Roof Survey Arundel is your trusted, independent roof surveying specialist, proudly serving Arundel and the surrounding Arun Valley. With over 20 years of heritage property expertise, we are dedicated to providing thorough and accurate roof surveys that give you a true understanding of your roof's condition. We focus solely on impartial inspections, offering honest assessments based on our years of experience — no repairs, no upselling, just reliable, unbiased roof surveys.
Fixed prices confirmed before we book. No surprises.
If you need a professional roof survey in Arundel, our independent surveyors provide detailed inspections for homeowners, buyers, landlords, and property professionals throughout the town and the surrounding Arun Valley villages.
A thorough roof inspection from Roof Survey Arundel can identify hidden defects, structural problems, and early signs of deterioration before they develop into expensive repairs. We combine traditional inspection methods with modern technology — including drone roof surveys and thermal imaging — to produce condition reports you can actually act on.
We are a team of certified, independent roof surveyors who have been assessing properties across this part of West Sussex for over twenty years. Arundel is a town we know in detail — its tightly packed hillside streets, its extraordinary concentration of listed buildings, and the specific roofing challenges that its topography, building age, and proximity to the Arun floodplain combine to create. Whether you are purchasing a period property, investigating a persistent leak, or arranging maintenance on a heritage building, an independent roof surveyor in Arundel will give you a clear, impartial picture of what you are dealing with.
Roof Survey Arundel is your dedicated independent roof surveying specialist serving Arundel and the surrounding Arun Valley. With over 20 years of heritage property expertise, we focus solely on accurate, impartial roof surveys — no repairs, no upsell.
Nearby Areas with Similar Properties: The heritage roofing challenges we encounter in Arundel extend across the Arun Valley. Properties in Littlehampton and Storrington share comparable building ages and traditional West Sussex construction. Review our area guides for location-specific information.
Arundel is one of the most architecturally remarkable small towns in England. Dominated by its medieval castle and gothic cathedral, the town climbs steeply from the Arun floodplain through tightly packed streets of Georgian and Victorian terraced housing before opening onto the broader hillside where larger Victorian and Edwardian villas sit in more generous plots. The result is an extraordinarily compressed range of building types, ages, and construction methods within a very small geographic area — and a corresponding diversity of roofing conditions, materials, and failure modes that requires genuine specialist knowledge to assess properly.
We established this practice because property buyers and owners in historic towns like Arundel were repeatedly receiving roof assessments that were neither thorough enough nor specific enough to be genuinely useful. A homebuyer report noting the roof as "observed from ground level, no immediate significant defects visible" provides essentially no due diligence on a Georgian townhouse on Maltravers Street with three chimney stacks, original lead valley gutters, and clay plain tiles approaching the end of their useful lifespan. Over twenty years and more than 3,500 roof surveys across West Sussex, our inspections have saved clients in excess of £5.8 million in unnecessary expenditure and undisclosed purchase defects.
Our surveyors hold recognised industry certifications and carry full professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Our drone operators are CAA-approved. We use DJI Enterprise drones and FLIR thermal cameras because the properties in a town like Arundel demand it — steeply terraced hillside cottages, multi-chimney Georgian townhouses, complex Victorian rooflines with lead-lined valleys, and the access constraints imposed by the town's narrow medieval street layout all make conventional ladder-based inspection inadequate for a thorough assessment.
We provide inspection and reporting only — no repairs, no contracting, no commercial conflicts. Every assessment is genuinely independent.
Whether it's a listed Georgian cottage on Tarrant Street, a Victorian villa on Mill Road, or a modern property on the town's outskirts — we'll give you the answers you need.
Unlike roofing contractors, we provide roof surveys and inspections only — completely impartial, with findings based solely on what the inspection reveals
Unlike roofing contractors, we provide roof surveys and inspections only — we carry out no repair work of any kind. This means every roof condition survey we produce in Arundel is completely impartial, with findings and recommendations driven entirely by what the physical inspection reveals, free from any commercial incentive to identify more work than genuinely exists or to understate problems that could generate a larger quote.
