On a viewing, the kitchen and the garden get the attention. The roof sits forty feet above both, and it quietly decides whether you spend the first year decorating or the first year on scaffolding. You cannot inspect a roof properly from the pavement, but you can learn a surprising amount in ten minutes with a pair of binoculars and a clear head.
This guide is written for the buyer before purchase. It covers what to look at from outside, what to ask inside, the particular points on stone and listed roofs around Stroud, what a homebuyer survey will and will not tell you, and when to bring in a roofer before contracts are exchanged. It is general guidance, not a substitute for a surveyor's report on the specific house. If you are on the other side of the sale, our guide for sellers covers whether to fix the roof first.
Reading the roof from the lane
Start across the road, not under the eaves. From a distance the roof's overall shape tells you more than any single tile does, and problems that vanish up close show up as a line or a dip.
The ridge line
Where the two slopes of a roof join at the top, the crest is the ridge, and from across the road it should read as a straight edge against the sky. A sag or a kink suggests that the timbers underneath have moved, or that the roof has been carrying more weight than it was built for. A dip in a slope, as opposed to the ridge, can point the same way.
Slipped, cracked and missing covering
Look for tiles or slates that sit lower than their neighbours, show a gap, or have a visible crack. On a slate roof a line of tails that wanders is a sign of nail sickness, where the fixings corrode and slates slide. On a stone roof the pegs are the equivalent. One or two slipped pieces after a gale are a modest repair; a broad scatter across a slope suggests the covering as a whole is tiring.
Colour and growth
Moss and lichen turn up on shaded slopes and, taken alone, are no cause for alarm. Mention anything you notice to the agent, who can pass questions on to the seller. Thick moss that holds water against the covering, or bare patches where granules have worn away, deserve a closer look. Our moss removal page explains what cleaning does and does not fix.
Photograph the roof from several angles on your first viewing. You will want those pictures when you compare notes with a surveyor later.
Chimneys, flashings, verges and the roofline
The details matter more than the field of the roof, because they are where water usually finds its way in.
Chimney stacks
Check that the brickwork or stone looks even, the mortar joints are intact, and the stack stands upright. Crumbling pointing, a leaning stack or a cracked flaunching (the mortar bed that seats the pots on top of the stack) are all worth noting. If the chimney is no longer used, ask whether the flue has been capped and ventilated. MyBuilder's 2026 chimney guide gives repointing as about £750 on average, with a range of £500 to £2,000, and a full stack rebuild at £2,000 to £10,000 or more, so a stack in poor shape can change what a house is worth to you.
Flashings and valleys
Flashings are metal strips, usually lead, dressed into the joint between a roof and an abutting wall or chimney to keep rain out of it. Look for gaps, lifted edges or smears of sealant, which often signal a patch rather than a repair. Valleys, the inward corners where two slopes drain into a single channel, should be clear of leaves and silt.
Verges and ridges
At a gable end the roof stops at the verge, and the edge should finish cleanly. Ridge and hip pieces should sit evenly too, with mechanical fixings on newer work. In MyBuilder's figures, putting ridge tiles back on fresh mortar or fitting new ones comes to about £300 to £600.
The roofline
Fascias, soffits and gutters make up the roofline. Look for sagging gutters, stained walls below joints, peeling or rotten boards and gaps at the eaves. Our page on guttering, soffits and fascias covers what repair involves.
Flat roofs, extensions and the loft
A flat roof on an extension or garage often has a shorter life than the pitched roof above it. Ask when it was last recovered, and look for ponding (standing water), blistering, splits at the edges and a covering that is lifting at the upstand where it meets a wall. Typical lifespans vary widely by material, from 10 to 20 years for built-up felt to 20 to 30 years or more for EPDM, and the condition of the deck underneath matters as much as the covering.
Inside the loft
Ask to see the loft, and take a torch. Look for daylight where there should be none, damp patches or dark staining on the timber, wet or compressed insulation, and rafters that look bowed or cracked. A musty smell and condensation on the underside of the roof covering point to poor ventilation.
