What should a roof inspection report include?

Start with what the report is about. It should give the address, the date of the visit and the type of roof, pitched or flat, and what covers it. Mixed roofs are common, with a tiled main roof and a felt or membrane extension, and each part needs its own entry so nothing is lumped together.

It should also say how the roof was viewed. Was it from the ground, a ladder, a drone or on the roof itself, and was the loft entered? That tells you what weight to give each finding. A report that never says how the roof was reached leaves you unsure whether the writer saw the ridge or only guessed at it. The weather on the day is worth recording as well, since rain or poor light limits what can be judged and a cautious report says so.

Photographs are the backbone of any report. Every defect named in the text should have a picture, and each picture should say where on the roof it was taken, such as the left-hand slope as you face the front, the hip beside the chimney, or the valley over the extension. A close shot of a cracked slate is useless without a wide one showing where it sits.

The photographs should be of your roof, taken for your report. Stock images prove nothing. You should be able to hold each paragraph against its picture and see the same thing. We send survey photographs of your own roof with the written quote, so the evidence and the price arrive together and you can check one against the other at your own pace.

Not every fault is equal, and a good report says so. A slipped tile above a bedroom is urgent in a way that a mossy north slope is not. The defects should be sorted into what needs fixing now, what to mend soon and what to keep an eye on, each with a reason and not just a label in the margin.

Avoid reports that list twenty items with the same weight. They bury the one fault that is causing your leak. The ordering should also say which problems are linked: a failed flashing and the stained ceiling beneath it belong in one entry. If the report finds nothing wrong, it should still list what was checked, so that a clean result means something and is not just an empty page.

After the findings comes the call. A report should reach a conclusion on the roof as a whole: choose between a proper repair, a stop-gap patch or a new covering, and give the reasons. It should not recommend a new roof simply because that is the larger job. If a repair will hold, the report should say so, and say how long you can reasonably expect it to last.

It should also name the work in everyday terms, such as renewing a length of lead flashing or re-fixing hip tiles with mechanical fixings, so you can set one opinion beside another. Our guide to a roof condition report covers how a report is used in a sale or purchase, which is where its wording matters most.

Read the report at a table, with the photographs beside the text. Mark any statement you cannot match to a picture and ask about it. Check that the address and roof type are right, because a report written about the wrong slope is worse than none.

Then look at the recommended work and ask what happens if you wait. A tidy report separates faults that will get worse quickly from those that can sit for a season. Keep a copy with your house papers. It becomes the starting point for the next inspection, and a dated record of the roof helps if you sell, if you claim on a policy, or if a dispute with a contractor ever arises.

A sound report states what it could not see. Hidden timbers, the underside of a flat roof deck and anything beneath a covering that was not lifted are outside what a visual check can judge. The report should say so instead of implying it saw everything.

Weak reports share a few tells: no photographs, no stated method, vague wording such as the roof is tired, and a price attached to nothing in particular. Ask for the findings in writing before you agree to any work. To see what a visit looks at, in order, read what a roof survey includes, and our main roof inspections page explains how the pieces fit into one visit and one set of findings.