Guides

How to write a roof survey report (UK, with real examples)

A roof survey report has one job: let a customer who has never been on a roof decide what to do and instruct you to do it. This guide is written for the roofer or surveyor doing the writing, not the buyer. It goes from the notes you take on the roof to the page the customer signs, and shows the wording at each step from a real report.

1. Take notes you can write from, not notes you can remember from

The report is only as good as what you recorded on site. For each roof area, note four things before you move on: what it is made of, what is wrong with it, what you would do about it, and how urgent that is. Rough is fine. This is a real set of notes:

rear pitch scotch slate, 14 slipped lower courses, 9 cracked, nail sick, no ingress inside. lead valley 2 open laps + split soakers

Numbers beat adjectives. “14 slipped” can be priced and checked; “quite a few slipped” cannot. Take the photos while you are there, close enough to show the defect and one wider shot that shows where it is on the roof.

2. One section per roof area

Split the roof the way a customer would point at it: main roof front pitch, main roof rear pitch, chimney stacks, flat roof to the extension, lead valleys and flashings, gutters and downpipes, dormers, parapets. Each area gets its own section with the same four parts: a description of the condition, a recommendation, a category, and photos. Keep the order the same in every report you write; customers who receive a second report from you will know where to look.

3. Turn the notes into prose the customer can read

The notes above become this, without adding anything that was not seen:

“Original Scotch slate laid on timber sarking, approximately 40° pitch. Fourteen slipped slates to the lower three courses and nine cracked slates across the field, with corroded nails consistent with nail sickness. No evidence of water ingress internally. The central lead valley shows two open lap joints and split soakers.”

Three rules keep this honest. Use the material’s proper name (Scotch slate, torch-on felt, Code 4 lead) because the customer may show the report to another roofer. Say what you did not find as well as what you did (“no evidence of water ingress internally”). Never write a cause you did not see: “consistent with nail sickness” is what the corroded nails let you say; “the roof has nail sickness” is a diagnosis you would have to defend.

4. Recommend the work in the order you would do it

“Re-fix the slipped slates and replace the cracked ones with matching reclaimed Scotch slate. Re-nail the lower courses with copper nails. Re-dress the lead valley with new Code 5 lead and replace the split soakers.”

A recommendation is a scope of work, so write it like one: verb, element, material. If the customer could be sensible and do nothing for a while, say so and give the horizon (“budget for re-slating within ten to fifteen years”). That sentence is what separates a survey from a sales pitch.

5. Grade every area Cat 1, 2 or 3

UK roof reports use three categories, the same scheme as the Scottish Home Report’s repair categories. Cat 1: no immediate action. Cat 2: repairs or replacement needing future attention, estimates advised. Cat 3: urgent, or a safety hazard. One category per area, and put the definitions on a page near the front so nobody has to ask. The full wording, worked examples and how to decide borderline cases are in Cat 1, Cat 2 and Cat 3 explained.

6. Photos: with the area, captioned, never split from it

Up to five photos per area is plenty. Caption each one with what it shows and where (“Slipped slates, lower courses, front pitch”), not just “photo 3”. Mark the defect on the photo if it is small: a circle or an arrow. Keep the photos on the same page as the area’s text; a photo two pages away from its description is a photo the customer will not connect.

7. Indicative costs, a total, and what they are not

Give a range per area where you are willing to be held to it (£650 to £900 for the slate repairs above) and a total on the summary page. Call them indicative and say a written quotation follows. If you are not VAT registered, say so; if you are, say whether the figures include it. A report with costs gets instructed from; a report without costs gets a phone call asking for them.

8. The pages around the areas

• Cover and cover letter: the property, the client, the date, the weather, who surveyed it, and two sentences on what the report is.
• Categories and disclaimer: the three definitions, and a paragraph saying the report is an opinion from a visual inspection on the day, not a guarantee. Keep the disclaimer the same on every report.
• Summary: the roof in four sentences for the reader who reads nothing else, then the costed works table.
• Acceptance: a line the customer signs to accept the findings and, where costs are shown, to instruct the work subject to quotation. Your own signature and the dates beneath.

You can see all of these in place in the sample report, page by page.

9. Send it the same day

The report is most persuasive on the day of the visit, while the customer remembers you on the roof. A report written up three evenings later competes with two other quotes and a cooler memory. Whatever tool you use, aim to send before you are back in the van, and send a link the customer can read and sign on their phone rather than an attachment they need a laptop for.

A checklist to keep in the van

• Date, weather, surveyor, access used.
• Every roof area named, in the same order as last time.
• Per area: condition, recommendation, category, photos with captions.
• Materials named properly; causes only where seen.
• Costs as ranges, a total, VAT position stated.
• Category definitions and disclaimer near the front.
• Summary a stranger could act on.
• A place to sign.

Written and edited by the Docutrades team. The notes, prose and recommendation quoted are from a real survey used in the Docutrades demonstration; the sample report referenced is generated by the product. Drafted with the help of the same tidy-up tool the product uses, then checked and edited by a person. Published 20 September 2026.