Roof surveys & condition reports
In short
A proper look at the whole roof — outside and from the loft — with photographs and a written summary of what is sound, what needs doing now and what can wait. It is what a homebuyer's survey says you should get when it recommends further investigation.
Also called: Roof inspection · Roof condition report · Roof report for a survey · Roof assessment
Signs you need this
- A homebuyer's survey recommending further investigation of the roof
- Buying a house and wanting to know what the roof will cost
- Conflicting quotes with very different scopes
- An unsolicited claim that your roof needs urgent work
- A roof of unknown age with no history
- Planning a sale and wanting to know what will come up
A roof survey exists because homebuyers' surveys stop exactly where the useful information starts. A valuation or a homebuyer's report will note that the roof is 'in need of further investigation' and leave it there, which tells a purchaser nothing about whether they are facing a five-hundred-pound repair or a fifteen-thousand-pound re-roof.
What a roofer's survey adds is the two things that actually matter: is the covering repairable or life-expired, and roughly what does the difference cost. Those are answerable — but only by getting up to the roof and into the loft, not by looking from the pavement with binoculars.
The loft is at least half of it and it is the half most often skipped. From inside you can see the underlay condition, whether battens are sound, whether nails are corroded, whether there is daylight, and — importantly — whether there is condensation rather than ingress. A roof that looks perfect from the street can have torn felt, soft battens and rusted fixings, and none of that is visible from outside.
Outside, the survey follows the same order as a leak investigation because that is where failures cluster: the chimney and its flashings, the ridge and hips, the valleys, the abutments, the verges, then the general covering, then the rainwater goods. Each with photographs, because a report you cannot see the evidence for is an opinion.
What a good report says is what to do and when. Roofs rarely need everything at once, and the useful output is a triage: what is letting water in now, what will in the next year or two, and what is simply aged and worth budgeting for. That is far more useful to a homeowner or a purchaser than a single figure for replacing everything.
It is also the honest counter to doorstep selling. A written report with photographs, from somebody you approached, is the thing to hold up against an unsolicited claim that your roof needs urgent and expensive work. If you have had an alarming knock at the door, an independent survey is the cheapest money you will spend.
What the job covers
- External inspection from proper access, not from the ground
- Loft inspection — underlay, battens, fixings, timbers, ventilation
- Chimney, flashings, valleys, ridge, verges and rainwater goods
- Photographs of every defect identified
- A written report separating urgent, soon and eventual
- Indicative costs so the findings can actually be acted on
What it costs
We don't publish a price for this yet, because a number pulled out of the air is worse than no number at all — your roofer has to honour it. On roofing it would also be close to meaningless: access is often the biggest single factor, and it varies enormously house to house. You'll get a firm price for your actual job when they ring you back, before any work starts. The quote itself is free and there's no obligation either way.
Common questions
How is this different from my homebuyer's survey?
A homebuyer's survey is a generalist look that stops at 'further investigation recommended'. A roof survey answers the questions that leaves open: repairable or life-expired, what needs doing now, and roughly what it costs. It involves getting onto the roof and into the loft, which a homebuyer's surveyor generally does not do.
Do you have to go in the loft?
Yes, and a survey that does not is missing half the picture. Underlay condition, batten softness, nail corrosion, daylight and condensation are all only visible from inside. A roof that looks perfect from the street can be at the end of its life underneath, and it is the loft that tells you.
Will you quote for the work you find?
You will get indicative costs so the report is actionable, and a proper quote if you want the work. But the report is the report — it says what it says whether or not you use us, and a survey that only ever finds work worth doing is not a survey.
Someone knocked and said my roof is dangerous. Should I get a survey?
Yes, and it is the cheapest money in this whole subject. An independent written report with photographs, from somebody you chose to contact, is the direct answer to an unsolicited alarming diagnosis. A great many roofs that 'needed urgent work' according to a doorstep caller needed a morning's repair or nothing at all.
Need this doing in Macclesfield?
Tell us the job and it goes straight to our local roofer — one call back, usually the same day. Free quote, no obligation.