Twice a year on a schedule — and every single time there's a significant hailstorm, regardless of what the calendar says.
A biannual inspection — once in spring, once in fall — catches the two things that build up gradually: winter wear on flashing and seals, and summer UV damage to shingles. Neither of those typically causes a sudden leak, but both shorten your roof's real lifespan if left unaddressed for years at a time.
In Texas specifically, storm-triggered inspections matter more than the calendar-based ones. Hail and high wind cause damage that's often completely invisible from the ground, and it doesn't wait for your next scheduled check-up. If your area has had a hailstorm or a wind event with gusts over roughly 50 mph, that's worth a real inspection regardless of when your last one happened.
From the ground or a ladder at a safe height, you can reasonably check for:
What you genuinely can't check safely or accurately from the ground: granule loss on individual shingles, bruising from hail impact that hasn't cracked the surface yet, and flashing or vent damage on the roof's far slopes. That's not a sales pitch — it's just a physical limitation of ground-level observation, which is exactly why storm-triggered professional inspections matter more than routine self-checks.
A free inspection is standard practice and shouldn't cost you anything, regardless of what you decide to do afterward.
You can, but it's genuinely riskier — by the time a leak shows up inside your home, the underlying damage has often been developing for months, and the repair scope is usually larger than it would have been if caught earlier.
If you noticed hail of any real size, heard unusually loud impact noise on your roof during the storm, or saw storm damage reported in your immediate area, it's worth a free inspection rather than guessing.