That's a perfectly reasonable quote for a time intensive job that eats up at least 1/4 of a day in travel time and work time. If your roof is new, then you wouldn't need to do that annually. Maybe every couple of years. If your roof is getting older, close to the cycle of replacement, it becomes much more important.

did you not have a home inspection on the point of sale.. what did that dude tell you about the roof .... ????

i never lived in a flat roof house.. nor the SW ... but your story is making all the bells and whistles go off ...

i will follow along with this.. maybe i will learn something new

ken

Is this new construction, iirc? If so, hahahahaha. If it was installed correctly, you shouldn't need that for some time. They just want to milk you.

did you not have a home inspection on the point of sale.. what did that dude tell you about the roof .... ????

i never lived in a flat roof house.. nor the SW ... but your story is making all the bells and whistles go off ...

i will follow along with this.. maybe i will learn something new

ken

What GreenDesigns said.

Yes, it's new construction, new roof, and I did have it inspected when I purchased it. It's been a couple of years, so I thought it might be a good idea.

But this is from my Homeowner's Manual: "[in BOLD] Annual inspection and retaring around all roof penetrations is a must."

And I was also told that verbally by the orientation guy.

The builder isn't making any money by making this recommendation, nor do they make referrals. So why do they say it's a MUST and everybody looks at me like I'm crazy?

I thought this was a Thing that responsible homeowners do. But apparently not.

If I don't follow the recommendation, is it going to void my warranty if I run into a problem?

This post was edited by Violet.West on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 21:45

The person who wrote your roof manual is an idiot. Roof penetrations move separately from the roof and must have mechanical, not adhesive (tar), type flashing. With exceptions for emergencies, tar has no business on a roof.

A roof inspection every four years or so may be sensible, but annually seems excessive.

Built my home 10 years ago and I get up on the roof every fall to inspect. It is good to catch things early before they due damage.

Built my home 10 years ago and I get up on the roof every fall to inspect. It is good to catch things early before they due damage.

Annual roof inspection makes your family and you safe by the accidents caused by the roof break, sealing and other type of hazards. However I saw your problem above you described. I advised you inspect your house roofs and also its architectural metal roofing at least one time in two successive years. The inspection cost is not more than your family safety.

Here is a link that might be useful: Architectural Metal Roofs

englert123:

Please take your poor grammar and spam elsewhere.

The builder needs to protect himself from liability. He has advised you that it is necessary to perform an annual inspection. If you fail to perform the inspection you cannot come back to him and sue him (so he hopes) or, if you do sue him, it will likely reduce the amount of damages because you failed to prevent some or all of the damage (more likely).

Roofing materials come with warranties, they are generally based on the cost of the original materials and can last from 15 to 50 years. Did you get a copy of your roof warranty-or the warranties for the other products in your house-the HVAC, sinks, blinds, washer, dryer, hot water heater etc.? If not, ask for them. If the builder has given you a warranty or if the product warranty says that a certain type of inspection must occur in a certain timeframe or the warranty is voided, you should give serious consideration to documenting that an inspection was made in that timeframe because if you failed to do so you may well void the warranty.

Otherwise, an inspection every four to five years until about five years before the current roof is expected to die should suffice, inspect annually or more often as you reach the roof's maximum age.

Fyi, if there is leaking or cracking around the roof penetrations, the roofer will apply something like Henry's (there are other brands) all the way around the penetration, on a not to large house with an easily accessed roof it will probably only take a reasonably efficient roofer about an hour to inspect and patch, if necessary, everything that penetrates through your roof, it costs about $40/gallon it looks like big thick black tar, but it is not the hot tar that you see being applied to roof. It would have to be quite a sizable problem to use more than a gallon.

Part of the roofer's costs is driving a fully loaded truck (gas is expensive) and you are paying (like short-term rent) for the fact that they have a lot of tools in their truck...and doing just one roof in your area may well shoot their entire morning. You are paying for overhead as well as for all of that extra time.

Since you're having no known problems, if possible, be sure that the person they send to inspect your roof is ready willing and able to apply the patch, if necessary, when they come out and that they don't have a salesman come out and do an estimate and another man come out and do the patch later. If you know you have an issue, an estimate may be in order, but you need to see the terms of your warranty to understand what you will need to do in order to make a warranty claim.

Over the last 50 years with 6 houses and 30 or so outbuildings I've never paid anyone for a "roof inspection" and don't seem to have suffered for it. Look at your shingles from time to time, clean the gutters regularly, fix the roof if it leaks (for real, not with tar!), and replace it when it's worn out. Any extra walking around on the roof only creates problems and I'd avoid it.