A roof survey is a trained person looking closely at a roof and telling you what condition it is in. That sounds simple, yet the price ranges widely, because the word covers very different jobs. One survey is a walk round the house with binoculars and a short note. Another puts someone on the roof itself, lifts slates, opens the lead gutters and writes a report with photographs, priorities and rough costs. A third flies a drone over a chimney you cannot reach, or uses a thermal camera to find where heat escapes. Below you will find the usual UK charges from a third-party cost guide, a description of what you receive at each level, and shows how a Bath roof, with its parapets, valleys and awkward access, can shift the figure. The ranges are national averages, so treat none of them as our figure. If you simply want to know what condition your roof is in before spending money on it, the closing sections explain when a survey ahead of quoted work is the sensible route.
Why one roof survey costs more than another
Surveys are priced on time, access and the depth of the written result. A short visual look from the ground takes minutes and needs no equipment beyond a good pair of eyes. A survey carried out on the roof takes much longer, because someone has to get up there safely, move across the slopes, check each flashing and gutter, and photograph what they find. Writing it up properly takes longer again.
Three things therefore set the price before the roof is even considered. The first is the method: ground-level, roof-level, drone or thermal. The second is the depth of the report, from a few lines in an email to a structured document with dated photographs, a defect list and ranked actions. The third is the size and complexity of the building. A modest bay-fronted semi has a roof that can be read in a short visit. A Georgian terrace with a mansard, a parapet gutter, a valley behind the parapet and three chimney stacks has many more places where water can get in, and each needs to be looked at.
It also matters who is paying and why. A survey ordered to support an insurance claim, to settle a dispute with a neighbour or landlord, or to report on a building you are buying is written to be relied on by someone else. That tends to mean more detail and a clearer statement of what was and was not inspected. A survey ahead of repair work is written so the person doing the work can price it, and is often part of the quote process. We cover that route further down.
None of this makes the cheapest option wrong, or the dearest one right. The useful question is what you intend to do with the answer. If you only want to know whether the roof is heading for trouble, a lighter inspection may be enough. If money is going to change hands on the strength of the report, you want something more detailed.
Typical charges for each kind of roof inspection
MyBuilder's roof inspection cost guide (2026) reports these as typical UK ranges. They are national averages from a third-party source and say nothing about what any one firm charges. Treat them as a way to judge whether a figure you have been given is in the usual region.
| Type of inspection | Typical UK range |
|---|---|
| Roof inspection, all types | £150 to £500 |
| Standard inspection | £150 to £250 |
| Drone inspection | £200 to £400 |
| Thermal imaging inspection | £300 to £500 |
The guide names inspection type, report depth, roof size and access as what moves a price within those bands. That matches what we see when we price a visit. A small roof with easy access and a short written summary sits at the lower end. A large or tall roof, or one that needs a scaffold tower to reach safely, sits higher.
Notice what the table does not include. It is the cost of the inspection. It is not the cost of putting right what the inspection finds. A survey that says the lead in a parapet gutter has split, or that slates are slipping because the nails have corroded, is the start of a separate conversation about repair, and that carries its own price. Any figure for repair work comes after the roofer has been on site, not from a table. A fixed quote from us comes only once we have seen the roof.
What you get at each level
A ground-level look
The surveyor stands in the garden or on the pavement and looks up, often with binoculars or a camera with a long lens. It shows missing or slipped tiles, sagging ridge lines, vegetation, overflowing gutters and the general state of chimney stacks. It cannot show the condition of lead hidden behind a parapet, the state of the battens underneath, or whether nails are failing. It is a screening step, not a conclusion.
A roof-level survey
Someone goes up, using a ladder, a roof ladder, a tower or scaffold as the building requires. They can raise individual slates or tiles to inspect the fixings, press on the lead to check it is sound, look inside valleys and gutters, and test mortar and flaunching (the mortar cap that holds chimney pots in place) by hand. This is the level that finds the hidden causes of leaks. The written result should include photographs of each problem and a note of where it is.
