What can an inspector tell about tile underlayment without lifting the tile?

More than you would expect. From the attic, stains on the underside of the deck and daylight at the penetrations say where the membrane has given up; from the ground, slipped or rocking tiles say where it has lost its grip. Past twenty-five years the age itself is the finding, and the report should say so in writing.

When in the year is an inspection most useful here?

Before the summer rains. NOAA's station at Tampa International has averaged about fifty-four inches of rain a year over the last decade, most of it from June to September, and roughly a hundred and ten days at or above ninety degrees. An April inspection answers the question August is going to ask every afternoon.

Does the inspection include the attic in a house that is air-conditioned all summer?

It should, because that is where the summer problem lives. Soffit intake buried under blown-in insulation, ducts sweating in the heat, a ridge that cannot exhaust. None of it shows from the street, and all of it shortens the covering above it.

How far from the Gulf does salt still show up in an inspection?

Further than the beach. The canals carry the air inland, and what the salt finds first is the metal: the flashing, the fasteners, the vent collars. An inspector working this coast photographs the hardware, not just the field, and the report should say which metal is up there.

What items actually fail an inspection around Tampa Bay?

On shingle: bald patches where granules are gone, exposed fastener heads, and flashing that has been caulked over rather than reset. On tile: cracked or slipped pieces, and underlayment failure confirmed from the attic side. Add standing water on any low-slope section two days after rain. None of those need a full replacement to correct, but any one of them will keep a report from coming back clean.

I keep getting unsolicited calls offering a free roof inspection. What is that about?

It is almost always a sales lead generated from a public address list, not a finding about your specific roof, and it tends to pick up after any stretch of rough weather in the area. A dedicated inspection you actually paid for or scheduled yourself carries a written report and photographs; a free drive-by pitch usually ends with a contract on the kitchen table before the ladder is back on the truck.

Roof inspection

An inspection earns its cost when it answers a decision. In a market where a thirty-year-old tile roof can look immaculate and be finished underneath, the most valuable thing an inspection produces is a straight answer about what is actually up there and how much of it is working.

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When it earns its price

Before buying: roof condition is one of the largest numbers hiding in a Florida purchase, and a home inspector’s general note rarely distinguishes between tile with twenty years left and tile whose underlayment is spent. Before the rainy season, on an aging covering: the June-to-September downpours find every marginal detail, and finding them in April is cheaper in every sense. And when a tile roof passes twenty-five years, because that is when the invisible half of it starts making the decision.

What gets checked

On the surface: the covering and what it actually is; granule loss and slope differences on shingle; cracked, slipped or previously repaired tile; the condition of every valley and what is sitting in it; flashing at walls, chimneys and skylights; vent boots and collars, which crack and corrode long before the field fails; and any low-slope or flat section, with attention to what material is on it and how it ties into the main roof.

In the attic, which matters more here than most people realize: whether intake and exhaust actually exist and are balanced, staining or damp insulation around air-conditioning ductwork (the summer condensation problem), daylight at penetrations, and the underside of the deck. On a tile roof the attic is also where evidence of underlayment failure shows up first.

What the report is good for

A documented report does the work an opinion cannot. It gives a buyer evidence rather than an impression, which matters when the gap between tile that is fine and tile whose underlayment is spent runs to tens of thousands. It puts a season on the job, so quotes get gathered in the dry stretch rather than after a wet August. And it fixes the scope, so three bidders price the same underlayment, the same low-slope sections and the same metal.

Questions an inspection answers around Tampa Bay

What can an inspector tell about tile underlayment without lifting the tile?: More than you would expect. From the attic, stains on the underside of the deck and daylight at the penetrations say where the membrane has given up; from the ground, slipped or rocking tiles say where it has lost its grip. Past twenty-five years the age itself is the finding, and the report should say so in writing.
When in the year is an inspection most useful here?: Before the summer rains. NOAA's station at Tampa International has averaged about fifty-four inches of rain a year over the last decade, most of it from June to September, and roughly a hundred and ten days at or above ninety degrees. An April inspection answers the question August is going to ask every afternoon.
Does the inspection include the attic in a house that is air-conditioned all summer?: It should, because that is where the summer problem lives. Soffit intake buried under blown-in insulation, ducts sweating in the heat, a ridge that cannot exhaust. None of it shows from the street, and all of it shortens the covering above it.
How far from the Gulf does salt still show up in an inspection?: Further than the beach. The canals carry the air inland, and what the salt finds first is the metal: the flashing, the fasteners, the vent collars. An inspector working this coast photographs the hardware, not just the field, and the report should say which metal is up there.
What items actually fail an inspection around Tampa Bay?: On shingle: bald patches where granules are gone, exposed fastener heads, and flashing that has been caulked over rather than reset. On tile: cracked or slipped pieces, and underlayment failure confirmed from the attic side. Add standing water on any low-slope section two days after rain. None of those need a full replacement to correct, but any one of them will keep a report from coming back clean.
I keep getting unsolicited calls offering a free roof inspection. What is that about?: It is almost always a sales lead generated from a public address list, not a finding about your specific roof, and it tends to pick up after any stretch of rough weather in the area. A dedicated inspection you actually paid for or scheduled yourself carries a written report and photographs; a free drive-by pitch usually ends with a contract on the kitchen table before the ladder is back on the truck.

A roof here rarely fails where you can see it. It fails underneath, and at the metal. Where the work actually happens on a roof.

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1 Ridge caps. Full sun, no shade, ever. They cook before anything else on the roof does.
2 The field. Shingle, or tile sitting on felt that is doing the actual waterproofing.
3 Valleys. Two slopes emptying through one line, every single afternoon.
4 Flashing. The metal salt air finds long before it touches the covering.
5 The vent boot. Rubber baked brittle by sun, and the bay area’s most ordinary leak.
6 Eaves. Where the Florida room ties in, and where the hardware corrodes first.

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