Roof surveys and inspections are commonly requested for:
Each roof inspection in Arundel assesses the full roof structure — coverings, flashings, chimneys, valleys, drainage systems, and any signs of structural movement or deterioration. The town's building stock is predominantly pre-1940 and a significant proportion is listed, meaning defects are frequently concealed, access is often difficult, and the consequences of overlooking problems during a purchase can be substantial. Where drone survey and thermal imaging form part of the package, we can document elements of the roof that are entirely unreachable by conventional means.
Arundel's steeply terraced hillside streets present access challenges that make conventional ladder survey impractical on many of the town's most characterful properties. The tightly packed cottages on Maltravers Street and Tarrant Street, the tall Georgian townhouses in the town centre, and the Victorian villas perched above the town on elevated plots all have roof areas that cannot be adequately assessed from the ground. Our CAA-licensed drone operators can survey every elevation and roof plane safely, capturing high-definition aerial photography that forms the evidential backbone of our inspection reports.
Our DJI Enterprise drone identifies:
Annotated drone photographs are included in every report, giving buyers, homeowners, and solicitors clear visual evidence of every defect identified during the inspection.
Many of Arundel's older properties have roof defects producing no visible symptoms at the time of inspection — water finding its way through failed lead work or cracked flint pointing, saturating timber and insulation for an entire season before any stain appears on a ceiling. Our FLIR thermal cameras detect the temperature differentials caused by hidden moisture, identifying active ingress pathways that no visual inspection, however thorough, can replicate on its own.
Thermal imaging identifies:
Combining thermal imaging with drone aerial survey allows us to trace moisture pathways that would remain entirely undetected by any conventional inspection method.
A pre-purchase roof survey in Arundel is one of the most valuable investments a buyer can make in a town where listed buildings are common, roofing materials are traditional, and the consequences of an undiscovered roof defect can run into tens of thousands of pounds. Standard homebuyer reports observe roofs from the street and record only what is immediately apparent — an approach that is demonstrably inadequate for a 200-year-old flint and clay tile cottage on a hillside street, or a Victorian townhouse with four chimney stacks and original lead valley gutters.
Properties throughout Arundel feature handmade clay plain tiles, original lead work, multiple chimney stacks, and steeply pitched rooflines that require specialist knowledge to assess accurately. Our pre-purchase inspections regularly identify issues that enable purchase price reductions substantially exceeding the cost of the survey — and equally importantly, provide buyers with clear, factual information about what they are committing to before contracts exchange.
Arundel's elevated position and exposure to south-westerly weather systems means storm damage to roofs is a regular occurrence, particularly on the upper hillside streets and the more exposed properties above the town. Our storm damage assessments provide timestamped photographic and thermal evidence in the format insurance providers require — a precise, factual record of the extent and cause of damage that supports the claims process rather than complicating it.
Rental properties across the town benefit from periodic independent roof condition assessments that catch developing problems before they become emergencies. Arundel's letting stock is predominantly older housing where roofs are at an age that demands closer monitoring — our maintenance reports give landlords a clear picture of current condition, a prioritised schedule of works, and repair cost estimates at current West Sussex market rates, enabling planned maintenance rather than costly reactive repairs.
Every inspection produces a written report delivered within 48 hours. Our comprehensive and premium reports include annotated drone photography, thermal imaging overlays, a defect-by-defect narrative in plain English, and an itemised repair schedule costed at current West Sussex market rates. Every report is structured to be presented directly to a solicitor during purchase negotiations, submitted to an insurance provider as claim evidence, or handed to a contractor as a precise specification for remedial works — without requiring translation or further interpretation.
There are very few towns in West Sussex where the case for a specialist independent roof survey is as clear-cut as it is in Arundel. The combination of building age, heritage density, topographic complexity, and property values creates a set of inspection challenges that generic residential survey approaches are not equipped to handle. The town has one of the highest concentrations of listed buildings in West Sussex — properties where the roofing materials are traditional, the defect types are specific, and the consequences of missed problems can be compounded by the complications of listed building consent for repairs.
