The short answer
Check your roof from the ground after every winter and after any storm, and have a roofer look at it up close whenever something changes. Older roofs, flat roofs and roofs with lead need that closer look more often than a young tiled roof. The covering matters, but the age of the fixings and the gutters matter just as much.
Why a fixed calendar does not suit every roof
People like a neat answer, and the neat answer is a number of years. The trouble is that a roof is a set of parts that wear at different speeds. Natural slate can easily see out the iron nails pinning it down. A lead flashing can split long before the tiles around it are tired. A flat roof membrane ages according to the sun and the standing water it carries.
So the better question is what each part of your roof is doing and how much attention it needs. A young concrete tile roof with sound gutters will tell you little from one year to the next. A hundred-year-old stone tile roof with a parapet gutter behind a Bath street frontage can change in a single wet season.
Our suggestion is a routine with two triggers. The first is the season: a quick look after the winter, when frost, wind and rain have done their worst. The second is the event: any named storm, any burst of hail, any week of heavy rain that ends with a stain on a ceiling. Between those, a close inspection by a roofer is something you ask for when you see a reason, or when the roof reaches an age where its parts are due a check.
A sensible interval by covering and age
The lifespans in typical UK guides give a rough frame. Natural slate is quoted at 75 to 100 years or more, clay plain tiles at 40 to 60 years, concrete interlocking tiles at 30 to 50 years, and felt flat roofs at 10 to 20 years, with well-built multi-layer systems running longer. Treat those as typical ranges from MyBuilder and similar guides: exposure and the quality of the original work move them either way, and none is a promise.
| Roof | Typical life | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Young pitched roof, any covering | Well inside its life | Ground check after winter and storms |
| Mid-life tiles or slate | Past halfway | Close inspection every few years, plus after storms |
| Old slate, stone or clay | Near the quoted range | Closer look after each winter, with the fixings checked |
| Flat roof, felt or single-ply | Shorter life | Look at drainage and seams after heavy rain |
The word to hold on to is mid-life. Once a roof is past the middle of its typical range, the chance that a small fault is hiding rises, and a close look earns its fee. A gutter, fascia and soffit guide from MyBuilder suggests inspecting those every five years, which is a useful marker for the timber and plastic at the eaves as well.
What you can check yourself from the ground
You do not need a ladder, and you should not climb onto a roof to check it. Walk round the house on a dry day with a pair of binoculars, or use the zoom on a phone, and work along the edges first.
- Slipped or missing covering. Gaps in a slate or tile course, or a tile resting at an odd angle, are the first sign of loosened fixings.
- Lines that sag. A hollow along the ridge or down a slope can mean the supporting laths have softened; roofers call those laths battens.
- Gutters and downpipes. Plants growing from a gutter, damp patches below the eaves, or water running down a wall after rain all point to a blockage or a failed joint.
- Lead and chimneys. Look for lifted or cracked flashing, the lead strip tucked into a wall to seal the angle beside a stack or dormer cheek, and for crumbling mortar round the chimney pot.
- Moss and algae. A thin film is cosmetic. A deep cushion of moss keeps the surface wet for days and is worth dealing with.
Indoors, check the upper ceilings and the loft after a wet spell. Brown rings, a musty smell, damp insulation or daylight through the roof are all reasons to book an inspection rather than wait for the next scheduled one. Our page on how to inspect a roof from the ground goes through the method step by step.
When to ask a roofer to look closely
Some events are reason enough to bring someone up with proper access. After a severe storm, the wind may have lifted tiles that look fine from below, and a roofer on the roof will see broken nibs and displaced ridge pieces that binoculars miss. Before any building work next door, such as an extension or a scaffold on a shared wall, dated photographs of your slopes give you something solid to point to if a dispute follows. Our notes on neighbour building work and your roof explains what to ask for.
Age is the other trigger. A roof that has been repaired several times, or whose last major work you cannot date, is worth a full inspection to establish where it stands. The same goes for a house changing hands, and for any ceiling where a stain keeps coming back.
A close inspection normally covers slopes, ridge, hips, valleys, lead, gutters and eaves, with the visible timbers viewed from the loft hatch. For a flat roof it adds the membrane, the upstands, the outlets and any ponding. Where water is already coming in, stopping that comes ahead of any wider discussion about condition.
Cost and what you get for it
Typical UK ranges reported by MyBuilder in 2026 put a roof inspection at £150 to £500. A standard inspection sits at £150 to £250, a drone survey at £200 to £400 and a thermal survey at £300 to £500. What you pay depends on how deep the visit goes and how awkward the roof is to reach. If repairs follow, the fixed quote arrives after the survey, and our own visit costs nothing.
What lands in your inbox matters more than the fee. Expect a good visit to end with photographs tied to places on the roof, each fault described in everyday language, and an order of priority: which jobs are urgent, which can be scheduled, and which only need watching. If you want to compare the options, our page on roof survey cost sets out why quotes differ.
File each report somewhere safe. A dated run of them shows how fast the roof is changing, helps you plan spending years ahead, and gives a buyer or an insurer something firmer than your memory. Spring and autumn suit a check best, after the winter storms have done their worst and before the leaves start filling gutters. For a buyer in the middle of a purchase, see also what to do when a homebuyer report flags the roof. For the full range of visits we offer, start at roof inspections and surveys.
