Is My New Roof Normal? A Columbus Homeowner Checklist

Things That Are Usually Fine

• Slightly raised or curled shingle tabs in the first weeks. Shingles ship in bundles and hold that shape. Warm Columbus weather relaxes them and the sealant strips bond. This usually resolves within a few hot days.
• Granules in the gutters and on the driveway. New shingles shed loose granules from manufacturing. A driveway you have to sweep once is normal. Granules still filling the gutters months later is not.
• A slight color variation between bundles. Asphalt shingles are made in batches and small tone shifts happen, most visible on a wide roof in flat light.
• Nails, packaging, and debris found for a week or two. Annoying, and worth a call so they come back with the magnet, but not a workmanship failure.

Things That Are Not Fine

• Old flashing left in place. If the flashing at your walls, chimney, or valleys is the original weathered metal on a brand new roof, that is not cosmetic no matter what anyone tells you. Flashing is where roofs leak. Painting it does not make it new.
• Shingles still wavy after several weeks of heat. Early waviness relaxes. Persistent waves usually mean the decking underneath is uneven or damaged and was covered rather than replaced.
• No drip edge at the eaves and rakes. Look at the roof edge above your gutter. There should be metal there.
• Exposed fasteners across the field of the roof. Nails should be covered by the course above. Visible nail heads are future leaks.
• Ridge vent that is blocked, or the old ridge slot never cut open. A ridge vent that cannot exhaust does nothing, and it shortens the life of everything under it.
• Reused pipe boots. New roof, cracked and hardened rubber collars around the plumbing vents. These are inexpensive and should always be replaced.
• Damaged gutters, siding, or landscaping left as found.

What to Check From the Ground

You do not need to climb anything. Stand back at each corner of the house on a bright day and look along the plane of the roof. It should read as a flat, even surface with straight courses. Look at the ridge line and the valleys for straightness. Look at the roof edge for a continuous metal line. Photograph anything that looks off, from the same spot, with the date. Then go into the attic with a flashlight on a sunny day and look for daylight where there should not be any, and for staining on the underside of the deck.

How to Raise It Without a Fight

Most disputes escalate because of how they are opened. A better approach works more often.

• Put it in writing, with photographs attached, and keep it factual rather than accusatory.
• Reference the scope you signed. If the contract said new flashing and the flashing is not new, that is a contract question, not a taste question.
• Ask for a walkthrough with the owner or project manager, not the salesperson.
• Hold final payment until the punch list is resolved, if you have not already paid in full.
• Ask for the manufacturer warranty registration in your name. If it was never registered, that tells you something about how the job was documented.

If You Get Nowhere

A second opinion from an independent roofer is worth the visit. Get a written, photographed assessment that describes what is wrong in specific terms, because “the roof looks bad” is not actionable and “the step flashing at the north wall is original and was not replaced” is. That document is what you need for a manufacturer complaint, a licensing board complaint, or a small claims filing. Knowing what should have been quoted in the first place helps, and our list of questions to ask a roofing contractor covers the terms that prevent this situation. If the issue turns out to be a genuine defect, a targeted roof repair is often all that is required to make it right.