Roof inspections

A look, with a note afterwards

Choose “not sure — need an inspection” when the roof is the subject and the remedy is not obvious. People ask before the rains, after a storm has lifted a sheet or stained a ceiling, and before they pay for a house whose covering they have only seen from the gate. Micheletti Construction does that look itself. The request is not passed to a roster of inspectors. If the visit shows a simple repair, we say so. If it shows areplacement, we say that too, with the reason. If the stain is a slab or a wall, the conversation moves to the structurerather than staying politely inside roofing.

Alberto Micheletti’s public career — project management in Lagos, management in Ibadan, and managing director in Abuja since 2012 — is the experience behind the company. An inspection page does not need to inflate it. It needs to say what will actually be looked at.

What the visit covers

The covering: sheets or tiles, ridges, hips, valleys, and any place a previous repair has left cement or an odd patch. Flashings at walls and parapets. Gutters and the outlets they are supposed to feed. Fasteners and washers where they can be seen without an unsafe walk. From inside, ceiling stains, daylight at the eaves, and any sag that suggests the deck or the purlins. Penetrations for tanks and pipes. Signs that water is arriving from the ground or a flooded balcony rather than from the slope. We write down what is urgent and what can wait for a drier week.

We do not treat every roof as walkable. Corrugated sheet that has already sagged, a wet stone-coated panel, a steep pitch on a tall house: those can be inspected properly without a performance. If a closer look needs scaffold, that is part of the recommendation, not something we skip in order to finish before lunch.

Why the month and the city change the visit

Before the rains in Lagos means before a season that runs roughly April to October, with a lull in August that is not the end. An inspection in March is worth more than the same visit in the middle of a squall, because you can still programme a repair. After a storm, the question is what moved: a verge on a Lekki or Ikoyi house, a gutter overwhelmed in a low street, a leak that is actually floodwater. Salt air means we look harder at fasteners on the Island and the peninsula than a dry-climate checklist would.

In Abuja, the useful inspection is often at the end of harmattan, when gutters are full of dust and the first storm has not yet arrived, or just after that first storm has shown which outlet failed. July to September is the wet peak on the climate tables. Districts matter for access: a Maitama house, a Wuse flat, a Gwarinpa estate, and a Kubwa bungalow do not offer the same ladder position or the same estate permission. Flat concrete roofs need their drains looked at; they are not inspected as if they were long-span metal.

In Ibadan, inspections often confirm what the patches already suggest. A house in Bodija, Jericho, Iyaganku, or Akobo may have several generations of repair. The visit separates a sound sheet with one bad flashing from a roof that is only patches. The August lull is a popular time to book, and it is useful only if any work that follows can survive September. The rainfall study cited on the Ibadan page is why we talk about two peaks rather than a single “rainy season” copied from Abuja.

How to ask for one

Use the quote form, choose roofing or “not sure,” and pick the inspection option if it is offered for that path. Name the neighbourhood, say whether you are buying or already living there, and add photos of stains if you have them. We reply by the method you choose. We do not publish a phone number, a fee schedule, or a certificate with a star rating. The written note after a visit is the product. It is an opinion based on what was visible, not a warranty that the next storm will be uneventful.