Roof Survey and Written Report in Manchester

Why the survey flagged your roof

A homebuyer survey is not a roof inspection. The surveyor works from the ground and the loft hatch, does not go onto the roof, is looking at a whole house in one visit, and is writing a document they can be held to for years. So the language is cautious by design, and a roof in ordinary condition for its age routinely comes back with the worst of the three condition ratings and a line telling you to get a specialist opinion. That line is doing its job: it is not a verdict on your roof, it is an instruction to have one done.

What you can check before you pay anybody

Do this first, because it costs nothing. Go into the loft on a bright day, turn the light off and let your eyes adjust. Pinpricks of daylight through the covering are normal on an old slate roof and are not normal on a tiled one. Dark staining down a rafter, damp felt, or a wet patch on the boarding beside the chimney tell you where water is getting in, and where is far more useful than how much. Then look along the ridge line from across the road, because a dip in it is a different and more serious conversation. If none of that is there and the survey still flagged it, you are probably looking at something local rather than something terminal.

What it costs you to get the answer wrong

It goes wrong in both directions and only one gets talked about. Leave it unresolved and your sale takes the damage, because a buyer handed a cautious paragraph and no answer will assume the worst, and then either the price moves or the chain does. Act on the wrong answer and you have paid for a full reroof on a roof that needed a handful of components replacing. A report that says what is up there and how soon it matters settles both.

The report, and what is in it

We look at the covering, the ridges and verges, the valleys, the flashings and the stack, the gutters, fascias and soffits, and the loft side wherever it can be reached. Then you get it in writing: what is up there, what condition each part is in, what needs doing, in what order and how urgently. Just as importantly, what does not need doing, because on most roofs that is the half you are paying to find out. It is written for somebody who is not a roofer, so you can hand it to a buyer, a solicitor or another roofer without translating it.

A second opinion on somebody else's quote

If you have been told the roof needs stripping, the useful question is whether the covering has reached the end of its life or whether a number of components have failed. Those are two very different bills and the honest answer is not always the larger one. We will look and tell you which we think you have, and we will tell you when the quote you are holding looks fair. Anything you then want putting right is a free written quote, separate from the report.

What we are looking at on Manchester housing

The answer usually turns on what the roof is made of. A century old Welsh slate roof with nail sickness alarms everybody, because slates slip in batches rather than one at a time. Sometimes that roof is finished, and sometimes one elevation is sound and only the weather side has gone. The interwar and post war semis are concrete interlocking tile, and there the question is whether the tile itself has gone porous and chalky, which is terminal, or whether it is only the bedded ridge and the lead at the stack, which is not. A report also has to state plainly what is happening on a shared stack, because half of it belongs to next door and that changes who pays.

Structure is not our call

There is one thing we will not do. If we find a dipped ridge, rafters that have spread, or a purlin that has moved, we write down what we can see and we stop there. That is a question for a structural engineer and building control, not for a roofer, and any report telling you what to do about a moving roof structure without one is worth nothing. A rotten rafter foot where a gutter has been overflowing is normal roofing and we deal with it. Anything holding the roof up is not ours to rule on.

What the survey costs and what changes it

We do not publish prices anywhere on this site, including here. What we do instead is tell you the figure before the survey is booked, in writing, so there is nothing to discover afterwards. What changes it is the size of the roof and the number of elevations, the height and how it has to be reached, whether the loft is accessible, and whether you want the whole roof reported on or a second opinion on one quote, which is smaller work. Set against a decision about a reroof, or a sale price moving, it is the smallest number in the conversation and the only one that buys an answer rather than an opinion. A quote for work is a different thing and it stays free: if you want a repair priced, that is a free written quote and always will be. The survey is what you pay for when the answer itself is the product, including on the days when the answer is that your roof is fine.

Frequently Asked Questions

My homebuyer survey flagged the roof. Does that mean it needs replacing?

Usually not. Surveyors write cautiously and inspect from a distance, and a roof in normal condition for its age gets flagged as a matter of routine. It means somebody should look properly, which is exactly what a roof survey is for.

Do I actually need a survey?

Often not, and we would rather you kept the money. If two roofers have both been up and broadly agree, a third opinion is unlikely to tell you anything new. A survey earns its keep when the quotes disagree, when nobody has been on the roof, or when a sale is riding on the answer.

Is the survey free?

No. A quote for work we would carry out is a free written quote and stays free. A survey and a written report is a piece of work in its own right, because you may be paying us to tell you to do nothing, and nobody can give that answer away. Dave tells you the figure before it is booked.

Can I use the report to get money off the purchase price?

You can show it to anybody you like. What it will not do is tell you what to pay for the house, because that is not a roofing question. It says what is on the roof and what needs doing; what you and your solicitor do with that is yours.

Will you tell me the other roofer is wrong?

Only if he is. We are not in the business of running other firms down to win work, and plenty of the quotes people bring us are reasonable for the roof they describe. If yours is one of those we will say so, and you will have paid us for that sentence.