St. Louis Roof Inspections

The importance of a roof inspection in St. Louis is the same as it is anywhere else—early identification of roof damage and to assess whether your roof can survive three, six, or 12 months. In St. Louis, the fierce summer sun, occasional snowfall, severe storms, and huge temperature swifts create a gauntlet of hazards for residential roofing systems. You may imagine the strong winds of a tornado ripping up a piece of your roof, but the subtle damage of a single shingle pulling up, a distorted joint in the fastening system, or some other seemingly insignificant incident of roof damage can have grave consequences.

The slow, prolonged infiltration of water through your roof can destroy insulation, drywall, and support beams on the inside, and siding, foundations, and lawns on the outside. Failing to identify this damage early on can take a repair that would cost a few hundred dollars and make it cost thousands of dollars instead. You can and should look for roof damage on your own, but there are a number of signs that a professional roof inspector will see that will elude the typical homeowner, especially if you're unable to get up on your roof.

Create a St. Louis Roof Inspection Schedule
The National Roofing Contractors Association recommends you have your roof inspected twice a year. Of course, the vast majority of homeowners don't heed this advice, and it's easy to dismiss the recommendation and assume your roof will be okay. On the other hand, too many homeowners neglect this critical piece of home maintenance altogether. Even homeowners who are marginally aware of the importance of roof inspections in St. Louis may simply forget to have it done. Like spring cleaning, getting an oil change for your car, or any other number of items on your to-do list, you need to find a reliable reminder that will motivate to get your roof inspection done?and done, at least, once a year. Otherwise, you're asking for trouble.

Cost of St. Louis Roof Inspection
It can cost about $300 for a quality roof inspection. This may sound like a lot, but the average cost of a roof repair is $600 and can be quite a bit more. Of course, you should call around and see what you can find. If you simply can't justify the expense of hiring an independent roof inspector, roofing contractors may offer discounted roof inspections during the off-season. Some may even offer free inspections in the hope of drumming up business. You'll need to be extremely careful, if you take this route, however. A company offering free inspections to drum up business is going to be biased to do just that. Some roofing contractors have even been known to outright deceive and scam homeowners by inventing or misrepresenting roof damage.

Unfortunately, this also breeds suspicion toward honest, reliable roofers. At ServiceMagic, we put each and every contractor through a rigorous 10-step screening process, ensure they maintain professional credentials, and provide homeowners with access to our quality-controlled database of customer ratings and reviews.

St. Louis Home Inspections
A kissing cousin of the roof inspection, home inspections generalize the roof inspection to the entire home, albeit for a very different reason. Most often, someone asks for a home inspection because they want to sell or buy a house. Indeed, you shouldn't buy a home without a reliable home inspection report in your hand, and if you're selling a home, having conducted your own home inspection is likely to smooth the way as you go through the closing process. When looking for a home inspector, for peace of mind or as part of real estate sale, look for someone who used to be a home improvement contractor, preferably a home builder or general contractor.

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