Who Inspected Your Roof?

🖨 Print Article

Last week I mentioned that municipal inspectors will often miss important details on permit inspections, partially because they just don't have the time to go over every little detail on a home the way that a private inspector does. That reminded me of another aspect of municipal inspections in the Twin Cities that most people don't know about:

Municipal inspectors typically don't walk on roofs to inspect them.

That's right. When municipal inspectors in the Twin Cities come out to inspect roofs, they will rarely set foot on the roof, or even lean a ladder up against the roof. The rules vary between cities – some prohibit their inspectors from walking roofs, while others actually provide ladders for their inspectors.

So why don't municipal inspectors walk on roofs? Because they don't have to. It's documented in the Minnesota Administrative Rules for Inspections (1300.0210, Subp. 4.):

"The person requesting an inspection required by the code shall provide access to and means for inspection of the work."

This means that if you expect your municipal inspector to walk on your roof, or even use a ladder to inspect it, you better have a ladder leaning up against your roof when they show up. They probably won't be bringing their own ladder. If you DO have a ladder… they still might not.

Roofing contractors all tell me the same thing; municipal roofing inspections are anything but thorough. One roofer told me that city inspectors barely get out of their vehicles. I have a high degree of respect for municipal inspectors and I had a hard time believing my roofer friends. To find out for myself, I sent out emails to twenty of the largest municipalities in Minnesota, asking if their building inspectors will walk roofs. I wrote:

"If a municipal inspector is coming out to inspect a permit for a residential roof replacement, will they walk on the roof to inspect it if a ladder is provided? The roof has a pitch of 4:12, and is free of snow, ice, water, debris, etc."

FYI – A 4:12 roof is a very low-sloped roof (see photo above).

Here are the responses I received:

No response – 4
No. Inspectors are not allow to walk on sloped roofs, period – 4
Maybe? Vague answers to my direct question – 4
Yes. As long as all of the requirements listed above are met – 7
Yes, we rock. Department policy requires inspectors to walk on roofs with a slope of 6:12 or less, and the inspector's vehicles are equipped with ladders for doing so – 1 (Saint Louis Park).

Go Saint Louis Park. Their municipal inspections department continues to impress me.

Here are two more tips I picked up from the email responses that I received:

Some municipalities allow / require digital photos of the roof underlayment in lieu of an initial inspection. The City of Blaine (among others) has a document detailing how to send in digital photos to the building inspections department. Click here to see it - scroll to the bottom of the document.
None of the municipalities will approve permits when the roofs are covered with snow. Homeowners are supposed to call for inspections in the spring, after the snow has melted. Municipalities end up with "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of roofing permits that never get closed out.

If you have your roof replaced, make sure someone leaves a ladder for the inspector. At least this way you'll have a chance of someone getting on your roof to inspect it.