Kent · London and the South East
Pre-purchase roof survey in Grafty Green, Kent
A roof survey before you buy a house or flat around Grafty Green, with findings in writing and pictures to back them up. Weekday and weekend visits available.
- Cracked flaunching or crumbling chimney pointing
- Slates or tiles that have slipped or gone
- A ridge or slope that dips
Pre-purchase roof survey in Grafty Green: what you get
If you’re buying a flat, the roof may well be shared. The lease decides who looks after the roof, and that is often not the individual flat owner, with costs often passed on through the service charge. We check 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. Common reasons to book are damp timbers or stains in the loft and gutters that overflow or drip at the joints, across lead flashings and valleys, flat-roofed extensions and dormers and chimney stacks.
Some older homes in villages like Grafty Green are listed or sit in a conservation area. If so, re-roofing in different materials may need consent, so check with the council before work starts. For a buyer or someone with a newly finished roof, it is worth knowing which applies. England has around 10,000 conservation areas and about 500,000 listed buildings.
Report times depend on the survey you book: Basic within 48 hours, Standard in 24–48 hours and Premium the same day.
- Place
- Grafty Green (ME17)
- Wider area
- Kent
- Price
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Your report
- Emailed report with photos and recommendations
- Appointments
- Weekdays and weekends
- Insured
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Telephone
- 07833 053749
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
Before and after the survey
Some practical points come up on survey after survey. They apply to most roofs:
- Check we’ll be able to get into the loft space
- Pass the findings to your conveyancer
- Look for fresh paint on upstairs ceilings at viewings
- Request records of any re-roofing
If you want quotes for the work, roofers can work from the report. They’ll see exactly what we found, and where, which makes quotes easier to compare.
Keep an eye on chimneys and flashings in your new home. Look for leaning pots, missing mortar and lifted lead. A pair of binoculars from the garden shows a lot.
How we price pre-purchase roof surveys
The price reflects the time and kit the roof needs. The main factors are:
- Basic, Standard or Premium
- Commercial roofs and larger buildings
- Building height and the viewpoints available
- Extensions, dormers and garages with roofs of their own
There are three survey packages: Basic from £150, Standard from £250 and Premium from £400, with VAT included. What your roof costs depends on its size, access and what you want to find out.
What to tell us when you contact us
The more you tell us, the easier it is to price the survey. When you contact us, tell us:
- Whether there’s a loft hatch, a shared roof or tricky access
- The reason for the survey, such as buying, a leak or storm damage
- Any photos you have, taken from the ground or a window
- When you need the report by
Every survey is priced before it is booked, so you know where you stand. Our price is from £150, including VAT. For a price for your roof, ring 07833 053749 or email us.
Rented homes, blocks and businesses
Managing agents and residents’ management companies use roof surveys to plan maintenance. Recommendations are set out by urgency where it matters, which helps with budgets and planning.
Where a roof is shared: access has to be agreed with whoever owns or manages the building. Tell us about it as you book and we’ll plan the survey around it.
What happens on the day
It is useful to start with what’s prompted the survey: buying, a leak, storm damage, new work or just wanting to know where things stand. That way we can focus on what matters to you. Most visits take between one and two hours at a typical house, with time for the loft where it can be reached. Older rural homes like those around Grafty Green can have a main roof, lower lean-to roofs and outbuildings all joined together. We work round each section in turn, from the safest viewpoints, and anything we can’t see is noted.
- We help you pick the package that suits the property.
- We agree a visit, including weekends if that helps.
- We inspect and photograph every part of the roof we can safely see.
- Standard and Premium surveys add the extra checks they include.
- We send the report with recommendations ranked by urgency, ready for you to discuss with the seller or agent.
How to prepare
- Mention any parking restrictions on your street
- Check we can get to the back of the property
- Have any questions written down, so nothing gets missed
Book a survey
To arrange a survey, ring 07833 053749 or email us with the address and what you’d like to know about the roof. You will know the price before anything is booked.
Advice
Nearby places to Grafty Green
What else we do in Grafty Green
FAQs for Grafty Green
Is my home in Grafty Green listed or in a conservation area?
We cannot confirm that for you, but Historic England’s list and your council can. Both listing and conservation areas can limit changes of roofing material, and councils can also use Article 4 directions.
Will you come out to Grafty Green?
