For home inspectors, walking the roof can be quite a hassle. It’s a difficult task, it can be outright dangerous (especially for multi-story buildings), and there is always the chance that something on the roof might be damaged by walking on it. Cracking a tile can be a major inconvenience, and home owners may demand payment for their losses. Many home inspectors with years of experience recommend not walking the roof. Getting binoculars to inspect the buildings’ roofs is much safer, time saving and cost efficient. It is easy to spot problems on almost any roof using a pair of binoculars, and hilly areas make it all the more convenient.
Getting very expensive binoculars for this purpose may not pay off, and can even become a source of discomfort for the user, as they usually have strong magnifications which aren’t optimal for small distances. Here are a few low cost binoculars for roof inspection which can easily help you out with your job.
The first and possibly best item on the list is the Trooper 8×40 DPS by Olympus. It has a plastic body with a high quality rubber coating. The coating provides a comfortable and firm grip. This, combined with its light weight of 25 oz / 0.7 kg, make it a challenge to accidentally drop these binoculars. The 8x40mm lenses make for very comfortable roof inspecting sessions, as focusing on your target isn’t much of an issue. In addition to this, the lenses are also coated for anti-reflection, which helps with image quality and also makes viewing roofs easier as you’ll have little problem in pointing the binoculars upwards. The angle of view is relatively wide, and the focus knob is large and placed in the center for convenience. They also allow for close focus, which makes sense in this context since you don’t want to walk a mile to be able to focus on the roof. This item brings a great deal to the table, and should be the item of choice for anyone looking for something to fulfill their basic roof inspection needs.
The next item is the 8×40 Binoculars by Gskyer. Contrary to the premise above, this one may be a little costlier. However, this model does deliver some excellent features to make up for it. It has an auto focusing feature, which is very helpful during work, and its 8x magnification doesn’t hurt either. It has a high quality rubber grip, and the lenses are coated to provide an excellent image. The lenses can be adjusted, which is good news for glass wearers.
If you want more details on how to choose the best binoculars for roof inspection for the money, read our buying guide. In most cases, the first product, the Trooper DPS, is the pair of binoculars to go for. The FMC Bak4 pricier, but are great for people who have experience with binoculars and people who are looking for a bump in quality.