Greater London · London and the South East
Catford Pre-Purchase Roof Survey
A roof survey before you buy a house or flat around Catford, with findings in writing and pictures to back them up. Book a weekday or weekend visit.
- Loose pots and cracked flaunching
- Slates or tiles that have slipped or gone
- Roof slopes that look uneven or sagging
When to book a survey in Catford
Many roofs have had quick fixes over the years. Bitumen over flashings, mortar fillets in place of lead and odd replacement tiles can point to a problem that keeps coming back. We note what we see so you can ask about it.
Problems we come across often include:
- Standing water on a flat extension roof
- Chimney mortar that has eroded
- Flashings that have lifted or split
- Patch repairs that may hide an ongoing problem
For landlords with property near Catford Bridge station, a survey before purchase, or before signing off a new roof, saves surprises once a tenant moves in.
Before booking anyone
- What’s outside the scope of the survey
- What the report includes, and whether it has photos
- Which parts of the roof they’ll actually see
- When you’ll get the report
Pre-purchase roof survey in Catford: what you get
Buying a flat brings its own roof questions. The lease decides who looks after the roof, and that’s often not the individual flat owner. We look at as much of the roof as access safely allows, and the report helps you ask your solicitor or the managing agent the right questions. Where the building has a flat roof, it is checked as far as access allows. We survey gutters and downpipes, natural slate and lead flashings and valleys, and the problems we are asked to look at most are chimney mortar that has eroded and worn or lifted lead flashings.
In London, plenty of houses have been split into flats, extended or fitted with a dormer loft conversion. Each change adds roof details, like flat roofs, new flashings and junctions with the original slopes. For a purchase in Catford, or for new roofing work there, those junctions deserve a careful look. Lead work around dormers and new flat roofs is easy to get wrong and easy to miss.
The report doesn’t just list problems. For each finding, it explains what it is, why it matters and what we’d recommend, so you can decide what to do next.
- Where
- Catford (SE6, BR1)
- Wider area
- Greater London
- Cost
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Reports
- A written report with photos, by email
- Appointments
- Weekdays and weekends
- Insurance
- PI and public liability insurance
- Phone
- 07833 053749
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Your questions about pre-purchase roof surveys in Catford
Will parking be an issue for a roof survey in Catford?
It rarely stops a survey, but it’s worth planning. Let us know the parking rules on your street and we will work around them.
Is my home in Catford listed or in a conservation area?
Your council is the best source, with Historic England’s list for listed buildings. A change of roofing material may need consent in either case, and councils can also use Article 4 directions.
What if it rains on the day?
A survey can normally go ahead in light rain, and it can even help show where water is getting in. Strong wind or heavy rain can stop drone flights and make roof access unsafe, so we’ll agree a new date if the weather is not suitable.
When should I book a pre-purchase roof survey?
The sooner after your offer is accepted, the better. The report is most useful before exchange, because after that the roof is yours to deal with.
How do I book a survey in Catford?
The quickest way is to phone 07833 053749 or drop us an email. Tell us the address and a little about the roof, and we’ll recommend the right survey. Surveys run on any day of the week.
Do you use drones?
Where it helps and it’s safe, yes. Whether we can fly on the day depends on the weather and the airspace rules, including flight restriction zones near airports. We hold a CAA Flyer ID and Operator ID.
Can you survey a shared roof?
Yes, if the building owner or managing agent agrees access. On a shared roof we can only inspect the parts we are allowed to reach, and the report makes that clear.
Checking the roof from ground level
Fresh stains on ceilings or walls after rain are worth noting. Photograph them and note the date.
Inside, the loft is a good place to look, with care. Take a torch and only step on boards or joists, checking for stains, damp wood or chinks of daylight.
For landlords and managing agents
Shared roofs need a little more planning: we need access agreed with whoever owns or manages the building. Let us know about it when booking and we’ll plan the visit with that in mind.
Landlords and agents in Catford book surveys as well as householders. A photo-illustrated written report gives you a clear record of the roof, useful for planning maintenance.
