Rule of thumb

[gkoehl]

At what temperature would it be considered that walking on asphalt shingles would damage them?

Do you take your readings from ambient temp or from roof surface temp?

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Too hot to install, is typically too hot to walk, as far as I am concerned.

Marcel

[Dale Duffy]

Damage can occur at any temperature if the person walking them does not know what they are doing. When the outside temperature is close to freezing, just the sun hitting them directly will make the shingles warm.

Whether it is hot or cold if you walk with your feet flat, you significantly reduce the mineral loose to the surface of the material.

I personally walk every shingle roof safely accessible regardless of the outside temperature.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by dduffy

Damage can occur at any temperature if the person walking them does not know what they are doing. When the outside temperature is close to freezing, just the sun hitting them directly will make the shingles warm.

Whether it is hot or cold if you walk with your feet flat, you significantly reduce the mineral loose to the surface of the material.

I personally walk every shingle roof safely accessible regardless of the outside temperature.

Ditto what Dale said, except for his last paragraph, which I must change for my company:

I personally do not walk any roof regardless of the outside temperature.

[Steven Brewster]

If you don't walk a roof, how can you find areas of wind damaged shingles. Most of the time these shingles look ok.?

[Russel Ray]

We have 70-80 mph winds come through on a regular basis each year, our Santa Ana winds. Jeff Pope sends them to us from up his way. Wind-damaged shingles never look okay in my area.

Perhaps my 13-years of roofing experience in Texas and my experience doing property renovations for 30 years also allows me to do things that the average home inspector can't.

[Steve Boozer]

I doubt anyone has a specific temperature. I'm guessing most inspectors only walk roofs up to a 8/12 pitch. So maybe about 80 degrees ambient temperature is a guesstimate. Hotter than that and you start scuffing the shingles. Obviously a cool roof is better, but with old brittle/curled shingles, a warm roof may work better. But I would much rather someone walk the roof to check it, than not to walk it because they're concerned of doing minimal damage. Almost always you will find something that needs to be fixed.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by Steve Boozer

Almost always you will find something that needs to be fixed.

I think 99% of my inspections have found something concerning the roof that needs to be fixed. The newer properties with the tile roofs are in what I call "Christmas neighborhoods." Those are neighborhoods where everyone tries to outdo each other when it comes to Christmas decorations. Each year I cringe when I think of all the homeless, sick, and hungry people all the money spent on those stupid Christmas decorations could help. Something's wrong with religion in this country, but I digress. Anyway, people get up on them thar roofs and walk all over them, really not seeming to care how much damage they cause until they go to sell and I come along.

So far, ART tells me that our follow-ups have shown most of our Clients get the roof repairs done because it's a simple matter of cracked and dislodged tiles. However, one of our Clients got a reduction in price of $47,000 for a new roof--that was the middle estimate.