What a Good Roof Inspection Report Contains (and What It Leaves Out)
By Blake Snow, experienced roof consultant
A roof inspection report is often the only look at the roof that most people on a claim will ever get. The owner, the carrier, the attorneys, the appraisers and the umpire may never climb the ladder. They read the report and decide what they believe. That makes the quality of the report as important as the quality of the inspection.
Blake Snow has inspected and reported on thousands of roofs, on buildings from 10,000 sq ft to multi-million sq ft. This article lays out what a good report should contain, what it should leave out, and the warning signs of a weak one. It covers the roof side only, not coverage or legal questions.
The test of a good report
A good report lets someone who never stood on the roof understand what is up there, what happened to it, and why the conclusions follow from the evidence. If a reader has to take the author's word for it, the report hasn't done its job. Every conclusion should point back to something the reader can see: a photo, a measurement, a test result or a location on the roof plan.
1. The scope and the questions asked
A report should start by saying what it was asked to answer. Was the assignment to evaluate hail damage from a specific storm date? Wind damage? The source of a leak? Overall condition and remaining life for a purchase? The scope frames everything else, and it keeps the report from wandering into opinions nobody asked for.
It should also state who was on site, when the inspection happened, the weather and roof conditions at the time, and any limits on access, such as sections that couldn't be walked safely or areas that were covered by equipment or ponded water.
2. A roof plan that ties everything together
On a large building, a roof plan is the backbone of the report. It should divide the roof into sections, label them clearly, and show where every rooftop unit, penetration, drain and other feature sits. Photos, test locations, core cuts and findings should all reference those section labels. Without a plan, a set of photos from a big roof is just a pile of pictures.
3. The roof system and its specifications
A good report documents what the roof actually is, section by section:
- Roof system type (TPO, PVC, EPDM, BUR, modified bitumen, metal, coating, spray foam, tile and so on)
- Number of layers and any recovers
- Insulation and cover board type and thickness, where known or confirmed
- How the system is attached (mechanically fastened, adhered, ballasted)
- Flashings, edge metal, copings and terminations
- Roof deck type and condition as observed
Specifications matter because they drive both the damage analysis and the scope of any repair or replacement. Our roof systems guide and roof specifications page go deeper.
4. Roof age, condition and remaining life
A report should give the roof's approximate age and overall condition, and an estimate of remaining service life, along with how those were estimated. Age and condition are central to separating storm damage from wear, and they are often what the other side challenges first.
5. Labeled photos that prove the findings
Photos are the evidence. Good report photos are labeled with the roof section and what they show, include a wide shot for context and close-ups for detail, and use a scale reference where size matters. Photos of water infiltration should be tied to their location on the roof plan and, where possible, to the interior conditions they explain. A reader should be able to find any photo's spot on the roof.
6. Testing, when it was performed
When the questions call for it, a report should include the results of testing and say exactly where it was done:
- Drone inspections and infrared inspections to find water infiltration, with the images and the areas flagged
- Core cuts or test cuts, with locations, photos and what each one showed
- Moisture readings and how they were taken
Testing should be used to answer a question, not to decorate a report. A report should also say what the testing can't show. Infrared, for example, points to areas that need a closer look; it doesn't by itself prove when or how water got in. See our drone roof inspections and infrared roof scans pages.
7. Storm-date evidence
When a claim depends on a specific storm, the report should lay out the evidence that ties the damage to that date: the condition of the damage, collateral marks on soft metals and rooftop equipment, how the damage compares with older wear, and any weather data used. Our article on dating hail damage to a storm date covers this in detail.
8. Findings that separate damage from everything else
This is the heart of the report. Findings should separate, section by section:
- Storm damage tied to the event in question
- Normal wear and aging
- Prior repairs and prior damage
- Installation or design issues
- Maintenance issues, such as clogged drains or neglected flashings
A credible report says so when a section isn't damaged, or when the damage is cosmetic rather than functional. A report that finds damage everywhere, or nowhere, without explaining why, deserves a hard second look.
9. Options and scope, with the reasoning written out
Finally, a good report lays out the options for each section (repair, restore, recover or replace) and the scope that goes with each, with the reasoning written out. If a section needs replacement, the report should say why repair won't work. If repair is enough, it should say what the repair involves. The goal is a scope that someone else can price and that holds up when it's questioned.
What a good roof report leaves out
- Coverage and legal opinions. Whether a loss is covered under the policy is a question for the policy, the carrier and, when needed, attorneys. A roof report should describe the roof, not interpret the policy.
- Opinions outside the author's expertise. A roof consultant shouldn't offer engineering opinions or sealed structural calculations. If the deck or structure needs an engineer, the report should say so.
- Advocacy language. Words like "obviously" and "clearly" don't prove anything. The evidence should do the arguing.
- Other clients' information. Reports stay confidential to the client who ordered them.
Warning signs of a weak report
- No roof plan, or photos that can't be tied to a location
- Close-up photos with no context or scale
- Conclusions with no evidence pointed to
- No mention of roof age, prior repairs or wear
- Testing results with no locations, or no testing where the questions clearly needed it
- A scope that doesn't match the findings
- Boilerplate language that could describe any roof
Who relies on the report
Owners and property managers use a report to understand what they have and plan what comes next. Carriers, adjusters and attorneys use it to evaluate a claim, and appraisers and umpires use it to decide what the roof needs. A report written for all of those readers, plainly and with the evidence shown, tends to save time and argument. It's also what we stand behind: we document legitimate damage thoroughly, and we say so plainly when the roof doesn't support a claim.
For more on how we put our reports together, see what's in our roof inspection reports and our commercial roof assessments. We work on large losses nationwide, and on buildings of any size in Texas and Oklahoma.
For homeowners after a storm, our sister company includes a digital photo report with every inspection; see their storm damage page.
General information only, not legal or coverage advice.