What the deliverable is
A report structured for a file rather than for reading once. The roofs are identified section by section on a plan, each with a system description, an age indication where one can be established, a condition rating and the observations behind it. Findings are photographed and located. The capital scope follows, with quantities and a timing bracket for each item. The limitations sit in the body of the report, not at the back.
Where the schedule is tight, the significant items are given verbally as soon as field work is complete. The deal team can act on a call. It cannot act on a document that is still being written.
What the report does not do
It does not price the work. Unit rates belong to contractors and they move, and a figure written into a report acquires an authority it has not earned. The scope is described precisely enough to be quoted.
It does not state a remaining life as a single number. Remaining life depends on maintenance, traffic and weather that has not occurred, and a single figure conceals the assumptions that produced it. A range with the evidence behind it is more useful in an underwriting file and survives scrutiny better.
It does not rate what was not inspected. Sections that could not be reached, areas under solar arrays, roofs obscured by standing water and assemblies that were not opened are listed as such. The reader can then decide what to do about the gap.
When it is commissioned
Normally at the start of the diligence period, alongside the other consultant scopes rather than after them, because the roof is the component most likely to need a second visit and a second visit is what the calendar refuses. Some buyers commission a walk before going under contract, where the seller permits it, to price the roof into the bid rather than argue about it later.
It is also commissioned outside a purchase. Lenders ask for it before a refinance. Owners commission it before taking an asset to market, so the condition is known before a buyer finds it. And partners commission it during a hold when a capital request has arrived that nobody can evaluate.
Common questions
What does an investment committee need from a roof inspection?
A number it can defend and the evidence that supports it. In practice that is four things.
- A condition statement per roof section rather than per building
- A capital scope with quantities, described so a contractor can price it
- The timing: at closing, within the first year, or later in the hold
- The limitations, stated plainly rather than left to be assumed
A building with an old section and a new one has two answers, and the average is wrong for both. A committee reading a report that says nothing was excluded will assume nothing was excluded. Long descriptions of membrane types belong in the appendix, not the front of the report.
How is the inspection scoped when the seller limits access?
By writing down what was permitted, what was not, and what each restriction leaves unanswered. Restrictions are common and they are not automatically a signal.
- A seller may refuse cuts through a membrane on an asset it still owns
- A tenant may decline entry to the suite the roof hatch sits in
- A roof under warranty may carry conditions about who can work on it
- Each of those is negotiable raised early and unfixable raised late
Ask for roof access, including testing, in the access agreement. Specify the number and location of cores, who repairs them and with what, and who carries responsibility if the roof leaks afterward. Where access is refused, the report names the sections not inspected and prices the uncertainty rather than ignoring it.
How does the roof inspection fit with the other consultants?
It runs in parallel and needs to start earlier than most people schedule it, because the roof is the component most likely to require a second step.
- A walk establishes that a roof is suspect, opening it establishes what is underneath
- The second step needs permission, a separate visit and sometimes particular conditions
- Coordinate access so one round of tenant notice covers every specialist
- Chase documents early, since warranties, specifications, permits and invoices arrive slowly
- Agree format, so roof numbers match the units and year structure of the capital schedule
Say at engagement whether the roof work is a standalone report, an input to another firm's assessment, or both. The scope and the addressing differ, and it is easier to settle at the start than after field work.
What is excluded from the inspection, and why does the exclusion matter?
A visual inspection excludes everything it cannot see, which is more than most readers assume.
- The deck, the insulation and the layers under the membrane, unless the roof is opened
- The extent of trapped moisture, unless a survey is carried out
- Sections not safely reachable, areas under solar or screening, anything under ponded water
- Structure, code compliance and permit history, unless documents were provided and reviewed
A report is read later, by people who were not there and often by people deciding whether a cost was known at the time. An exclusion recorded in the body is part of the record; one buried in standard wording at the back is not read at all. Where an exclusion leaves a material question open, we say what would answer it.
How do the findings become a number the model can use?
By describing work rather than condition. A rating is not a budget line.
- Which section, how much area, and what the work actually is
- Whether it is repair, section replacement or full replacement including tear off
- Layer count and wet insulation drive that difference, which is why testing moves numbers
- Timing split into work at closing, inside the first year, and later in the hold
The same total spread differently is a different deal, and where the timing depends on something unresolved we state it rather than smooth it. We do not produce the pricing, because unit costs move with labor and material markets. The report describes the scope precisely enough that pricing it is a quotation rather than an estimate.