The topography adds a further layer of complexity that is unique to Arundel. Properties on Maltravers Street, Tarrant Street, and the upper hillside lanes are steeply terraced — some with four or five storeys dropping away from the street side, making ladder access from below either impossible or genuinely dangerous. Arundel's housing stock encompasses:
Each property type requires a specific inspection approach. A knapped flint cottage near the castle with a clay plain tile roof and three original chimney stacks demands entirely different assessment knowledge from a 1930s semi on Ford Road with a concrete tile roof and single stack. The Victorian terraces on Mill Road present shared rooflines where defects in one property can affect neighbours. And the Georgian townhouses with their parapet walls, concealed lead gutters, and multiple complex roof junctions present inspection challenges that reward experience and penalise generic approaches. We have been assessing properties like these for over twenty years.
From hillside cottages on Tarrant Street to Georgian townhouses near the castle, we understand Arundel's unique roofing challenges inside out.
Issues we regularly identify during roof inspections across Arundel and the surrounding Arun Valley
Early identification through a professional roof condition survey in Arundel allows these defects to be addressed at targeted repair cost — before what begins as a localised defect becomes a structural problem requiring far more significant and disruptive work.
How our surveys have helped Arundel property owners and buyers
A couple purchasing a substantial Grade II listed Georgian townhouse on Maltravers Street had received a standard RICS homebuyer survey that described the roof as "observed from street level, condition appeared broadly satisfactory." The purchase price was £985,000. Given the property's listed status and the visible complexity of its roofline — four chimney stacks, a parapet wall, and what appeared to be multiple roof levels behind the principal elevation — they commissioned a full pre-purchase roof survey before proceeding.
Drone survey revealed that all four chimney stacks had significant pointing erosion, with one showing visible structural movement at the base. Lead flashings at three of the four stacks had failed — in two cases the lead had pulled away completely, leaving open joints. A concealed parapet valley gutter running the full width of the rear elevation had collapsed under debris accumulation and split along its base, and thermal imaging confirmed active moisture had been tracking into the rear bedroom ceiling structure for at least one full season. We also documented thirty-one slipped plain tiles across the rear elevation, two cracked ridge tiles, and degraded hip ironwork throughout.
We prepared a costed defect schedule totalling £22,400, including heritage-grade materials and listed building compliance costs. The buyers' solicitor presented the report to the vendor's solicitor and a full price reduction was agreed. Works were completed within three months of completion using a conservation-accredited contractor, resolving defects that — had they remained undetected — would have caused progressive structural timber decay through at least two more winters.
The owner of a Victorian terraced cottage on Tarrant Street had received a quote from a local roofing contractor for a full roof replacement at £19,500, following damp staining at a first-floor bedroom ceiling. Having seen similar situations resolved for far less elsewhere, she approached us for an independent assessment before committing to the work.
Our drone survey established that the main clay plain tile roof was structurally sound — the tiles were weathered but the vast majority remained fixed and intact with no evidence of widespread nail fatigue. Thermal imaging traced the damp to a single source: the lead back gutter behind the chimney stack on the shared party wall had split at a dressed joint and was channelling water directly onto the ceiling joists below. A secondary minor ingress point was identified at a valley where the rear return roof met the main roof — a mortar-filled junction that had cracked and opened over winter.
We costed the targeted repairs at £2,850 — replacement of the chimney lead back gutter, repointing of the valley junction, and replacement of eight individual cracked tiles identified during the drone survey. The homeowner saved over £16,500 compared to the replacement quote and now has a comprehensive condition report confirming the sound state of the main roof structure.
Need a professional roof survey for your Arundel property? Get in touch today for a free consultation.
Feedback from homeowners and buyers who have used Roof Survey Arundel
"Buying a listed Georgian townhouse on Maltravers Street, the standard survey had given us almost nothing useful about the roof. Roof Survey Arundel found chimney stack failures, a collapsed parapet gutter, and active moisture damage that would have cost a fortune post-completion. The detailed report gave us everything we needed. An essential purchase for any buyer in this town."
"Damp at the first-floor ceiling had been investigated three times without resolution. The thermal imaging survey from Roof Survey Arundel found the source in a single visit — water tracking from a failed rear parapet flashing along a concealed cavity. Precise report, straightforward fix, three years of frustration resolved in one afternoon."
