Roof survey report: what it should contain (with example)

A roof survey report is the document a roofer or roof surveyor hands over after inspecting a roof. It tells the owner what the roof is made of, what condition each part is in, what needs doing and how urgently, and roughly what that will cost. It is read by people who will never go up a ladder: homeowners, landlords, block managers, solicitors and, sometimes, insurers.

This guide sets out what a good one contains, section by section, with the wording we use on real reports. If you are a roofer writing your first report, work through it in order. If you are a homeowner or manager who has just received one, use it to check whether the report you paid for does its job. A complete ten-page example is at the end.

What a roof survey report is, and what it is not

It is a condition report on one part of a building, written by someone who knows roofs and will usually quote for any work it recommends. That last point matters: the report has to stand on its own, so that the customer can take it to another roofer and get a like-for-like price. A report that only makes sense with its author's quote attached is a sales letter, not a survey.

It is not a quote. A quote prices a job; a report describes a roof. Many firms issue both, and the better ones keep them as separate documents so the customer can accept the findings without accepting the price. There is more on that split in roofing quote vs survey report.

It is not a RICS Home Survey either. A chartered surveyor's Level 2 or Level 3 report covers the whole house for a buyer, usually from the ground and the loft hatch, and grades each element 1 to 3 without costs. A roof survey report covers the roof only, from the roof, in far more detail and usually with indicative costs. The two often sit side by side when a buyer's survey says "roof: further investigation by a roofing contractor".

The sections, in the order the reader expects

Most UK roof reports follow the same order, and customers who have seen one before know where to look. The table below is the order we use; the rest of this guide takes each in turn.

Section	What it is for
Cover	Who wrote it, for whom, about which property
Cover letter	Date, weather, access, scope, a short plain-English introduction
Report structure and repair categories	Explains Cat 1, 2 and 3 before the customer meets them
One section per roof area	Description, recommendation, category, photos, indicative cost
Summary	The roof in one paragraph
Recommended works	Every costed item in one table with a total
Disclaimer and acceptance	What the report is and is not, and a place to sign
Back page	Your contact details and registrations

1. The cover

The cover carries your logo and company name, the words Roof Survey Report (or Roof Condition Report; both are in use), the full property address including postcode, the client's name, the date of the survey and the name of the surveyor. Get the address exactly right, flat number and all: a block manager may hold reports on forty properties and will file yours by the address line.

2. The cover letter

A short letter on the second page does three things. It records the facts of the visit: the date, the weather at the time (wet slates look different from dry ones, and a dry day tells you nothing about leaks), who carried out the survey and how the roof was accessed (ladder, scaffold tower, drone, from the loft, from a neighbouring property). It states the scope: which roofs and elevations were covered and which were not. And it introduces the report in plain words.

A typical introduction reads:

Further to our visit on 14 October, please find our report on the roof at the above address. The survey was visual and carried out from ladders to the eaves and from within the roof space. Each roof area is described separately below with our recommendation and an indicative cost where work is advised. Please call if anything in the report is unclear.

Keep it warm and brief. The customer should feel they have been written to, not processed.

3. Repair categories, explained before they are used

Nearly every UK roof report grades each area into one of three categories, and the grade is the first thing most customers read. The standard wording is:

• Category 1 (green): no immediate action or repair is needed.
• Category 2 (amber): repairs or replacement requiring future attention, but estimates are still advised.
• Category 3 (red): urgent repairs or replacements are needed now. Failure to deal with them may cause problems in other parts of the property or cause a safety hazard.

Put the definitions on their own page before the first area, so nobody has to guess what "Cat 2" means halfway through. The same page usually carries the limitations notice: that the report is an opinion based on a visual inspection on the day, that hidden parts of the structure were not opened up, and that it is not a guarantee. There is a fuller treatment, with real examples of each grade, in roof survey categories explained.

4. One section per roof area

This is the body of the report and where most of the value sits. Split the roof into areas the customer can picture: front pitch, rear pitch, chimney stacks, rear flat roof, dormer, valley, gutters and downpipes. One area per section, and a new area always starts on a new page. Each section has the same five parts.

Area name

Plain and specific. "Main roof, front pitch" beats "Elevation A". If a single pitch has a sound covering and a failing chimney, split it into two areas so each carries its own grade and cost.

Description

What the area is made of and what you found. Numbers beat adjectives: "fourteen slipped slates on the lower courses" can be priced and checked; "quite a few slipped" cannot. Name materials properly (Scotch slate, concrete interlocking tile, torch-on felt, Code 4 lead) because the next roofer will read it. Say what you could not see.

From our sample report, the chimney stacks:

The render on the front stacks has cracked and come away in places, leaving the brickwork exposed to the weather, and there is open jointing to the upper courses. The lead flashings at the base of the rear stack have lifted and no longer form a proper seal against the slates.