What this survey can’t tell you
A survey is a careful look at the roof, but it can’t do everything. The main limits are:
- Walls, floors, services and rooms below the roof
- Confirmation of asbestos in cement sheets or soffits
- Structural calculations (that’s a structural engineer’s job)
If in doubt, ring 07833 053749 or drop us an email and we’ll recommend the right survey before booking. What our survey covers.
What this survey covers
- Lead flashings and valleys
- The roof space
- Clay and concrete tiles
- Natural slate
- Gutters and downpipes
- Flat-roofed extensions and dormers
- Chimney stacks
Roof by roof
Chimney stacks
Chimney stacks take the brunt of the weather. We check the pots, the flaunching, the pointing and the flashings, as far as we can see them safely.
Natural slate
On a slate roof, the underlay may be old bitumen felt, or there may be none at all on very old roofs. From inside the loft space, we report what we can see of it.
Places near Catford
Other services in Catford
How the survey works
Every visit follows the same pattern: we hear what you’ve seen, look at the roof from every safe viewpoint, take photographs as we go and make notes for the report. Most visits take an hour or two at a typical home, and more on a big or complicated roof. In converted houses and mansion blocks, the loft hatch is often on a shared landing. If that applies to your building, it is useful to agree access with the neighbours or the managing agent first. Everything else is planned around the building, not the postcode.
- After your offer is agreed, you book and share your timetable.
- Access to the house and the loft space is agreed beforehand.
- The visit begins outside, from ground level and any safe vantage points.
- Inside, we check the loft space and look at the roof from windows.
- The report is emailed with photos and recommendations, ready to use before exchange.
Before the survey
- Keep pets inside or away from the areas we’re looking at
- Make a note of anything you’d like us to look at
- Point out any leaks or damp patches
Arrange a survey
If you are buying, it’s useful to book soon after your offer is accepted, so you have the findings in time to act on them before you exchange. Otherwise, simply call 07833 053749 or use the contact form whenever suits you.
Advice
Pre-purchase roof surveys in Catford: local notes
Many homes in inner London are Victorian and Edwardian terraces, often with Welsh slate roofs. From the street you may see only a parapet, with a butterfly roof and a valley gutter behind it draining to the back. If your home in Catford is one of them, lead flashings, party-wall upstands and shared chimney stacks are part of the picture too. Whether you are buying or checking new roofing work, knowing the materials helps make sense of what the inspection finds. The wider area around Catford has a long history of building, with Eltham Palace about 2.8 miles east. On older houses around here, roofs often carry the marks of earlier repairs, from replaced slates to new lead.
Parking in Catford, as in most of London, takes a little planning: let us know about permits, visitor bays or off-street space when you book, as a space near the door can’t be promised. If your house is among the older ones in the streets near Church of St Laurence and Community Centre, ask the seller about past roof repairs, because older roofs often have patched valleys, replaced slates and reset ridges.
Catford is about 5 miles east of Streatham, in Greater London. If you’re in Catford, booking works exactly as it does anywhere else: a call or an email, a price, then a date. Catford is one of the places in Greater London where we work for pre-purchase roof surveys.
Every address in SE6 and BR1 is within our area for pre-purchase roof surveys. We cover properties on Bargery Road, Penerley Road and Inchmery Road and the roads around them. Nearby, we also carry out pre-purchase roof surveys in Bellingham (1 mile south-west), Southend (1 mile south-west), Ladywell (1 mile north), Hither Green (1 mile north-east) and Bell Green (1 mile south-west). Within a short drive, we also cover London (5 miles north-west), City of Westminster (8 miles north-west), Marylebone (8 miles north-west), Kensington (9 miles north-west), St Pancras (7 miles north-west) and Shoreditch (6 miles north-west).
Near you in Catford
Typical jobs here are in homes near The London & Rye pub, Trinity Church of England School and Forster Memorial Park. The closest station to Catford is Catford Bridge station, roughly 0.5 miles north-west. Other landmarks nearby include Greenwich Castle (2.6 miles north) and University Hospital Lewisham (0.8 miles north). For a walk, there is Downham Woodland Walk and Knight's Hill.