That under Texas law it is illegal for contractors or roofers to offer to waive a deductible or promise a rebate for all or part of a deductible, with penalties of up to a $2,000 fine and up to six months in jail, effective 1 September 2019.
Texas law only. Other states have their own rules, or none, on contractor handling of insurance deductibles.
14 CFR 107.12 — Requirement for a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating
U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo) / 2023 CFR annual edition
That no person may manipulate the flight controls of a small unmanned aircraft system in an operation covered by Part 107 unless that person holds a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating, or is under the direct supervision of a remote pilot in command who does.
The text reproduced by GovInfo is the 2023 annual edition of the CFR. Confirm the current text and any exceptions, including the separate statutory exception for recreational flyers, before relying on it.