Brisbane Roof Inspections Protect Your Property
Getting your roof routinely inspected by a qualified professional is vital – particularly in Brisbane, with our severe weather events and harsh, unpredictable thunderstorms. Action Property Inspections conducts thorough roof inspections across Brisbane and surrounds, including the exterior and interior of your roof. Read on to find out why you need to schedule in an inspection for your roof today!
Why should you get your roof checked?
As a rule, we humans often forget to look up, unless something interesting up there is grabbing our attention. The roof of your home often stays out of sight, out of mind, until one of Brisbane’s massive rain or thunderstorms hits and you’ve got multiple leaks pouring out onto your carpet.
We all know that shelter is a basic human right, and so you’ve got to make maintaining the roof over your head a priority. It’s the most important part of the structure – it keeps out the weather while helping to regulate the temperature. An inspection will help you to nip any problems in the bud now before they snowball out of control.
While roofs are generally designed to take quite a bashing, strong weather like we experience in Brisbane will eventually take its toll. If leaks or other forms of damage aren’t detected and acted upon, they can cause serious structural damage to your property. To repair or even replace your roof, you could be looking at anywhere from $2,000 to $12,000 depending on roof size and materials etc. In fact, it’s one of the most expensive parts of your home to fix.
Ten good reasons to inspect your roof
With all of this in mind, here are 10 very good reasons to get a professional to inspect your roof before you invest in property.
- To identify minor issues for repair. A bit of wear and tear is normal, but you need to have the minor issues identified so you can have them repaired before they become huge hassles down the track.
- Check for seasonal damage. Obviously, weather differs during the seasons, and this will have an impact on your roof. Expansion and contraction can cause damage to roof pointing etc allowing leaks to occur.
- Cleaning. After summer storms or winter winds, you never know what debris you’ll find on your roof. An inspection can help you determine which areas need regular cleaning to keep damage, mould and rot at bay.
- Security. Roof hatches or other access points in your roof can be used by anyone looking for access to your house for criminal purposes. An inspection can help you check these to make sure they’re secure or offer up ways to make them more so.
- Vandals. Vandals can definitely cause damage to your roof and you might never know they’ve been up there trying to gain access.
- Gutters and drain cleaning. These require regular maintenance to work properly; poor drainage can cause leaks and a whole range of other problems.
- Detecting leaks. Leaks can be a sign of a larger problem in your roof. If you can prevent potential leaks from occurring, you can save yourself so much stress and money in the long run.
- Extending the roof’s lifespan. If you have your roof inspected regularly, potential issues can be addressed and dealt with before they become something more. This will in turn extend the life of your roof.
- Saving money. Who wouldn’t like to prevent forking out a massive repair bill, or even prevent having to replace an entire roof? Regular inspections will definitely save you money in this way.
- Street appeal. Keeping your roof in top condition also helps improve the look and retain the value of your home.
What we look for
While getting your roof checked may seem like a daunting task, the team at Action Property Inspections will physically conduct exterior roof inspections of single and multiple storey homes to give you peace of mind. We conduct risk assessments beforehand to ensure that there is safe access to all parts of the roof necessary to complete the inspection.
The exterior of the roof is the obvious place to start. Problem areas such as skylights, vents or chimneys can often be sources of leaks. Inspectors look for tree limbs that may extend over the roof and the location of wires or decorative features. These are not only damaging during weather events but block sunlight, which could result in wet areas, and therefore moss build up and wet rot. Gutters also need to be thoroughly examined for rust, cleanliness and repair.
At Action Property Inspections, we’ll take a walk around on the roof of your home to look for weakened areas. We inspect every centimetre of your roof, including individual tiles or sheeting, to give your roof a thorough going-over. We’ll also assess the building materials used to construct your roof, concentrating on when it was constructed, when the roof was last replaced, and the nature of any existing deterioration.
There are three main areas of concern that inspectors focus on:
- Roof materials – cracked tiles, loose or damaged roof sheeting, cracked lead flashing, incorrectly installed flashing, loose flashing and water blowback.
- Gutters – rusted guttering, blocked or clogged valley trays, incorrect gutter falls and inadequate downpipes.
- Protrusions – skylights, vents and whirlybirds. Chimneys present their own specific problems such as missing trays and capping, inadequate weep holes and deteriorating mortar joints.
A quality inspector will also look at the interior cavity of the roof so that the underside of the roof can be examined. The inspector will note any visibly wet areas, darkened spots, stains or deteriorated wood areas and follow them back to their origin to establish where the issue is.
Roof inspections not only look for existing issues with the roof – they also gauge the remaining life of the roof. A roof inspector will look at the angle of the roof to determine how long it would take for water to evaporate and how well the water drains.
Risks involved with not having your roof checked
There are certainly risks involved with not having your roof checked. If you want to purchase a property and you don’t have the roof inspected, you could be forking out tens of thousands of dollars to make the property liveable.
Damage can also occur any number of ways, and if you don’t know it’s happening, you can’t proactively do anything to stop it from becoming a massive problem further down the track.
Home owners can often have an impact on the roof. Installing inadequate sarking barriers, not installing proper ventilation, or even forgoing insulation at all can result in mould, rot and leaks that compromise the integrity of the roof. Moist warm air rises to the underside of the roof, causing the mould and rot, and resulting in damage to the rafters and the roof itself. With our humid weather, you can see why roof inspections are especially important in Brisbane. An inspection can help you figure out the problem areas and what you can do to prevent damage from happening in the future.