Roof inspection
An inspection pays for itself when it answers a decision, and Broward houses generate more roof decisions than most: tile whose condition cannot be read from the shell, flat sections hiding water between layers, coastal metal failing invisibly, and permit histories with gaps. A documented answer to “what is actually up there” is the least expensive part of every one of those conversations.
When it earns its price
Before buying, above all. The gap between tile with fifteen years of membrane left and tile at the end of it runs to tens of thousands, and a general home inspection does not make that distinction, nor does it pull the permit history that tells you whether the “new roof” in the listing was a replacement or a recover.
Before the rainy season, on any aging covering: the June downpours will find every marginal detail, and finding them in April costs less in every currency. And at the age thresholds: twenty-five on tile, twenty on boom-era shingle, any age on a flat section showing blisters.
What gets checked
On the roof: what each section actually is and what is under it; granule loss and slope-to-slope aging on shingle; slipped, cracked or patched tile and the membrane evidence at the eaves; blistering and ponding traces on flat sections; every valley and what it carries; flashing at walls and penetrations; and, decisive on the eastern blocks, the state of every piece of metal, from drip edge to fastener heads.
Off the roof: the attic, where ventilation balance, duct condensation and deck staining tell their stories; and the paper, where the permit record dates the last true replacement and flags the undocumented work. In this county the paper trail is part of the roof, and an inspection that ignores it answers half the question.
What the report is good for
A written report converts impressions into decisions. For a buyer it prices the largest hidden number in the purchase. For an owner it puts a season on the work: quotes gathered in the dry months against a fixed scope, instead of August panic against a leak. And for any jurisdiction question, the 25 % rule, product approvals, permit gaps, it is the document that lets you ask precise questions and recognize precise answers. Three bidders pricing one written scope is how quote comparison is supposed to work.
Questions before a Broward inspection
- Can an inspection tell whether a tile roof's underlayment is finished?
- Usually, without lifting a tile. From the attic the underside of the deck shows the stains where the membrane has given up; from the ground, slipped tiles show where it has lost its grip; and the permit record shows how old it is. The tile may have decades left. The report is about what is under it.
- What does an inspection cover on a gravel flat roof?
- Where the water sits and where it leaves. Ponding marks, blisters in the membrane, the condition of the drains and scuppers, the parapet cap, and the junction where the flat section meets a pitched one. On a 1960s house these are the findings, and the gravel hides all of them from the street.
- Does the report check the product approvals?
- It should note what is up there and whether it carries a Miami-Dade NOA or a Florida Product Approval, because the next roof has to. A covering without the paperwork is a covering the next quote will have to replace rather than match.
- When in the year should the inspection happen?
- Before the wet half. NOAA's records at Fort Lauderdale average roughly sixty-five inches of rain a year over the last decade, falling on about a hundred and forty days and concentrated from late spring into autumn. A spring inspection finds the open seam before the season tests it every afternoon.
- What findings actually fail an inspection in Broward?
- On tile, membrane failure confirmed from the attic rather than a cracked piece. On a flat section, ponding water past a day or two, or a parapet cap pulling away from the wall. On the eastern blocks, corroded fasteners and flashing. And anywhere, a permit record that does not match what is on the roof. Any single one of these can keep an otherwise sound-looking roof from passing.
- Why do I keep getting calls or door-knocks about a free roof inspection?
- That kind of outreach is generated from address lists worked by canvassing crews, not from anything specific to your roof, and it tends to increase after any rough weather passes through South Florida. A real inspection is one you schedule yourself, and it ends in a written report with photographs rather than a same-visit sales pitch.
- 1 Ridge caps. The ridge is first to bake, first to lift.
- 2 The field. Barrel tile or shingle, over an underlayment quietly doing the work.
- 3 Valleys. One line carrying what two slopes shed, at the pace this coast rains.
- 4 Flashing. Where salt reaches the metal years ahead of the covering it protects.
- 5 The vent boot. A rubber collar that hardens, cracks, and lets the rain straight in.
- 6 Eaves. Where the screen enclosure meets the roof, and where fasteners give up.