What a roof certification actually states
A roof certification says three things. This is what the roof is. This is the condition we found it in on this date. This is how long we expect it to keep water out if it is maintained and nothing unusual happens to it.
That is the whole of it. Everything else in the document exists to support those statements: the photographs, the description of the covering and the details, the account of how the roof was examined and the list of anything that could not be seen.
The third statement is the one people read first and it is the one that needs the most care. A view on remaining service life is a judgment built from the condition of the covering, the state of the details, the quality of the original work, the drainage, and how the roof has been treated. We write the reasoning out so it can be weighed, because a period of years with nothing behind it is a number somebody made up.
What it is not
It is not a guarantee. Nothing in it commits us or anybody else to pay for a future repair. A guarantee names who pays, for what and for how long, and it comes from whoever did the work or made the materials.
It is not a warranty, and it does not extend, replace or revive one.
It is not insurance, and it is not an opinion about insurance. We inspect and document roofs. We do not sell insurance, we do not advise on cover and we do not decide claims. Your policy document and your carrier govern what your cover does with any document you give them.
And it is not a prediction. A sound roof can be damaged the week after it is certified. The statement is tied to a date and to a condition for exactly that reason.
When it is worth having one
Usually when somebody else has asked for it: a buyer, a lender, a managing agent or a party to a transaction who wants the roof described by a contractor rather than taken on trust.
It is also worth having after major work, as a dated record of the state the roof was left in. And it is worth having on an older roof that is still sound, because the useful evidence about an older roof is a run of dated statements showing it being looked after, and that can only be built by starting.
Before you book one, ask whoever wants it what the document must say. It costs you one question and it saves the common outcome, which is a careful piece of work that turns out to be the wrong shape for the person who asked.
Common questions
Can you certify any roof?
No, and being willing to decline is what makes the document mean anything. A certification is our name against a statement that a roof is sound and should go on keeping water out.
- A covering at the end of its service life cannot honestly carry that
- Nor can widespread failure across the field, or a system wrongly installed
- Nor saturated insulation under a membrane
- Nor a roof where too much is hidden for us to form a view
- In each of those the answer is a condition report instead
We say so early, usually on the day, so you are not paying for a document that will never be issued. The common middle case is a sound roof with defects that would undermine any statement about it, and then the certification waits until those are put right and we have been back to look.
Does the certification guarantee the roof?
No. It is an opinion, and the document says so in those words. We state what we found and what we expect from a roof in that condition.
- Based on the covering, the detailing, the workmanship we see and the weather
- An opinion formed by somebody who spent a day on your roof is worth having
- It is still an opinion, and roofs are outdoors
- A guarantee is a promise to put something right at somebody's expense
- It names who pays and for how long, and comes from a contractor or manufacturer
Nothing we write commits anybody to pay for a future repair, and a certification for a period is not a promise about the future either. Storm damage, impact, work by other trades and simple neglect can change a sound roof quickly, which is why the statement is tied to a date.
What if repairs are needed before you can certify?
You get the list and a plain explanation of why each item matters, and then it is your call.
- The list separates work that stands in the way from work that is merely worth doing
- Those are different decisions and mixing them is how people overspend
- If you want us to do the repairs, we will quote them
- If you would rather use somebody else, that makes no difference to the certification
- What matters is that we see the finished work
That means a second visit, photographs of the repairs and, where something was opened up, a look at what was underneath before it was closed, because a certification issued on the strength of another trade invoice is not worth writing. Where the list is long enough that the roof is really a replacement conversation, we will say so.
Does a certification change what my insurer will do?
We cannot tell you, and we will not guess. We inspect and document roofs, we do not sell insurance, we do not advise on cover and we do not decide claims.
- What your carrier does with any document is governed by your policy and by them
- That is a question for your agent or your carrier
- Ask it in writing so you have the answer on file
- What we can say is what the document actually is
- A dated statement by a roofing contractor about condition and expected service life
It is supported by photographs, with its limits written into it, so you can put it in front of somebody and describe it accurately. If whoever is asking wants something different, ask them to tell you what, before the visit rather than after, and where their requirements are reasonable we will write to them.
Can you certify a roof somebody else installed or repaired?
Yes, and most of them are. A certification is a statement about the condition of a roof, not about who built it, and being independent of the installation is an advantage.
- We ask for whatever paperwork exists: install documents, warranties, invoices, reports
- Those settle questions that would otherwise take time on the roof
- Such as what the build up is and when a section was replaced
- If none of it exists, that is normal and we work from the roof itself
- A patch done badly goes in the document as a defect, whoever did it
Where the assembly is hidden and the paperwork is missing, some statements can only be made as an inference from what is visible, and we mark those as inferences. It is a smaller claim than people expect, and it is the honest one.