Recommendation

What you would do about it, in the order you would do it, and nothing you did not see a reason for. The recommendation for the stacks above:

Hack off the defective render and re-render both front stacks with a bellcast drip, repoint the open joints, and renew the lead flashings and soakers to the rear stack in Code 4 lead.

Category

One grade per area, shown as a coloured badge beside the recommendation. The stacks are Category 3: water is getting in now and loose render is a falling hazard.

Photographs

Two to five per area, captioned, kept on the same page as the words they support. One wide shot that shows where the area is on the roof, then close-ups of the defects. A circle or arrow drawn on the photo saves a paragraph. Never let a photo drift onto the next page away from its area; a reader who turns the page and finds a picture of a gutter under a heading about a chimney stops trusting the report.

Indicative cost

A range, not a quote: "£1,800 to £2,400 for the two stacks". It lets the customer budget and prioritise without binding you before you have measured and priced properly. If your firm prefers to keep prices in the quote, leave the costs off, but say so in the cover letter so the customer does not think they were forgotten.

5. The summary

One paragraph, after the last area, that says what the roof is like overall and what matters most. A customer who reads nothing else should be able to read this and the categories and know what to do:

The main slated roof is serviceable but tired, with nail fatigue showing on the front pitch; re-slating should be budgeted for within ten to fifteen years. The chimney stacks need attention now. The rear flat roof is in good order and needs only routine clearing of the outlet.

6. Recommended works and costs

A table with one row per costed area: the area, the work, the category and the indicative range, with a total at the bottom. It is the page the customer photographs and sends to their partner, and the page a block manager puts in front of the committee. Keep the rows in priority order, Category 3 first.

7. Disclaimer and acceptance

The disclaimer says, in a few sentences, that the report is the surveyor's opinion from a visual inspection on the day, that concealed parts were not inspected, that costs are indicative and that the report is not a warranty of the roof's condition. It protects you and it sets the customer's expectations.

An acceptance page gives the customer somewhere to sign that they have received and read the report, and often that they instruct the recommended works. The surveyor signs too. A report that comes back signed is worth a great deal more than one that was emailed and forgotten; on a phone, the customer can sign on screen the day it arrives.

8. The back page

Your address, phone, email and website, and any registrations that matter to the customer: NFRC membership, a competent person scheme, insurance-backed guarantee providers. Only name the ones you actually hold.

A complete example

The easiest way to judge a report is to read a good one. Our sample roof survey report is a ten-page report on a fictional Edinburgh tenement with real photographs: a Category 3 chimney stack, a Category 2 front pitch and a Category 1 flat roof, with the summary, costed works table and acceptance page. Every page is explained, and you can download the PDF to compare against your own.

If you would rather start from a blank document, the free roof survey report template has the same pages in Word and PDF with the category wording already in place, and there is a section-by-section explanation of it in the roof inspection report template guide.

The faults we see most often

The same problems come up again and again in other firms' reports: no categories, so the customer cannot tell the urgent from the cosmetic; photographs in a block at the back with no captions; descriptions that are really recommendations ("needs re-slating") with no account of what was seen; a single lump sum with no breakdown; no statement of what was not inspected; and reports that arrive a fortnight after the visit. Each is a structure problem, not a writing problem. Fix the structure and the writing mostly follows.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a roof survey report be?

Long enough to cover every roof area with its own description, recommendation, grade and photographs, and no longer. A three-bedroom semi usually comes out at eight to twelve pages including photographs. A tenement or a block with several roofs can run to thirty. Padding with generic text about roofing is the quickest way to lose the reader.

Should a roof report include prices?

It should include indicative ranges, unless your firm has a clear reason not to. Owners and managers need to budget and prioritise, and a report with grades but no figures leaves them phoning you anyway. Make clear in the disclaimer that the figures are indicative and a full quotation follows.

Who can write a roof survey report?

There is no licence for it. In practice the people who write them are roofing contractors, roof surveyors and some building surveyors. What gives a report weight is the detail in it: materials named, defects counted, photographs captioned, limitations stated. Registrations such as NFRC membership help, but only if they are genuinely held.

How quickly should the report reach the customer?

The same day if you can, and certainly within two working days. The findings are freshest, the customer is most engaged and the next roofer has not yet been round. Writing the report on site, while the roof is in front of you, is the simplest way to achieve that.

What to do next

If you are writing reports, take the structure above onto the next roof and fill it in area by area, with photographs as you go. Docutrades is roof survey software that does exactly that on a phone and produces the branded PDF, graded and costed, before you are back in the van; you can start a free trial without a card. If you have received a report, hold it against this list and ask the roofer about anything that is missing.