Oxfordshire · London and the South East
Pre-Purchase Roof Survey in Longworth
We take a careful look at the roof at your property in Longworth, with photos and a written report.
- Lead that has worked loose at a wall or chimney
- Blistered or split felt on a flat roof
- Gutters that overflow or drip at the joints
How a pre-purchase roof survey works in Longworth
A RICS Level 2 or Level 3 survey covers the whole building, so the roof is one item among many. We do not offer a RICS home survey, and ours isn’t a substitute for one. What it adds is a closer look at the roof alone, with photos and written recommendations you can act on. You can have both if you want the fullest picture. Common reasons to book are loose pots and cracked flaunching and sagging ridge lines or uneven roof slopes, on gutters and downpipes, the roof space and lead flashings and valleys.
Some older homes in villages like Longworth 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. Whether you are buying or signing off new roofing, it is worth knowing where you stand, as well as what condition the roof is in. There are about 500,000 listed buildings and around 10,000 conservation areas in England.
You can share the report with anyone who needs it: a seller or estate agent, an insurer, a roofer, a builder or a managing agent, whichever applies.
- Where
- Longworth (OX13)
- Region
- Oxfordshire
- Cost
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Reports
- Emailed report with photos and recommendations
- When we survey
- Monday to Sunday, daytime
- Insurance
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Telephone
- 07833 053749
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
FAQs for Longworth
Does a conservation area affect roof work in Longworth?
Start with Historic England’s list for listing and your council for conservation areas. Either can affect what roof work is allowed, so it is worth checking before planning any.
Is Longworth in the area you cover?
We do. Every survey there gets the same written report with photographs, and visits run on weekdays and weekends.
Will you need to get into the loft?
Where we can, yes. Inside, the loft shows leaks, damp timbers and the underlay. If access isn’t possible, we note it in the report.
How do I book a survey in Longworth?
To arrange a survey, phone 07833 053749 or drop us an email with the address, the type of property and what’s prompted the survey. We’ll confirm the price and agree a day with you.
Do I need to be at home?
It depends on what we need to see. Inside the building and in the loft, we need someone to let us in, while outside access can be discussed when you book.
Will the roof report help me negotiate with the seller?
Yes. You might ask for work to be done, ask questions or ask for a change to the price. What the seller agrees to is their decision.
Are you insured?
We hold professional indemnity and public liability insurance, for every survey we carry out.
Tips from our surveys
These tips come from what we see on roofs every week:
- Ask whether there are papers for past roof work
- Ask the agent to check the loft hatch can be opened
- Book once your offer is accepted
- Look for fresh paint on upstairs ceilings at viewings
Once the home is yours, the report becomes a maintenance list. Deal with the urgent items first, and use the photos as a record of how the roof looked when you bought. The Premium Survey includes a 12-month follow-up.
Chimneys and flashings need watching. Look for leaning pots, missing mortar and lifted lead. Binoculars from ground level are enough for a first look.
Should I look at the roof myself first?
Fresh stains on ceilings or walls after rain are worth noting. Photograph them and note the date.
Keep a simple record: when leaks happen, ground-level photos and any past roof work. Share it with us when booking.
What happens on the day
The visit has one job: to see as much of the roof as can safely be seen and record it clearly. Everything we note and photograph goes into the written report. The visit typically takes roughly 1–2 hours at a typical house, with time for the loft where it can be reached. In a small place like Longworth, access is typically the main thing to plan. Mention any outbuildings, barns or garages you want included, and anything about the roof you already know. Visits can be on weekdays, Saturdays or Sundays.
- You get in touch after your offer is agreed, with the address and your target exchange date.
- We agree a time and how we will get in, including the loft.
- We look at the roof from ground level, from windows, from the loft space and from the roof where safe.
- Coverings, ridges, valleys, flashings, chimneys and gutters are checked and photographed.
- We email a written report with photos and recommendations, ready for you to use before exchange.
How to prepare
- Agree roof access with the managing agent if it is shared
- Leave a clear route to the loft
- Gather any invoices or paperwork from past roof work
Booking a survey
Photos help, if you have them. Take them safely from ground level or a window, and please do not climb up for a closer look. To send them or to book, call 07833 053749 or drop us an email.
Related advice
What a pre-purchase roof survey doesn’t cover
We only report everything that’s safely in view on the day, so there are some things a survey can’t cover:
- A valuation or a promise of a lower price
- Asbestos testing of any kind
- What’s under the slates, tiles or felt
Not sure which survey suits your roof? You can phone 07833 053749 or use the contact form and we’ll tell you. What a survey covers and does not.
What we check
- Clay and concrete tiles
- Chimney stacks
- Natural slate
- Lead flashings and valleys
- Gutters and downpipes
- The roof space
- Flat-roofed extensions and dormers
Longworth homes and their roofs
Where the drone is part of the survey, we check the Drone Safety Map for restrictions before flying. West Oxfordshire’s older buildings often carry Cotswold stone slates, and a few villages in the county keep their thatch. Across the South East, older homes tend to have slate or clay tiles, and many later ones concrete tiles. Whether you are buying or checking new roofing work, knowing the materials helps make sense of what the inspection finds.
Take an older house close to Church of St Mary: older patch repairs can hide behind a tidy front slope, and the survey looks past them.
Longworth is about 7 miles west of Abingdon-on-Thames, in Oxfordshire. Anywhere in Longworth, we can come and survey your property, on a weekday, Saturday or Sunday. Our area takes in places right across Oxfordshire. We also survey roofs in Oxford.
Surveys in OX13 work the same way as everywhere else we cover. We offer pre-purchase roof surveys to properties on High Street, Bowbank and Rectory Lane. If you’re just outside Longworth, we cover Hinton Waldrist (1 mile west), Kingston Bagpuize (1 mile south-east), Pusey (3 miles south-west), Charney Bassett (3 miles south) and Lyford (3 miles south). Further out, we also cover Oxford (10 miles north-east), Didcot (10 miles south-east), Abingdon-on-Thames (7 miles east), Witney (7 miles north), Carterton (8 miles north-west) and Wantage (7 miles south).
Local landmarks in Longworth
In Longworth, that means homes and buildings near Waggon And Horses Public House. Nearby you will also find Hinton Waldrist Castle (0.8 miles west). Open spaces near Longworth include Hitchcopse Pit.
Also near Longworth
What else we do in Longworth
What we look for on each type of roof
Natural slate
Older slate roofs often have bitumen felt under them, and very old ones may have none. From inside the roof space, we report what we can see of it.
Clay and concrete tiles
Concrete interlocking tiles are common on post-war and newer homes. They’re heavy and hard-wearing, but they weather and can crack, and low-pitched roofs need their laps to be right.
What we’re asked to look at in Longworth
Blocked or leaking gutters do damage that isn’t obvious at first. Water spilling over a gutter soaks brickwork and can rot fascias and rafter ends. Hidden gutters behind parapets or in roof valleys can send water indoors. They’re part of what we check.
These are some of the problems a survey can pick up:
- Cracked flaunching or crumbling chimney pointing
- Ponding, blisters or splits on a flat roof
- Old water stains in the loft space
- Slates or tiles that have slipped or gone
Longworth House, about 0.4 miles west, is one of the historic houses in the wider area around Longworth. Buying a period property here means asking about the roof’s age and repairs, and about any listing or conservation area.
Choosing a roof surveyor
- How long they’ve been surveying roofs
- Whether the price includes VAT
- What happens after the report arrives
- Which limits apply to the survey