Oxfordshire · London and the South East
Pre-Purchase Roof Survey in Sulham
A roof survey before you buy a house or flat around Sulham, with a written report you can act on. Weekday and weekend visits available.
- Quick fixes on flashings and valleys
- Gaps where slates or tiles have come loose
- Blocked or leaking gutters
Pre-purchase roof survey in Sulham: what you get
With a written roof report, you can go back to the seller or agent with specifics. You might ask about past repairs, ask for work to be done before completion or think again about your offer. What the seller agrees to is up to them, but you’ll be asking from facts rather than guesses. It also helps you decide whether to go ahead at all. We’re often asked to look into roof slopes that look uneven or sagging and flashings that have lifted or split, on natural slate, clay and concrete tiles and chimney stacks.
For a small place like Sulham, the visit is planned like any other: it just means planning the journey and access beforehand. If there are outbuildings with roofs you want checked, mention them as you book. Whether you are buying or checking new work, the same care goes into it. Visits can be booked on weekdays and at weekends.
If any part of the roof couldn’t be seen safely, we say so in the report. That way, it’s clear what was covered and what wasn’t, and what we’d suggest next.
- Place
- Sulham (RG8)
- Region
- Oxfordshire
- Price
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Report
- A written report with photos, by email
- Appointments
- Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays
- Insured
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Telephone
- 07833 053749
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
The survey, step by step
Time on site depends on the size and shape of the roof, but as a rough guide the survey takes an hour or two at the house you’re buying, depending on its size and how much of the roof can be seen. If you have questions on the day, just ask. For a village or hamlet like Sulham, the journey is planned in advance: let us know about lanes, gates and parking. On the day, we inspect whatever is safely visible, inside and out.
- Once your offer is accepted, you tell us the address and when you hope to exchange.
- Access to the house and the loft space is agreed beforehand.
- The visit begins outside, from ground level and any safe vantage points.
- We then look from upstairs windows and inside the loft where it’s safe.
- You get a written report with photos and recommendations before you exchange.
How to prepare
- Point out any leaks or damp patches
- If it isn’t your property yet, arrange access through the agent
- Gather any invoices or paperwork from past roof work
How to book
To book a survey, phone 07833 053749 or send us an email with the address and what you’d like to know about the roof. We’ll confirm the price before you book.
Related advice
DIY checks: what’s safe
If you have a loft with safe access, take a look inside. Take a torch and only step on boards or joists, and look for staining, damp timber or daylight coming through.
It helps to keep a record: dates of leaks, photos from the ground and any work done on the roof. Send it with your enquiry.
Buying a home or a new roof in Sulham
West Oxfordshire’s older buildings often carry Cotswold stone slates, and a few villages in the county keep their thatch. In this part of the South East, older roofs are mostly slate or clay tile and many newer ones concrete tile. The covering on a house you’re buying, or on a roof just finished, tells us where to look hardest. If the drone is used for your survey, the flight is checked against the Drone Safety Map first.
If your house is among the older ones in the streets near Church of St Nicholas, the roof may have had decades of patch repairs, and the survey shows where they are. Historic houses such as Mapledurham House, about 2 miles north-east, show how far back building around Sulham goes. When you buy an older home, the roof’s age, past repairs and any listing all affect what you might spend later. For landlords with property near Pangbourne station, the roof is worth checking before you add another property to a portfolio or pay a roofer in full.
Sulham is about 4 miles west of Reading, in Oxfordshire. We survey roofs in Sulham and the surrounding area across London and South East England. Across Oxfordshire, we cover Sulham and the places around it.
We cover every part of the RG8 postcode area for pre-purchase roof surveys. Local streets include Sulham Lane and Nunhide Lane, and we cover them all. We also cover Tidmarsh (1 mile west), Little Heath (1 mile south-east), Pangbourne (1 mile north-west), Purley on Thames (1 mile north-east) and Tilehurst (2 miles east). Within a short drive, we also cover Didcot (12 miles north-west), Henley-on-Thames (8 miles north-east), Benson (11 miles north), Wallingford (10 miles north), Great Western Park (13 miles north-west) and Watlington (13 miles north).
Around Sulham
In Sulham, that means homes and buildings near Pangbourne Primary School. For rail, the closest station is Pangbourne station, roughly 1.4 miles north-west of the centre. Other landmarks nearby include Battle Hospital (3.3 miles east) and Royal Berkshire Regiment Museum (3.1 miles east). Not far away are Moor Copse Nature Reserve and Hosehill Lake.
FAQs for Sulham
How do I find out if my home in Sulham is listed?
You can check whether a building is listed on Historic England’s list, and your council can tell you if it is in a conservation area. Listed building consent is needed for changes that affect a listed building’s special interest, and conservation areas can limit changes of roofing material.
Is Sulham within the area you cover?
Yes. Sulham is within the area we cover, which takes in towns, villages and rural addresses. We cover the whole of London and South East England. Let us know about access, parking and anything unusual about getting there when booking.
What’s the best way to book?
Just phone 07833 053749 or email us. After a few questions, we confirm the price and fix a day, weekday or weekend.
Do I need to be at home?
That depends on the survey. Inside the building and in the loft, we need someone to let us in.
What if it rains on the day?
Light rain doesn’t normally stop a survey, and it can even help show where water is getting in. Heavy rain or strong wind can ground a drone and make the roof unsafe, so if conditions are not right we’ll arrange another day with you.
Can you survey a shared roof?
Yes, once access has been agreed. The roof of a block or converted house is frequently shared, so the freeholder or managing agent needs to agree access. We can only inspect what we’re given access to.
Do you use drones?
Where it is applicable and safe, yes. We are a CAA-registered drone operator (Flyer ID and Operator ID), flying a sub-250g drone. Drone inspection is part of the Drone Roof Survey and the Premium Survey, where applicable.
Practical tips
From years of surveys, a few habits stand out as worth the effort:
- For a flat, check who is responsible for the roof
- Ask for loft access on the day
- Notice patches of new decoration in top-floor rooms
- Book once your offer is accepted
You may want to pass the report to your solicitor or conveyancer so questions can go to the seller’s solicitor. It can prompt questions about past roof work and any paperwork for it, especially where we’ve found patch repairs.
Check the roof from the garden and the street after a storm. Slipped slates, lifted ridge tiles and debris on the ground are signs to act on. Dealing with them early keeps water out.
Also in Sulham
How the survey changes by roof type
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.
Clay and concrete tiles
Clay and concrete tiles commonly last 50 years or more. We check for slipped, cracked and missing tiles, along with odd replacement tiles that hint at earlier leaks.
When you need someone else
We only report what can safely be seen on the day, so some things are outside what a survey can do:
- Defects hidden under coverings or inside walls without opening up
- The condition of the rest of the house (that is a RICS home survey)
- Structural calculations (that’s a structural engineer’s job)
If you’re not sure which survey you need, ring 07833 053749 or email us and we’ll give you a straight answer before you book. What a survey covers and doesn’t.
Roofs we survey in Sulham
- Chimney stacks
- Flat-roofed extensions and dormers
- Natural slate
- The roof space
- Gutters and downpipes
- Lead flashings and valleys
- Clay and concrete tiles
For landlords and managing agents
Freeholders and residents’ companies use a roof report to plan and budget.
Surveys can also be booked by buyers’ agents acting for a client. The report is emailed, so it can go straight to your client, photographs included.