I want to tell you about something I witnessed in a neighborhood in Oklahoma a few years back. We had just gotten two roofs approved on the same street — two houses right next to each other. As we were wrapping up, we knocked on a neighbor's door. Sweet lady. Her roof was in similar shape, same storm, same neighborhood. She told us she already had a roofer working on it.
He had said yes to the job. He was working on it. She was covered.
About a week later, she called us.
The contractor who showed up had no company logos on his truck. He pulled out a ladder, climbed up one valley on the far right side of the house, stood at the edge for a moment, took one photo from a distance, and came back down. That was the inspection. Start to finish: maybe thirty seconds on the roof.
He had no idea the shingles on this roof were discontinued — which matters enormously when an insurance company is trying to argue for a repair instead of a full replacement. He had not marked a single test square. He had not documented any soft metals. He had no framework for explaining why the damage warranted what the homeowner needed.
He had climbed one valley on one side of a roof and declared his inspection complete — on a house where the hardest-to-reach slopes were the ones with the most significant damage. He had no idea the shingles were discontinued. He had not marked a single test square. He had no framework for why the insurance company had said no, or what to do about it.
He said yes to the job. He just had no idea what that yes actually required.
This is not an isolated story. It is the norm. And on a steep or complex roof, the consequences of this kind of inspection are much worse than on a standard pitch — because the damage that gets missed is almost always on the sections that are hardest to reach.
Why Steep Roofs Expose the Difference Between Good and Great
Any roofing contractor will say yes to a steep or complex roof. Turning down work is not in most contractors' nature. The problem is that saying yes to the job and knowing what the job actually requires are two completely different things.
Most residential roofs in Oklahoma fall between a 4/12 and a 7/12 pitch. A reasonably competent contractor can walk these roofs, document what he sees, and get through the process. Once you get above an 8/12 — and especially once you add complex multi-plane geometry, steep hip and valley configurations, or a combination of pitches — everything changes. The documentation requirements change. The equipment requirements change. The scope of work changes. And the level of pushback from a carrier changes, because an insurance company writing an $80,000 check on a complex custom home is going to scrutinize that scope a lot harder than they would a $20,000 standard replacement.
That scrutiny is exactly where an underprepared contractor falls apart. And when the claim goes sideways, the homeowner blames the insurance company — when the real problem was the contractor who said yes without knowing what he was getting into.
Steep slopes face the sky at a sharper angle. They catch more hail impact per square foot. They are more exposed on certain elevations depending on storm direction. And they are the slopes that an underprepared contractor — and sometimes an underprepared adjuster — will not fully access during an inspection.
If nobody documents those slopes, the damage on them effectively does not exist as far as a claim is concerned. The insurance company is not going to volunteer to find damage they were never shown.
The Equipment Most Contractors Don't Own
There is a category of steep slope safety equipment that separates contractors who actually work on high-pitch roofs from those who just talk about it. The Goat Steep Assist is a portable aluminum ladder system that hooks over the ridge of a steep roof and gives you a safe, secure way to climb and descend slopes that would otherwise be inaccessible. The Ridge Pro is a ridge-mounted anchor that accommodates different pitch angles and serves as the attachment point for a rope and harness system. A pitch hopper is a platform device that sits on the roof surface and gives you a stable work position on a steep slope. Cougar Paws are specialty roofing boots with a patented replaceable foam pad-sole engineered specifically to grip asphalt shingle granules — they are not regular work boots, and the difference on a steep pitch is significant. More recently, the Roof Cushion has entered the market as another option for steep slope fall protection.
In my experience, the majority of roofing contractors in Oklahoma do not own any of this equipment beyond a pair of Cougar Paws — which they put on when they reach a pitch that makes them nervous. When the slope gets serious, most of them stop at the edge and work from what they can see from there.
That is not an inspection. That is a glance.
- Full access to every slope — including the steepest ones — with proper equipment
- Test squares marked in chalk on every slope to establish hail strike counts and sizing
- All soft metals documented: vents, valleys, gutters, downspouts, AC fins, flashing
- Collateral damage catalogued at ground level: screens, doors, garage doors, fencing
- Repairability assessment for each affected component — not just the shingles
- Photo documentation sufficient to tell the complete story without verbal explanation
- Time commitment: a proper steep roof inspection takes one to two hours, not ten minutes
The longer and more thorough the documentation, the harder it is for an insurance company to say no to everything. Every undocumented surface is an opening for denial. Every slope that was not accessed is a gap that works against the homeowner.
The Adjuster Problem on Steep Roofs
Here is something that does not get talked about enough: adjusters are sometimes no more eager to access steep slopes than the contractors who decline to inspect them.
When we are at an adjuster meeting on a steep or complex roof, our job is to be up there first. We set the rope system. We mark the test squares. We document what we found and we put it in front of the adjuster to evaluate — because if we are asking them to climb something technical, we owe them a clear reason to do it.
And if an adjuster declines to access a slope that we have documented, that is part of the record too. You cannot credibly deny coverage for damage on a surface you were not willing to inspect.
