Over the years there have been lots of discussions about Home Inspectors walking on roofs or not. There have been a few thatfs that I would not walk on.
One of the most popular wars that weekend warriors wage is building decks.
In no time at all they are sitting out on the deck enjoying a nice cold “Moose Drool” beer and it either starts to rain or it is too sunny. What to do? All they need to add is a roof. While it is not often the case in Seattle that there is too much sun—-the drizzle is real.
To put a roof over a deck is WAY more complicated than building a deck. One must answer questions like how it is going to be attached to the house so that there is still enough head room under it to walk on the deck surface. In this picture we see one solution.
Well, actually not really so much a “solution” as creation of a “problem”—–unless you count that all of the roofing structural materials are “in solution”—being saturated with water. With this “solution,” having enough headroom and having enough slope were not possible.
These three tab type shingles should never be installed on a roof this flat. Water can easily back up under the shingles where it will fill the roof structure up with water—-as is evidenced by the dripping water seen in the next picture—-kind of like Moose Drool.
A wood roof saturated with water can get VERY HEAVY. We then must consider how it is attached to the house.
Wimpy 2×4’s attached to an even wimpier 1×6 fascia—-all with no metal brackets or hangers.
All we need now is 6” of heavy wet snow to top it all off. Spilling ones beer is one thing, spilling a roof into ones beer is another.
(This nice roof was a “Listing Feature” as well.)
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Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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