We do. Villages and rural addresses get the same survey as a town house, with the route planned beforehand.
Can I use the report to negotiate on price?
Yes. You might ask for work to be done, ask questions or ask for a change to the price. The outcome is between you and the seller, so we can’t promise any saving.
Do you test for asbestos?
No. We don’t carry out asbestos surveys or testing. If we see materials that could contain asbestos, such as cement roof sheets or soffits on buildings from before 2000, we flag them.
How long does the survey visit take?
On site, it usually takes an hour or two at the house you’re buying, depending on its size and how much of the roof can be seen. The report follows within 48 hours for Basic, 24 to 48 hours for Standard and the same day for Premium.
Can you inspect my roof with a drone?
Yes, where it’s applicable. Whether we can fly on the day depends on the weather and the airspace rules, including flight restriction zones near airports. We’re a CAA-registered drone operator.
Do you survey roofs on blocks of flats?
Yes, once whoever controls the roof agrees access. On a shared roof we can only inspect the parts we’re allowed to reach.
When to book a survey in Grafty Green
Chimneys take the worst of the weather and they’re frequently the least maintained part of a roof. Pointing crumbles, flaunching cracks and flashings lift. On terraced and semi-detached homes, a stack may be shared with next door, which can affect how any work is arranged.
Common reasons to book include:
- Gutters choked with leaves and moss
- Lead that has worked loose at a wall or chimney
- Bitumen or mortar used in place of proper repairs
- Loose pots and cracked flaunching
Historic houses such as Leeds Castle, about 3.5 miles north-west, show how far back building around Grafty Green goes. Older homes in the area can come with listed status or conservation area rules, which affect re-roofing, so check with the council before you buy.
What to check before booking
- What the report includes, and whether it has photos
- Whether the loft space is looked at, where there is one
- Is there a chance to talk the report through?
- How soon the report will arrive
Leave it or get it looked at?
It’s tempting to skip the roof to keep a sale moving. Weekend visits are available as well as weekdays, and a Premium report comes the same day, which helps it fit around your exchange date. For older village homes like those around Grafty Green, the right replacement materials aren’t always easy to find quickly. That’s one more reason to find defects before they become urgent.
Pre-purchase roof survey starts from £150, including VAT. The final price depends on how big and how high the roof is, how it can safely be seen and which survey you book.
Why book with us
- 98% customer satisfaction
- Over 20 years’ experience
- Drones and thermal imaging where applicable
- A written report with photos
Take a look at our cost guide and two real surveys.
Grafty Green homes and their roofs
Older houses across Kent often have handmade clay or peg tiles, and many have tile-hung walls. You will also find oast houses and timber-framed Wealden hall houses among the county’s older buildings. Each material has its own typical faults, which is what a buyer or the owner of a new roof needs to know about. Where the drone is part of the survey, the flight is checked against the Drone Safety Map first.
For landlords with property near Lenham station, a survey before purchase, or before signing off a new roof, saves surprises once a tenant moves in. The streets around a church such as Church of St Nicholas are often among the oldest in a place, and if your home is one of the older ones nearby, older patch repairs can hide behind a tidy front slope, and the survey looks past them.
Grafty Green is about 8 miles south-east of Maidstone, in Kent. In Grafty Green, as across Kent, every roof gets the same careful survey. Grafty Green is one of the places in Kent we cover. We also survey roofs in Maidstone.
Every address in ME17 is within our area for pre-purchase roof surveys. That includes homes and businesses on Church Road, Woodcock Lane and Headcorn Road and the roads around them. Neighbouring places we cover for pre-purchase roof surveys include Liverton Street (1 mile north), Boughton Malherbe (1 mile north-east), Broadstone (1 mile south-west), Eastwood (1 mile west) and Platt's Heath (1 mile north). Further out, we also cover Maidstone (8 miles north-west), Ashford (9 miles south-east), Sittingbourne (10 miles north), Faversham (12 miles north-east), Minster (15 miles north) and Kings Hill (13 miles west).
What’s near Grafty Green
We work in homes and buildings around Kiln Wood, The Kings Head Public House and The Lenham School, among other places. The nearest railway station is Lenham station, about 2.1 miles north-east. Other landmarks nearby include The Dog Collar Museum (3.4 miles north-west) and Coldbridge Castle (1 mile south-east).