Quick answer
Look at the roof the way a roofer would: shingle rows that drift or melt together, flashing that goes nowhere, gutters with no downspout, a crew two storeys up with nothing tied off. Then check the file with Content Credentials, Google’s Gemini app and a reverse image search. AI images are fine as marketing, but a photo presented as a real job has to be one.
Estimates by phone: (587) 804-9266 · Good Roofing · Calgary-owned since 2014 · 10-year workmanship warranty.
AI images of roofs are easy to make now, and the good ones are hard to catch at a glance. We know, because our own ads, social posts and new site images are made with AI, in Overs, a tool made by our owner, Abhi Chawla. AI images are fine as marketing. The trouble starts when one is passed off as a real job, and these checks help you catch that.
01 · Section
Roof details AI gets wrong
Image models know what a roof looks like from the street and very little about how one is built. Zoom in and look at the parts a roofer checks first.
- 01Shingle rows that drift. Courses that curve, change size across the slope or melt into each other near the ridge and the valleys.
- 02Flashing that goes nowhere. A wall rising out of the roof with no step flashing, a valley with no metal, a chimney with nothing sealing it.
- 03Vents in odd places. Pipes and vents floating mid-slope, doubled up, or missing from a roof that would need them.
- 04Eavestroughs with no way down. Gutters that stop short, run into a wall or never reach a downspout.
- 05Crews with no fall protection. Workers two storeys up with nothing tied off, or ladders that stand on nothing or end below the roof edge.
- 06Lettering that almost spells something. Truck doors, shirts and yard signs are where image models garble text.
- 07A mark in the corner. Some AI apps stamp their images. Google says its Gemini app keeps a visible sparkle watermark on images made by users on its free and AI Pro plans. A crop removes it, so a clean corner proves nothing.
02 · Section
Before-and-afters: check that the house stays the same
A real before-and-after is two photos of one house. The windows, trim, garage door, trees and even the neighbour’s fence stay put, and only the roof changes. When an AI draws both halves, the house tends to change too: a window moves, the porch grows, the roofline shifts, the trees swap places. Line the two halves up and compare everything except the shingles.
03 · Section
Check the file
Some AI images carry a record of how they were made. None of these checks settles the question alone, because a screenshot or a trip through social media can strip the record, and an image with no record is unknown rather than fake.
- 01Content Credentials. Upload the image to the free Content Credentials verify site. OpenAI, Adobe and Microsoft attach these records to images from their AI tools, and Google adds them to Nano Banana Pro images from the Gemini app. If a record survived, the site shows how the file was made.
- 02Google’s SynthID check. In the Gemini app, upload the image and ask whether it was made with Google AI. Google says Gemini can only recognise content made with Google AI, so a “no” doesn’t clear an image made with another tool.
- 03About this image. In Google Lens and Circle to Search, the About this image panel can show whether a picture was AI-generated when it carries SynthID or Content Credentials. Google says it isn’t available in every region.
- 04Reverse image search. Search with the image in Google Lens, TinEye or Bing Visual Search. If the same “job photo” turns up on another contractor’s site or in a stock library, it isn’t their job.
04 · Section
Then ask the roofer
The fastest check is to ask where the roof is and when the work was done. A real job photo comes with an address, or at least a neighbourhood you can drive through. A roofer who answers “it’s just an example” has told you it’s marketing. Our guide to checking a Calgary roofer’s past work covers addresses, the City business licence and the WCB clearance letter, and how to read roofing reviews covers the stars.
05 · Section
Our own images
Our ads, social posts and new site images are made in Overs, an AI tool made by our owner, Abhi Chawla, and he credits it with a big part of how fast Good Roofing has grown. Those images are marketing and illustration. They don’t show a real job, a real customer’s home or a real before and after, and job photos are a separate thing. Overs’ guide to Content Credentials explains how those records work and why they get stripped.