I trained my team the same way: if an adjuster says they will not get up there, you ask them directly — how can you tell me there is no damage on something you will not look at? We set up the rope. We document what we found. If you disagree with us, come look at it. If you will not come look at it, you do not have the basis to tell this homeowner no.
The Repairability Problem — Why It's Worse on Complex Roofs
On any asphalt shingle roof, the repair question is already complicated. Asphalt roofing is a system of sealed and interlocking components — not a series of independent pieces that can simply be swapped out. To replace one shingle, you must unseal the shingles above it. In most standard installations, the nails from two courses above penetrate the shingle you are trying to remove.
Unsealing shingles causes problems: mat transfer, creasing, granule loss, delamination. On a roof that is already aged or weather-stressed, those problems become damage — new damage, caused by the repair itself. And that new damage now lives on a roof where the rest of the shingles are not new.
On a steep or complex roof, every one of these problems is amplified.
Imagine a carrier approves coverage for damaged valley metal and vents — but denies the shingles. On paper, this looks like a partial win for the homeowner. In practice, it sets up a disaster.
Replacing valley metal on a steep, complex roof requires removing shingles around the entire valley — which means unsealing, pulling, and re-laying shingles across a significant portion of the roof. On aged shingles, this is not a clean process. Shingles crack, crease, and delaminate during removal. The new valley metal ends up surrounded by visibly disturbed, mismatched shingles on a steep slope where every imperfection is visible from the ground.
The result looks terrible. The homeowner is furious. And now there is damage created by the repair itself — damage that the carrier did not originally owe for, but that someone is going to have to pay to address.
My approach to this scenario is straightforward: I document exactly what a "repair" on this system would require, and I explain what it would produce. If the carrier wants to insist on that repair scope, I am glad to do it — and to invoice separately for the replacement that will be necessary afterward. Most of the time, that conversation ends with a full replacement approved instead. Not because I argued, but because the scope of what a repair actually entails makes the alternative obvious.
The Neighborhood in Enid — What Bad Documentation Looks Like at Scale
A sales rep I worked with once told me not to bother knocking a particular neighborhood near a golf course in Enid. Said the people were difficult. I went anyway.
As I drove through, I noticed something on almost every house: blue chalk marks on either side of the valley directly in front of the garage. One little short valley. No other marks anywhere. No test squares on the main slopes. No chalk on the vents. Nothing on the soft metals. Just those two little marks at the bottom of the most accessible valley on the entire roof.
Every one of those roofs had been "inspected." And every one of them had been inspected by someone who found the most convenient spot on the roof, made a mark, and called it done.
I ended up speaking at the HOA meeting. I told the homeowners what I saw and what it meant: the slopes that had been inspected were not the slopes most exposed to the storm. The documentation was incomplete. And homeowners who had filed claims were either getting denials or getting partial payouts — not because the damage wasn't there, but because nobody had gone to find it and document it properly.
One of those claims got fixed. A roof got replaced that should have been covered all along.
The Custom Home Question
There is a specific version of this problem that shows up on higher-end custom homes — the kind of home where the owner spent months on every detail of the build.
These homes often have the most complex rooflines. Multiple pitches. Long valleys. Dormers. Custom flashing details. Skylights integrated into steep slopes. Architectural features that add visual complexity and also add inspection complexity.
The question I always ask: does the contractor scoping your roof have the same level of attention to detail as the architect who designed it?
Because a complex custom home demands a complex, detailed scope. Every line item matters. If the contractor is not personally getting on every slope — if he is outsourcing the documentation or estimating the scope from the ground — the homeowner is at risk. And if the crew that shows up to do the work has never worked on a high-pitch complex system before, the homeowner is at greater risk still.
- What equipment do you use to access steep slopes safely?
- Will you personally get on every slope of this roof during the inspection?
- How long will the inspection take?
- Will you attend the adjuster meeting and be on the roof during that visit?
- Can you explain why this roof may or may not be repairable — specifically?
- Does your crew regularly work on roofs at this pitch?
If the answers are vague, or if the inspection takes less than an hour, you are not getting what your roof — and your claim — requires.
What We Do Differently
Paramount Exteriors works on steep, complex, and multi-plane roofing systems as a core part of what we do — not as an exception. We own the equipment necessary to access high-pitch slopes safely. We spend the time the inspection actually requires. We document every surface, mark every test square, and produce a Paramount Pro Report that tells the complete story of your roof's condition.
We attend adjuster meetings. We get on the roof during those meetings. We document what we found and we put it in front of whoever needs to evaluate it — whether that is a field adjuster, a desk reviewer, or an engineer.
And we can explain, clearly and specifically, why a particular repair scope is not feasible on a particular roof — because we have done this work long enough to know exactly what happens when someone tries.
If you have a steep or complex roof and your contractor said yes but your claim is going nowhere — or if you got an inspection that lasted about as long as it takes to climb a ladder and come back down — give us a call. We will actually get on it, actually document it, and actually tell you what we find.