Roof Inspection near you

The RICS Home Survey Standard exists to set a clear framework of minimum expectations for residential property survey services, and it describes three levels. Level 1 is the most basic, an initial assessment of the property's condition. Level 2 is the middle option and is offered either as a survey on its own or as a combined survey and valuation. Level 3 is the most detailed inspection and analysis. The new reports became mandatory for RICS members from 1 September 2021, after a transition period that ran from 1 March to 31 August 2021, and members require a Home Surveys Licence to produce them.

For a roof specifically, the level decides how much you learn. A lower-level survey is looking at a whole house and will describe the roof in general terms from what can be seen; a Level 3 inspection goes further into condition and into why something has happened. What no residential survey does by default is walk the covering, so if you want the roof itself examined closely you are usually commissioning a separate piece of work.

A roofing contractor's inspection is a different product. It will normally be more specific about slates, flashings, valleys and the roof space, and may include photographs from a ladder, a tower or a drone. Its weakness is independence: a free inspection offered by a firm that wants the contract is a sales visit with a useful technical content, and it is worth treating it as such rather than as a second opinion.

A drone carrying a camera is an aircraft in law, and the Civil Aviation Authority's Open category rules apply whether the flight is a hobby or a paid survey. Registration comes first: a Flyer ID is required if the aircraft weighs 100 grams or more, and an Operator ID is required if it weighs 100 grams or more and has a camera. Flying without them is against the law and can bring a fine or imprisonment.

The Open category is divided into subcategories by how close to people the aircraft may go. In A1, over people, you may fly closer to people than 50 metres horizontally and over people who are not involved, and you may operate in residential, recreational, commercial or industrial areas. In A3, far from people, you must not fly closer to uninvolved people than 50 metres horizontally, must not fly closer to residential, recreational, commercial or industrial areas than 150 metres horizontally, and must not fly closer to individual buildings than 50 metres. Both limit the flight to 120 metres, or 400 feet, in height. A2 sits between them and requires a competency certificate obtained by examination.

Read those numbers against a roof survey and the point becomes obvious: an A3 aircraft cannot lawfully be used to photograph a house in a street, because a house in a street is a residential area and the aircraft would be within 50 metres of an individual building. That is why a professional drone roof survey is flown either with an aircraft small and light enough for A1, or under an A2 certificate, or under an operational authorisation in the Specific category. Ask which, and ask to see it, before booking.

A useful report is explicit about its own limits. It should state what was inspected, from where, and with what equipment; what was not inspected and why, which on most roofs includes anything under the covering and anything that could not be safely reached; the date, the weather, and whether the roof was wet. Photographs should be dated and located, not a generic gallery. Recommendations should be separated by urgency, and the report should distinguish between what the inspector saw and what he infers from it.

What no inspection can do is guarantee that the roof will not leak. A visual survey finds visible defects on the day; it does not open up the construction, and a great deal of what goes wrong on a British roof is concealed by the covering. That is why a report that reads as reassurance rather than description is worth less than one that lists the uncertainties.

If the inspection is by an RICS member, ask which survey level you are buying and read the description of that level before you agree the fee, because the difference between levels is the difference between a condition summary and an analysis. If it is by a contractor, ask straight out whether the inspection is free because the firm wants the work, and get the fee and the independence position settled in advance.

Inspections are priced on access, depth and liability. What moves the figure is how the roof will be reached and whether a tower, a scaffold or a drone is involved, whether the roof space can be entered and how easily, the size and complexity of the building, the level of survey being bought and therefore how much analysis rather than description you get, how quickly the report is needed, and whether the inspector is carrying professional indemnity for advice you will act on. An independent report costs more than a free visit from a firm hoping to quote, and that difference is the product.

LokalMatch is the introduction, not the surveyor. Describe the building and what you want to know once, with your postcode, and surveyors and roofing firms working in your area get in touch with you directly. There is no charge to homeowners for posting a request; the businesses pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not inspect roofs, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone who replies, so asking what qualifications, what survey level and what insurance stand behind the report is a question only you can put.