LibreRoofing Closeout and Warranty Documentation: What to Keep, for How Long, and Why
The package the owner gets at handover is also the file you will be opening years from now.
A closeout package has two readers
The first reader is the owner, the general contractor, or the homeowner, on the day you hand over a finished roof. The second is somebody years out who was not there: a property manager with water over the loading dock, an owner's rep pulling files before a sale, an adjuster, a manufacturer's inspector, occasionally a lawyer. The first reader wants a tidy document. The second wants to know what was actually installed and what the roof looked like the day your crew left. The second reader is the reason you take the photos. On commercial work the file follows the property through the warranty period and past it, alongside the roof condition reports and the service tickets. On slate, tile, copper, standing seam, and cedar, the homeowner keeps it as a care and maintenance record and hands it to whoever buys the house.
What belongs in the package
Existing conditions, dated before you started
The roof, the interior below it, the grounds, the adjacent property. Shoot it with a pre-construction condition survey before the first bundle comes off the truck. This is the only part of the package you cannot go back and create.
Every layer before it was covered
Deck, insulation, cover board, underlayment, attachment, membrane or panel. A line in an as-built says what you installed. A photo taken that morning shows it.
The as-built description
System type, thickness, attachment and fastener pattern, insulation, accessories, and anything that changed in the field. Record what ended up on the building, not what the spec said it would be.
Flashings, penetrations, and drainage
Parapet and edge details, curbs, pipes and vents, drains and scuppers. These are where the leak calls come from, so these are the photos somebody pulls first.
The final inspection and its punch items
The post-installation inspection with each punch item and a photo of the correction. An open punch list with no fix photo is the thing that gets argued about later.
Warranty documents and what they ask for
The warranty paperwork, its reference numbers, and the inspection schedule the terms call for. Many manufacturer programs expect periodic inspections with documentation; a roof warranty inspection is one way to record each one.
An example closeout record
Illustrative only — what your package needs depends on your contract, the owner, and your warranty terms.
Existing conditions
- Condition survey shot before tear-off: four elevations, roof field, interior below roof (photos 1–14)
- Ponding at the northeast corner and two open seams recorded before start (photos 6–8)
- Parking lot, landscaping, and adjacent roof documented for access and staging (photos 15–19)
Roof assembly as built
- Deck
- Steel, existing, repaired in two areas
- Insulation
- Polyiso, two layers, staggered
- Cover board
- As specified, from delivery ticket photo
- Membrane
- Single-ply, mechanically attached
- Perimeter
- Metal edge and parapet flashing
- Drainage
- Drains retrofitted, scuppers cleared
Install documentation
- Deck photographed after tear-off, before insulation (photos 20–31)
- Each layer shot before it was covered, with wide and close frames (photos 32–88)
- Seams, laps, and terminations at every elevation (photos 89–120)
- Curbs, penetrations, and rooftop equipment after flashing (photos 121–140)
Final inspection
- Post-installation inspection walked with the production manager
- Punch items listed, each with a photo of the correction (photos 141–156)
- Core cut location and result, where one was taken (photo 157)
Closeout photos
Warranty and handover
- Warranty documents and reference numbers
- As-built notes, including field changes
- Care and maintenance instructions for the owner
- Inspection schedule the warranty terms call for
How to build it without a night of office work
Decide what the package contains before the job starts
Take the list from the contract, the owner's requirements, and the warranty terms, then turn it into the shot list for the job. A closeout defined in week one gets shot. One defined at handover gets reconstructed from memory.
Shoot it as you build it
Each layer before it is covered, each detail while somebody is standing at it. Voice captions instead of typing, because the person holding the phone is wearing gloves and the wind is up.
Close the punch list with photos
Every punch item gets a photo of the correction on the same job record. That is what turns a list of complaints into a closed file that nobody reopens.
Assemble it and hand it over
Pull the report from the job's photos and checklist items, add the warranty documents and the as-built notes, and send it as a link or a PDF. The owner gets a document; you keep the job record behind it.
How long to keep it
There is no single answer, and anyone who hands you one number is guessing about your situation. Three things set the floor, and the longest one wins: what your contract requires you to keep, what your own retention policy and your insurer expect, and the length of the warranty you or the manufacturer gave. Retention policies vary by company, by state, and by contract, so check yours rather than copying somebody else's. As a working minimum, keep the record for the life of the warranty, since a warranty commonly outlasts the employment of the crew that installed the roof. Storage is rarely the hard part. Retrieval is: finding one property, one detail, and one photo from a job nobody at the table remembers. In LibreCam the photos, captions, and checklist items stay on the job under the property address, so a closeout package can be pulled again years later, and search gets you to the one shot that answers the question. See how the rest of the job fits on the commercial roofing and high-end roofing pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Check your warranty: the requirements and the inspection schedule belong to the manufacturer. LibreCam records what the crew did and what the inspector saw. The standard is yours.
Same record, different packaging. The commercial version goes to the general contractor or the owner's rep with as-built detail and warranty references; the homeowner version is a care and maintenance record with the photos and the maintenance schedule in plain language.
You cannot recreate them. Document what you can from today, put in writing what was already there when you arrived, and set up the condition survey so the next job starts with the shots that protect you.
Property managers with a leak, owners' reps before a sale, insurers and adjusters, manufacturer inspectors, the next contractor on the roof, and sometimes a lawyer. None of them were there, so the record has to speak for itself.