"A roofing firm quoted £19,500 for a full replacement on my Tarrant Street cottage. The independent survey from Roof Survey Arundel showed the main structure was in good condition with only targeted repairs needed to the lead valley and chimney. I saved over fifteen thousand pounds and now have complete confidence about what my roof actually requires."
Transparent fixed pricing — confirmed at the point of booking with no hidden charges
The cost of a roof survey in Arundel depends on the size and complexity of the property, the type of roof covering, and whether specialist inspection methods such as drone survey or thermal imaging are required. Our three standard packages cover every residential property type found in the town — from a modest Victorian terrace on Mill Road to a multi-chimney listed Georgian townhouse near the castle — and all prices are fixed at the point of quotation with no additions during or after the inspection.
A thorough ground-level visual inspection with binocular-assisted examination of all accessible roof planes, gutters, and drainage. Includes full photographic documentation and a written condition report delivered within 48 hours. The appropriate starting point for straightforward modern properties on the town's outskirts with no specific cause for concern.
Our most requested package for Arundel buyers and homeowners. Includes everything in the basic assessment plus full drone aerial inspection, FLIR thermal imaging for moisture detection, internal loft space examination, and full flashing and lead work assessment. Annotated drone photography, itemised repair cost estimates at current market rates, and a free follow-up consultation are all included. This is the appropriate level of inspection for the vast majority of period and older properties in the town.
The right choice for Arundel's listed buildings, multi-chimney Georgian townhouses, and larger period properties. Adds full structural timber assessment, moisture meter readings at key locations, ventilation and insulation evaluation, multi-elevation drone mapping, and a comprehensive five-year maintenance plan. Priority scheduling and two follow-up consultations included — particularly valuable when managing the complexities of listed building consent and heritage-appropriate repair specifications.
If you would like a roof survey quote for a specific property in Arundel, contact us with details and we will confirm pricing before booking.
Common questions answered by Roof Survey Arundel
A basic roof inspection starts from £195. Our comprehensive survey — including drone aerial inspection and thermal imaging, the most appropriate option for the overwhelming majority of Arundel's older and period properties — starts from £359. The premium full survey for listed buildings, multi-chimney Georgian properties, and larger heritage buildings starts from £599. All prices are confirmed and fixed at the point of booking with no additions during or after the inspection.
The two terms are used interchangeably across the industry and we use both. In practice, a survey implies a more formal written output — a condition report with a defect schedule and repair costings — while an inspection refers to the physical site visit. Every assessment we carry out in Arundel, regardless of the package tier, produces a formal written report delivered within 48 hours of the visit.
A roofing contractor inspecting your roof has a structural financial interest in finding work to quote for. That doesn't necessarily make their assessments dishonest, but it creates a conflict of interest that can influence findings consciously or otherwise. An independent roof surveyor with no repair capability has one interest only: accuracy. That independence is exactly why our condition reports carry weight with solicitors, mortgage providers, and insurance companies in a way that contractor assessments often cannot.
Assessing listed and heritage properties is one of the central parts of our work in Arundel. The town has an exceptionally high concentration of listed buildings and our surveyors are experienced with knapped flint elevations, handmade clay plain tiles, original lead valleys and back gutters, lime mortar detailing, and the specific failure modes associated with pre-1900 Sussex construction. Our non-invasive drone methodology is particularly appropriate for listed buildings where physical access could damage fragile historic fabric.
This is exactly the scenario where drone survey provides its greatest value. The steeply terraced properties on Maltravers Street, Tarrant Street, and the upper hillside lanes of Arundel are among the most access-challenging in West Sussex — some drop four or five storeys from the street side, making conventional ladder inspection impractical or dangerous. Our CAA-licensed drone operators can assess every elevation and roof plane safely and completely, regardless of how the building sits on the hillside.
The town's building age and topography produce a very consistent set of defects. Failed lead flashings at chimney stacks and parapet gutters are the most frequent finding on Georgian and Victorian properties. Slipped and nail-fatigued clay plain tiles, blocked and collapsing concealed valley gutters, deteriorating ridge mortar on exposed upper-town elevations, and chimney stacks with severely eroded lime pointing are all common findings. On the town's oldest properties, we also encounter structural movement in chimney stacks that has been developing over decades but gone unnoticed because no proper roof-level inspection had been carried out.