Spray foam
If the underside of the roof has been sprayed with foam insulation, ask for any paperwork. The RICS published a consumer guide on spray foam in March 2023 and says incorrect installation can lead to dampness. In November 2024 a BBC investigation found some lenders declining homes with spray foam while others judged each case separately, as Today's Conveyancer reported. Speak to your lender and insurer early, not after an offer is accepted. Our spray foam removal page covers the next steps.
Garage roofs and old sheeting
A garage with corrugated cement sheeting may contain asbestos. Intact sheet that is carefully handled is treated as non-licensed work under Health and Safety Executive guidance, but do not disturb it, and ask what a removal would involve.
Buying a stone, slate or listed roof in the Five Valleys
Many houses in the Five Valleys have stone or slate roofs. They can last a very long time, but they cost more to repair than concrete tile, and any repair has to match the building. Cotswold District Council's technical guidance says a maintained Cotswold roof can last well over a century, and records that a sizeable share of slates are often found perished once a stone roof is stripped. The owner of an unmaintained roof may be facing a re-lay. Our buying a house with a stone roof page goes deeper.
What to look for
On stone, look at whether the slates graduate from large at the eaves to small at the ridge, as they should, and whether any have been replaced with sawn stone or a different material. Look for cracked or delaminating slates, missing pegs and a ridge that has been re-pointed in the wrong colour mortar. On slate, check the nail fixings and the lead flashings.
Listed houses
If the house is listed, the whole building is protected, and consent is needed for alterations affecting its character. A previous owner who changed the roof without consent leaves the problem with you. Ask the seller what consent was obtained, and check Stroud District Council's records. For conservation areas and the Cotswolds National Landscape, see planning permission for roof work.
Previous work and paperwork
Ask for any building control completion certificates, planning decisions and guarantees. If a roof was re-covered recently, the paperwork should show whether the work needed approval under the Building Regulations. Our guide to roof Building Regulations shows what to expect.
What a homebuyer survey will and will not say
A homebuyer survey from a chartered surveyor is a good step before purchase, and it will comment on the roof. The surveyor reports on whatever is visible from the ground, from windows and from any safe access, and reports on its condition in general terms. Where a roof cannot be reached, the report usually says so and may recommend further investigation. Read those limits closely, because a sentence such as roof not inspected closely is a prompt to ask someone who can.
What the report is good for
A survey will usually flag visible defects, signs of damp, the type of covering, evidence of past movement and anything that looks unusual. It places the roof in context with the rest of the building and gives you a footing for negotiation, which is useful when the price already feels stretched.
What it does not do
It is not a roofer's inspection. It does not normally lift tiles, walk the slopes, test flashings or give you a priced repair schedule. It cannot tell you how many years a covering has left; that turns on how the roof was laid and looked after. And it does not take the place of an invitation to inspect the loft if the vendor has restricted access.
If the survey raises a concern, the conveyancing timetable matters. A roofer's visit takes far less time than waiting for a seller's builder, and having numbers in hand lets you renegotiate on firm ground.
When to ask a roofer before you exchange
Three signals justify a roofer's visit before exchange: the survey recommends further investigation of the roof, you see defects from outside that you cannot judge, or the roof is stone, slate, lead or flat and you want to price its likely future before you commit.
What we do on a pre-purchase visit
With the seller's agreement we survey from the ground, the ladders and the loft where access allows, photograph your prospective roof, and give you a written description of what we find. A standard roof inspection runs about £150 to £250 according to MyBuilder's 2026 guide, with drone surveys at £200 to £400 and thermal surveys at £300 to £500. Our roof inspection and survey service explains what each includes.
Access on hillside streets
Many Stroud houses sit on steep lanes and terraces where ladders and scaffold are hard to place. That affects both the survey and the cost of any work, and it is worth knowing before you buy. Our guide to hillside roof access explains how we plan it into a quote.
Using the result
A priced report lets you ask for a reduction, a repair before completion or a retention, and it gives you a maintenance plan to start with, such as our roof maintenance checklist. Once you own the house, any work we do carries our written 10-year workmanship guarantee and a written quote. See our roofing services in Stroud for the full range.