How often should you check your roof?

Why bother

Catch a small leak before it rots the deck. This is an essentials-tier job. Skip it and you're inviting the expensive kind of problem, or the dangerous kind.

What the job involves

1. Stand off at the corners with a pair of binoculars and read the whole roof plane. You're after shingles that have gone missing, cracked, curled, or lifted, and any sag or dip in the line of the roof. Do it after wind, and once each time the season turns.
2. Look hard at the bits where water gets in: the flashing round the chimney, vents, and skylights, the valleys, and the ridge. Then check the gutters. Shingle grit washing down means the roof's aging; moss and packed debris means it's holding wet.
3. Take a flashlight into the attic and look up at the underside of the decking. Water stains, damp or matted insulation, daylight coming through, a musty smell. This usually shows a leak long before it stains the ceiling below.
4. Note whatever looks off and book a roofer for anything you can't reach or safely judge. Stay off the roof itself unless you're kitted out and steady on it. Most of this is done from the ground and the attic, where the falling distance is shorter.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

DIY for the twice-a-year look: binoculars from the ground plus an attic check costs nothing and catches most early trouble. Pay a pro once a year, or after a big storm, or when buying, for the close-up: around $249 on average, $75 to $1,039 by roof size and pitch, and many roofers do a basic look free before they quote. Worth it on steep, tall, or old roofs, where walking it is the dangerous part.

What skipping it costs

A missed leak runs $1,500 to $15,000 and up by the time it's done, and the look that would have caught it is about $249. Here's how the bill climbs: a small flashing gap or cracked shingle lets water past into the underlayment and decking, where it rots the wood. Structural roof repair starts around $1,500. Drying out the water damage inside is another $1,364 to $6,301 for most homeowners. Let it sit long enough to feed mold and remediation is $1,500 to $15,000 or more. A patch caught early is a few hundred dollars.

Signs it's overdue

• Shingle grit collecting in the gutters or at the foot of the downspouts, or shingles you can see from the ground that have gone missing, cracked, curled, or lifted.
• Water stains, dark patches, or a musty smell on an upstairs ceiling or wall, or those same stains and damp insulation on the underside of the attic decking.
• A roofline that sags or dips, daylight coming through the attic decking, or moss and dark streaks spreading across the shingles.

When to start thinking about it

Give yourself about 14 days' notice. That's when Grumpty starts grumbling, so it doesn't land on you the day it's due. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

Questions people ask