Before Your Roofer Arrives

Why a bit of prep saves a lot of money

Roofing is the trade where you can see the least and pay the most. The roofer climbs up, takes some photos, comes down with an invoice. Thirty minutes of prep lets you see what they see — from the ground, safely — and means you can question the quote properly.

Two tools in particular change this: a decent pair of binoculars and a torch in the loft. Neither costs much and between them they cover 80% of what a roofer charges to find.

The 24-hour checklist

Run through these the day before the roofer is due. None of them require any skill beyond what a normal householder already has — but they collectively shave real money off the final invoice.

• Inspect the roof from the ground with binoculars. Walk around all sides of the house on a still, dry day. Look for slipped or missing tiles, gaps at ridge, lifted flashing at chimneys/abutments, cracked mortar on the ridge, daylight through the verge. Photograph anything you spot.
• Go into the loft in daylight. Any bright daylight through the roof deck (not just vents) means a hole. Any black/grey staining on rafters or felt is water history. Smell for damp. Look at the insulation for bird nests and droppings which suggest an access point.
• Check the gutters — from inside if possible. Blocked gutters cause 40% of 'leaking roof' call-outs. If you can see into the gutter from an upstairs window and it has a carpet of moss, your roofer's first job is a clean, not a repair.
• Photograph any visible internal damage. Staining on ceilings and walls, blown plaster, musty smells. Write the date each mark appeared if you can remember. Helps work out whether one big leak or many small ones.
• Check your insurance cover for storm damage. Most buildings policies cover storm-caused damage but not gradual wear. If the roofer finds storm damage, get this written up separately for a claim.
• Clear access to the loft hatch and around the house. Roofers may need to get into the loft to check where water is tracking. Move whatever is in front of the hatch now.
• Think about scaffold access. For anything more than a single tile replacement, the roofer needs either a tower scaffold or full scaffolding. Ground access matters — overhanging trees, raised flower beds, conservatories and cars in the way. Be honest about access constraints before the quote visit.
• Note the age of the roof if you know it. Most UK pitched roofs last 60-80 years for slate, 40-50 for concrete tiles. If yours is over 50 and has had multiple repairs, ask the roofer for a lifespan opinion before spending on more patches.

Tools worth having ready

These are the things the roofer will either ask for, borrow, or charge you labour to go fetch. Keeping a small dedicated set in a cupboard means you never lose the 20 minutes that turn into the next half-hour block on the invoice. All prices move, so we link to live Amazon UK searches rather than fixed ASINs.

Questions to ask when they arrive

Asked politely on the doorstep, these five or six questions filter out 90% of the problems that turn into complaints later. A professional will welcome them; a cowboy will get irritated.

• What type of felt/underlay is under my tiles? Bitumen (black 1f) has a 40-year lifespan. Breather membrane (white/grey woven) lasts 60+. It changes the repair-vs-replace conversation.
• Can I have before-and-after photos from on the roof? Standard practice in 2026. Roofers with a smartphone should be photographing the issue, the repair in progress and the finished area. Insist on receiving them by email the same evening.
• Is the repair area sharing the same failure mode as the rest of the roof? If one ridge tile has failed because of bitumen-bedding age, the other 15 are all the same age. Ask whether a patch is a false economy.
• What warranty do you offer on workmanship? 10-year workmanship on a full re-roof, 1-2 years on spot repairs is typical. Materials warranties (Marley, Redland, Cupa) are separate.
• Are you a member of CORC, NFRC or RoofCERT? All three are industry bodies with complaint processes. Membership is not mandatory but a badge to look for.
• Do you use safety nets or fall-arrest for this scale of work? Any job over 3m needs proper fall protection under HSE rules. A 'we don't bother for small jobs' response is a flag.

Red flags during the visit

If you see any of these on the day, slow things down. You are not obliged to let anyone continue work you are uncomfortable with — even if they've already been there an hour.

• 'Found another problem while I was up there' — with no photo. Classic up-sell. A real additional fault is easy to photograph. If the roofer can't show you, it probably does not exist.
• Suggesting a full re-roof after a 10-minute inspection. Large-scale replacement usually follows a proper core sample or multiple lift-and-check spots. An instant re-roof quote on a standard pitched house is a sales pattern.
• They won't use scaffold for a full day's work. Ladder-and-harness is fine for a single slipped tile. For anything above a few hours on the same roof, proper scaffold is not optional — it is HSE rules.
• Cold-callers offering 'free roof surveys'. Overwhelmingly, these are sales routes for mis-sold coatings (£5-10k sprays with no real benefit). Legitimate roofers come because you called them.

What to do after the visit

The paperwork and follow-up is where homeowners most often lose money — warranties unregistered, certificates not received, insurance claims unfiled. Run through this list before you pay the final invoice.

• Collect before/during/after photos by email.
• Get a written warranty: length, what is covered, who honours it if the firm closes (the federation scheme, usually).
• Keep receipts for insurance — storm-damage claims often arrive 6-12 months later when the ceiling plaster finally blows.
• For full re-roofs, check the building control completion cert (replacing more than 25% of a roof is notifiable).
• Book a gutter-clean reminder for 12 months — the single best thing you can do to protect a roof is keep the water running off it.

Find a roofer in Kent

• Roofers in Kent — county-level directory
• Roofers in Maidstone
• Roofers in Canterbury
• Roofers in Dartford
• Roofers in Tunbridge Wells
• Roofers in Ashford

Related guides

• How to Choose a Roofer — the sister guide to this one, covering qualifications, quoting and insurance.
• Trade Shop — curated tools and homeowner kit, by category.
• All Guides — every NearbyTraders homeowner guide, in one place.