How to Spot a Bad Roofing Job

Maybe the crew finished last week and something about the roof bugs you. Maybe the final payment is due Friday. Either way, here is the good news: bad roofing announces itself, mostly from the ground, the rest from the attic, and you do not have to climb anything to run this inspection.

The short version: stand across the street and sight down the shingle courses for straight lines, check the edges for drip edge and a clean overhang, look for shiny nail heads and smeared caulk at the walls, then take a flashlight into the attic after the first hard rain. The rest of this post is that inspection in detail, the punch-list walkthrough to do before you release final payment, and the escalation path if you already paid for a mess.

What can you see from the ground?

More than most people expect. From the street or the sidewalk:

• Crooked or wavy courses. Shingle lines should run dead straight across the slope. Waves and drift mean a rushed crew that skipped chalk lines, and it is the most visible signature of sloppy work.
• Edge overhang. Shingles should extend past the drip edge by roughly a quarter to three quarters of an inch. Much more than an inch and they droop and catch wind. Cut flush or short, water wicks behind the gutter and rots the fascia.
• Mismatched color. Shingle bundles come in color lots. A good crew pulls from several bundles as they go so the roof blends. A patchy, checkerboard slope means nobody bothered.
• Ridge cap gaps. The cap should run continuous and even. Gaps, lifted tabs, or a visible line of fasteners along the ridge are wrong.
• Exposed nail heads. Walk the house in low afternoon sun and look for glints. In a correct install, nearly every nail is covered by the shingle above it. Shiny heads scattered across the field are face nails, and every one is a future leak.
• Repeating seam patterns. Shingle joints should read as random across the slope. Vertical seams stacking above each other, or a repeating diagonal stair-step of joints, means the offset pattern was wrong, and pattern errors leak years early.

What do the flashing details tell you?

Get closer with binoculars or a phone zoom, because this is where bad jobs hide:

• No drip edge. Look under the first course at the eaves. You should see a metal edge, not bare decking or felt. Drip edge is required by code on asphalt roofs in most jurisdictions now, and skipping it is a classic corner cut.
• Caulk where metal belongs. Where a slope meets a wall or chimney, the right answer is step flashing laced into the courses, with counterflashing at masonry. A smear of caulk or roofing cement there is a two year patch on what should be a 30 year detail.
• Rusty flashing against new shingles. New shingles butted to bent, rusted step flashing means the crew skipped the parts that actually keep water out. Reusing sound counterflashing set in mortar can be legitimate. Reusing rusted step flashing is not.
• Painted pipe boots. A fresh coat of paint on a cracked rubber boot is a cover-up, literally. Boots are cheap parts, and on a full replacement every one should be new.
• Ragged valleys. Valley styles vary, but every correct one keeps nails well away from the centerline. Ragged cuts down the valley or visible fasteners near the center are leaks on a timer.

What does the attic show?

First, know what normal looks like: shingle nails are supposed to come through the decking, so a ceiling of little points between the rafters is standard on nearly every shingle roof. Do not panic at that. Look for these instead:

• Shiners everywhere. When decking gets renailed or replaced, some nails miss the framing. A few misses happen on any job. Entire glinting rows of them mean nobody cared where the rafters were.
• Daylight at penetrations. Lights off on a bright day: any daylight around pipes, vents, or the chimney is a flashing gap.
• Wet sheathing after the first rain. Take a flashlight up after the first hard rain and look for dark streaks, drips, or damp decking, especially around penetrations. Catching it now makes it a warranty callback instead of a rot repair in year 4.

While you are up there, confirm the intake vents at the eaves did not get blocked with insulation and that the ridge vent slot was actually cut. Crews have capped ridge vent over uncut decking, which turns a ventilation line item into a decoration. Attic ventilation explains why that mistake quietly shortens the new roof.

What does the cleanup tell you?

Cleanup is a character reference. A crew that leaves your property trashed skipped steps you cannot see, too.

• Nails in the driveway and lawn mean the magnet sweep was skipped or lazy, and your tires will keep finding what the magnet did not.
• Shingle scraps, wrappers, and cut-offs in the gutters mean no final pass.
• Old flashing and debris tucked behind the bushes says plenty about how the hidden details went.

Ask before the job who runs the magnet sweep and when. Then watch it happen on the last day.

What paperwork should exist?

• A permit, where required. Many jurisdictions require one for a reroof. No permit where one was required is a corner cut that resurfaces during a home sale. Ask for the final inspection sign-off.
• A registered warranty. Manufacturer warranties, especially the enhanced ones, often require registration and an installer with the right credentials. Ask for the registration confirmation, not a verbal promise. What roofing warranties actually cover explains the gap between the paper and the coverage people assume.
• An invoice that matches the contract. Same scope, same materials, same squares. If the billed squares look inflated, the roof area calculator gets you close enough from the ground to know whether to ask questions.

What should the walkthrough before final payment cover?

Do this walk with the contractor present, before the last check. Twenty minutes, phone in hand:

• Courses straight from the street, no waves
• Drip edge visible at eaves and rakes
• Every pipe boot new, none painted
• Metal step flashing at walls and chimneys, no caulk-only lines
• Ridge cap continuous, and the ridge vent slot confirmed cut from the attic
• Valleys clean, no fasteners near the centerline
• Gutters cleared of debris
• Magnet sweep done while you watch
• Permit final inspection passed, where required
• Warranty registration confirmation sent to you
• Invoice matches the contract scope

Take photos as you go: every slope from the ground, every wall line and penetration you can see, plus the attic. Dated phone photos become the baseline that settles every future argument.

What if you already paid for a bad job?

In order, and in writing:

1. Document. Dated photos of every defect, plus the contract, invoice, and every text and email. Write a short timeline while it is fresh.
2. Request the callback. Most contractors carry a workmanship warranty of 1 to 10 years. Ask for repairs in writing and give a reasonable response window. Decent outfits fix punch items because it is cheaper than their reputation.
3. Buy an independent set of eyes. If they stall or ghost, a second-opinion inspection with a written report commonly costs $150 to $400. That document, from someone with no stake in the outcome, is worth more than every angry phone call combined.
4. Escalate. A manufacturer claim if the warranty was registered, a complaint to the state license board if the contractor is licensed (rules and thresholds vary by state), and small claims court within your state's limits. If the installer was an out-of-town crew that followed a storm in, storm chasers vs local contractors explains why collection gets hard once the trucks leave, and what to try anyway.

What to do next

If final payment is still pending, run the walkthrough list above before the check leaves your hand. If you already paid, start the documentation today, then send the written callback request. And if the roof has not happened yet, most of this pain is avoidable at the hiring stage: how to hire a roofer without getting burned covers vetting before the contract, and what happens during a roof replacement shows what a properly run job looks like hour by hour, so you can speak up while the crew is still on the roof, when fixes cost nothing.