Most properties can be assessed in a single morning or afternoon visit — typically between 90 minutes and two and a half hours depending on roof complexity, the number of elevations and chimney stacks, and access conditions. Written reports are delivered within 48 hours of the inspection, making our service fully compatible with the timelines of active conveyancing transactions.
Our comprehensive and premium reports are structured to meet the documentation standards expected by mortgage providers, conveyancing solicitors, and insurance companies. They include timestamped drone imagery, thermal scan evidence, plain-English defect narratives, and costed repair schedules. Solicitors regularly present our reports directly in purchase price negotiations on Arundel properties, and mortgage lenders accept them as supporting evidence for retention releases and special conditions.
Yes. We cover all properties across the Arun Valley including Burpham, Walberton, Yapton, Ford, and the surrounding villages. Rural properties in this area often combine older construction with the access challenges of isolated sites — exactly the conditions where drone and thermal survey adds the most value and where our experience of West Sussex's traditional building stock is most relevant.
Have another question? Contact us directly.
Professional roof inspections across the town and wider West Sussex area
The historic core around the castle, cathedral, and High Street contains some of the most complex and inspection-demanding properties in West Sussex. Medieval and Georgian buildings with knapped flint elevations, original lead valley gutters, multiple chimney stacks, and listed building status all require a surveyor with genuine knowledge of heritage roofing construction. This is the work we are most frequently commissioned for in Arundel, and our surveyors bring specific experience of the materials and failure modes common to this part of the town.
The steeply terraced streets climbing the hillside behind the castle are among the most access-challenging roofing environments in West Sussex. Properties here are typically tall Georgian and Victorian terraces where the rear elevation drops several storeys below street level — making conventional ladder survey impractical and drone inspection the only sensible approach. Lead work failures, chimney defects, and concealed valley gutter problems are the most frequent findings on these streets.
The Victorian and Edwardian terraced and semi-detached properties along Mill Road and Fitzalan Road represent the majority of the town's more conventional residential housing stock. Many are now approaching a stage in their lifecycle where clay plain tile roofs are exhibiting nail fatigue, ridge mortar is eroding, and lead valleys require replacement. These properties benefit particularly from the comprehensive survey package, which combines drone access with thermal imaging to identify the full picture of roof condition.
The more modern housing on Ford Road and the town's outskirts towards Lyminster and Crossbush covers a range of property types from interwar semis through to post-war and contemporary housing. Although generally younger than the town centre stock, many of these properties are now at an age where first-generation roofing materials are reaching the end of their serviceable life. We cover all properties in this area as part of our standard service area.
We carry out roof surveys and inspections across the rural Arun Valley — covering Burpham, Walberton, Yapton, Binsted, and the surrounding villages. Rural properties in this part of West Sussex are frequently a mix of older agricultural conversions, traditional flint and brick cottages, and isolated detached homes where access challenges make drone survey particularly valuable.
We also carry out roof surveys and inspections across the wider West Sussex area — including Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Storrington, Pulborough, and Chichester — covering the full range of West Sussex coastal and downland property types.
If you need a roof inspection, drone roof survey, thermal imaging assessment, or pre-purchase roof survey in Arundel, our independent surveyors can arrange a convenient appointment.
Whether you are buying a listed Georgian townhouse near the castle, pursuing a persistent leak in a Victorian terrace on Tarrant Street that no contractor has yet correctly identified, planning maintenance on a hillside rental property, or simply seeking a clear and honest assessment of an ageing roof before committing to significant works — an independent survey is the right starting point.
We have been carrying out this work for twenty years. We know Arundel's properties, we understand the specific challenges this town's topography, heritage density, and building age create for anyone who needs to understand what condition a roof is actually in. We know how to produce a report you can act on.
We do not carry out repairs. We hold no contractor relationships. We provide an accurate, evidenced assessment of your roof's condition — and leave you to make informed decisions from a position of genuine knowledge.
Call 07833 053749 or complete the form below to arrange your Arundel roof survey.
Contact Roof Survey Arundel today to arrange your inspection
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Saturday: 7:30am – 7:00pm
Sunday: 9:00am – 5:00pm