Keep the Date Stamp on Every Roof Inspection Photo

A roof inspection produces photographs, and many homeowners look at them once, decide the roof looks fine or does not, and file them away. The photos are worth more than that. Taken on different dates, they show what changed on your roof between one visit and the next, and a photo with no date on it cannot show that. This page covers the date stamp on each image and what to ask for before the file is closed.

Inspection

Every photo in a roof file should carry the date it was taken. Phone cameras write the date into the image metadata by default, but that metadata disappears when a photo is screenshotted, cropped by a messaging app, or pasted into a text. The file you want is the original image as it came off the camera or as it was sent from the inspector's device, with the original file name intact.

The date matters because roof conditions change on a schedule you can measure. Granules wash off shingles after several seasons of rain. A nail that backed out in February can sit higher by June. A crack in a pipe boot grows across each freeze and thaw cycle, and the only way to see that growth is to compare a spring photo with a fall photo of the same spot. If both photos are undated, you are comparing two pictures with no way to know how far apart they were taken.

Ask that each slope be photographed from the same spot on every visit when that is possible. A photo taken from the ground at the northwest corner, with the same framing each time, is easier to compare than a set of close-ups taken from wherever the inspector happened to stand. Ask also that the report say which slope each photo belongs to. A list of files named IMG_4412 through IMG_4460 tells you nothing about the roof.

Hail season and ice season leave marks that look alike in a single picture. Granule loss at the eave from ice damming can look like granule loss from hail on a dark slope. Dated photos from before and after a storm let you tell them apart, because the change between the two dates is the evidence. This is also why storm photos should be stored with the rest of the roof file and not left in a folder on a phone that gets replaced.

Check the timestamps when the files arrive. Open one, read the date, and compare it with the day of the visit. A date off by a day usually means the camera's time zone setting is wrong, which is a small problem. A date from several years earlier means the camera clock was never set, which is a larger one. Ask the inspector to correct the clock and retake the set if the dates are wrong, because a clock error will make the whole file hard to use later.

What it costs

The photographs are part of the inspection, not a separate product. Keys documents what it finds, and the written scope comes with photos and measurements that go into your hands. Ask when you book whether the dated originals are delivered with the report or only as a summary, and whether the set includes every slope, the flashings, the vents and the gutter run. A report with four photos of a roof that has six slopes has not documented the roof.

Storage costs nothing beyond your own time. Save the original files in a folder with the visit date in its name, and keep a copy in a second place, such as a cloud drive or an external disk. Phone storage fills up and gets replaced, and roof photos are the files you will want when a leak appears three years after the visit.

If you book a second visit to compare conditions, ask whether the new photos follow the same framing as the first set. Some inspectors keep a shot list and others shoot freehand. A shot list adds little to the cost but takes a little longer on the roof, and it is the difference between a comparison you can use and a pile of pictures.

What to ask

• Will every photo arrive as an original file with its capture date intact, rather than as a screenshot or a compressed copy?
• Is each photo labeled by slope, elevation and component, such as north slope, valley at the rear dormer, or pipe boot at the rear vent?
• Will the inspector photograph the same spots again on a later visit, and will the framing match the first set?
• If the camera clock is wrong, will the set be retaken or corrected before delivery?
• Does the report list the photographs taken and the areas that could not be reached, so the file shows what was and was not seen?
• Who keeps the original files after the visit, and how do you request them later if your copy is lost?

Call Keys at (314) 220-2333 before the visit and ask these questions by name. The answers tell you whether the photo file will still be useful in two or three years, when the next question about this roof comes up. A roof photographed carefully on one date and compared against itself on the next is much easier to read than one with a stack of undated pictures.