You definitely want to call Roof Life of Oregon before you make any commitments on a house. A home inspector might miss critical information that you could use as a negotiating tool, and you might end up with a roof that can’t be saved.
Home inspectors often do “ladder inspections” when it comes to your roof. A ladder inspection is when an inspector leans a ladder against a house and climbs up as far as he can, without actually getting on the roof. Often times, critical information about the roof’s health is missed.
This is exactly what happened in the case of one of our recent clients. She had already started to close on the house when she decided to call us. She knew there was moss on the roof and that she’d need our help. What she didn’t know is that the roof was basically shot.
When I got up on the roof to inspect it, I lifted the shingles at the bottom and saw that the plywood was soaking wet. The tarpaper underneath fell apart in my hand. Then I climbed up on top of the roof and noticed multiple issues. Basically, we can’t do anything to help it and it’s going to need to be replaced. I had to call her with this news and it completely shocked her.
Instead of spending time and money renovating their new house and doing all the fun projects, they are going to have to spend a significant amount of money to replace the roof. And they had no idea. They could’ve used the roof as a bargaining tool to get the seller to come down on the price, or they might have chosen a different home altogether.
You can’t depend on a home inspector to know everything about the roof you’re getting on a new home. Hiring a professional roofing company is the only way to know for sure where the roof is at, and how long it’s going to last you.