What people ask a roofer, answered

Because water that gets past a roof runs along battens, rafters and the top of a wall before it shows, sometimes a metre or two from where it got in. That is why a survey starts at the ridge and follows the water down, junction by junction, instead of patching the slates above the stain.

Where the rain goes

Yes. Water after every shower points to an open course or a split in the lead; water only in heavy rain points to a gutter or outlet that fills and overflows; water when the wind is from one side points to a flashing or a verge on that side; water after snow or a freeze points to ice holding melt water in a valley or a parapet gutter. The booking form asks this for that reason.

The junctions: the back gutter behind a chimney stack, the valley between two slopes, the parapet gutter hidden behind the front wall, and the outlet and hopper where all of that water leaves. Each has its own page section and drawing on the junctions page.

The six junctions

We arrive within the half-day’s window, look at the roof from the street, from the loft and, where the weather and the access allow, from a roof ladder or a tower, and photograph every junction the water could be using. Afterwards you receive the findings with the photographs and a written, itemised scope of what the roof needs.

Book a survey half-day

Someone over 18 needs to be in for the half-day, with the loft hatch reachable. In a house divided into flats the top flat has to agree to the visit. Nobody is ever asked to go onto the roof; photos for the booking are taken from inside or from the street.

In light rain, yes: it shows where the water goes. Nobody goes up a ladder or onto a tower in strong wind, on ice or in a downpour. If the day rules that part out, the look from the street and from the loft still happens, and you choose another half-day for the rest on the manage page.

On the manage page, with the reference you were given and the email you booked with, at any time before the day. Moving frees your old half-day for someone else; cancelling deletes your details and photos at once.

Check, move or cancel a survey

It depends on the building and the work. Repairs and like-for-like re-covering are not development; a dormer, a rooflight or a covering that looks different can need planning permission; re-covering half a roof or more, or with a covering 15% or more heavier, needs a building-control application. The permissions checker applies those rules to your answers and the survey confirms them on the roof. Where an application is needed, we make it before work starts.

Check which permissions apply

In a house divided into flats, the freeholder or the managing agent decides on roof work, and the leases say how it is shared. A valley, parapet or stack that straddles the party line belongs in the same repair as the neighbour’s half, and work that touches a party wall needs the owner’s notice to the neighbours, at least two months ahead unless they agree in writing.

No. After the survey you receive a written quote with the scope: which parts of the roof, which materials, what access and in what order. Nothing is payable that the written quote does not name, and anything found once the roof is open is reported to you before any work beyond the scope.

Terms of business

Yes. Every householder has 14 days from the day the contract is made to cancel it. Work starts inside those 14 days only if you ask for that in writing; if you then cancel, you pay only for the part of the work already done. The law leaves out one case: a visit you asked us to make to carry out an urgent repair has no 14-day cancellation period.

Cancelling a contract

The sound ones, yes. The covering comes off course by course, and slates without cracks, delamination or worn nail holes are sorted and stacked on the scaffold for re-use. Where more are needed they are matched to the old ones, natural slate for natural slate.

Not wherever fire risk cannot be ruled out. Flat roofs are covered in EPDM, GRP or a reinforced bitumen membrane, and where a torch could reach timber, insulation or a neighbour’s roof, the method is chosen so that no flame is needed.

Reusable slates are kept for the roof. The rest is taken away by a registered waste carrier, with a waste transfer note for the job. Old fibre-cement roofing on extensions and garages is treated as containing asbestos until a test shows otherwise, and is not broken up or cut.