As a home inspector, at some point you will have the client that wants to get on the roof via your ladder. As tempting as it is to be nice and allow them to do so, do not do this! How would you explain the potential influence of gravity to your insurance broker? Then there are the clients who do not ask…..
I was inspecting a house for a nice young couple starting out in life. My ladder was against the single story attached garage gutter and I had finished the inspection of the garage roof. I came back down from the roof and went around to the back of the garage to check on another issue. When I came back around to the front I saw the 8 ½ month pregnant wife walking around on the garage roof! This was a heart attack moment. I calmly suggested she come back off the roof, and there was much rejoicing as she did so in a safe manner.
Traditional cedar shake roofs are great roofs and need to be maintained correctly. A common issue that I have found over the years is that as cedar shake roofs age the shakes cup and lift up. Cedar shake roofs are installed on what is called skip sheathing and long story short have gaps in the sheathing below the cedar shake material. When the roof material cups and the shakes lift it opens a door for rats to come through. If I am doing an inspection on a house with a cedar shake roof I am not surprised when I get in the attic and find that the insulation has been damaged by rodent intrusion.
I was in an attic once and the insulation had been completely destroyed by rodent intrusion. I finished the inspection, explained the issues to the clients, wrote my report and moved on. A few days later the agent called and said the sellers response was: “There are no rats in the attic, we have dogs!” The reality here is that your dogs do not live in the attic. Whether you have dogs or cats it makes no difference, rats are entering your house not through the front door. Most of the time I find that they are entering through the roof system somewhere and through a hole that most people thinks is too small for a rat to get through. Your average NW rat needs a 3/8” gap to squeeze through.