Why the survey won't save you
Mortgage valuations barely glance at the roof, and even a full homebuyer's survey is usually done from the ground with binoculars — surveyors rarely climb. "Roof appears in serviceable condition; further investigation recommended" is doing a lot of work in a lot of survey reports. Given that a full re-roof on a London terrace runs £6,000–£15,000+, the roof deserves ten minutes of your own attention and, if anything looks off, a proper check before you exchange.
What to check from the street
- The roofline itself — a sagging ridge or a visible dip in a slope suggests timber trouble underneath.
- Slipped, cracked or mismatched slates — a scatter of new-looking patches means the roof has been nursed along; ask for the invoices.
- The chimneys — leaning stacks, crumbling pointing, vegetation growing out of the brickwork, cracked flaunching around the pots.
- Gutters and walls — green staining down the brickwork, plants growing in the gutter, tide marks under the eaves. On East London terraces, remember the parapet and valley gutters you can't see from the street at all.
- Moss — a thick carpet holds water against the covering and hints at a roof that hasn't been looked after.
What to check in the loft
Take a torch to the viewing. Daylight through the covering, watermarks or dark staining on the timbers, crumbling or missing felt (plenty of Victorian roofs never had any), damp or compressed insulation, and any smell of damp on a dry day. Five minutes in the loft tells you more than any amount of squinting from the pavement.
East London specifics
Victorian terraces here often carry "London" or butterfly roofs — hidden behind the front parapet, draining to a central valley gutter you cannot see from anywhere but the roof itself. They fail silently and expensively, and they're exactly what surveyors' binoculars miss. Warehouse conversions and flats add another question: who owns the roof, and when was the flat covering last renewed? Ask for the maintenance history before you fall in love with the exposed brick.
The pre-purchase roof check
For the price of a modest survey extra, we'll inspect the roof properly — photos of everything, a plain-English report of what it needs now versus what can wait, and rough costs for both. If the roof needs £8,000 of work, that's not necessarily a reason to walk away: it's a written, evidenced number to renegotiate with. Buyers save multiples of the check's cost more often than not — and if the roof turns out to be sound, that's worth knowing too.
Viewing something this week? Call 020 4578 5836 and we'll usually fit a pre-purchase check around your timetable.