Drone inspection
A drone brings back close images of areas that are hard to reach, such as a high chimney or a steep mansard slope. It is quick and avoids putting anyone on a fragile roof. It sees the surface only. Our guide to what a roof condition report should contain explains how images like these should be tied to written findings.
Thermal imaging
A thermal camera shows differences in surface temperature. On a roof or in a loft, it can point to missing insulation, damp areas and air leaks. It is used for a specific question, not as a general replacement for looking at the covering and the lead, and the conditions on the day affect how useful the images are.
What moves the price on a Bath roof
National guides cannot price the things that make an older Bath roof different, so it is worth knowing where those costs come from.
Access is the largest. Much of Bath is built on a slope, and many houses rise three or four storeys above a lower-ground floor. A ladder will not always reach safely, and the ground at the front or rear is not always level or clear. Where scaffold or a tower is needed to survey properly, the cost of putting it up can exceed the cost of the inspection itself. MyBuilder's new roof cost guide (2026) gives scaffolding at about £1,125 as a typical UK figure for a full re-roof. A survey rarely needs a full scaffold, but it shows how quickly access costs climb when a building is tall.
Roof form is the second. Parapet gutters (the lead-lined troughs behind a stone parapet wall) and valley gutters between slopes are common detailing on older Bath houses. They sit out of sight of the street, hold water in heavy rain, and need to be opened up and walked to be assessed. Mansard roofs, with their steep lower slope and dormer windows, add further junctions of lead and slate to inspect.
Listing is the third. If the house is listed, a survey is a look-and-record exercise, but most later work needs listed building consent from the planning authority, applied for before anything starts. A good survey on a listed building therefore notes which repairs are like-for-like and which would change the building's character, so the consent question is clear before a price is agreed. UNESCO protection reaches every street in Bath, but conservation area controls reach about one half of the city, so ask B&NES planning where your address falls.
Last, cost reflects how the roof is covered. Natural slate, clay tiles, stone tiles and flat roofs fail in different ways, and a surveyor who knows the material spends the time where it counts.
When the survey is free and when to pay for a report
There are two separate situations, and the price follows from which one you are in.
The first is that you think the roof needs work and want to know what and how much. In that case the survey is the front end of the job. When we visit to price work, there is no charge, we climb onto the roof when conditions allow, and we take pictures of the actual slopes and details so the faults are plain to you. A written fixed price comes afterwards. That is a survey with a purpose: it ends in a quote, not a bill.
The second is that you need a document that someone other than the roofer can rely on. You may be buying the house, dealing with a landlord or neighbour, or supporting an insurance claim. In those cases people often prefer an independent written report, and that is where the typical charges above apply. When you ask for one, check three things: what exactly was inspected, what could not be reached, and whether the author has any interest in selling you the repair.
For storm damage, many insurers define a storm by gusts of at least 55 mph, and general deterioration is often excluded from standard cover. Pictures and a written roofer's assessment can support a claim, though nothing in a report guarantees one will succeed. Our guide to a survey before a re-roof explains what is checked before a large job is priced.
If you simply want to keep an eye on an ageing roof, you do not need to buy a report every year. Our note on how often to inspect a roof sets out a sensible rhythm for checks, including quick ones you can do from the ground.
Questions to ask before you pay for a survey
Asking the right things at the start is the cheapest way to avoid a poor survey.
- Who will be on the roof? A report from someone who looked from the road is a different product from one written after a roof-level inspection.
- What will the report contain? Dated photographs, a list of defects with locations, a ranking of urgency and a rough cost range are the marks of a useful one.
- What will not be inspected? A good survey states its limits, such as a chimney that could not be reached or a valley covered with moss.
- Is the price fixed? Ask whether it covers access equipment and the written report, or whether those are extra.
- Does it lead to anything? If the surveyor also does repairs, ask how the survey is separated from the quote.
A low survey price that leaves out the report, the photographs or the access equipment is often the dearest option once you add them back.
Back at the hub, our roof inspections page explains what we look at on every visit. If you want a price for your own roof, send the address and a few photographs of the problem, and we will arrange a visit.