Greater London · London and the South East
Pre-purchase roof survey in Upton, Greater London
Need a pre-purchase roof survey in Upton? We can help, with a written report you can act on. Weekday and weekend visits available.
- Standing water on a flat extension roof
- Loose pots and cracked flaunching
- Quick fixes on flashings and valleys
Do you need a pre-purchase roof survey in Upton?
Slates and tiles can outlast the nails, battens and underlay that hold them. Natural slate can last 100 years or more, yet the nails holding it rust and let slates slide. It’s a frequent finding on older houses.
Most people get in touch when they’ve noticed something like this:
- Quick fixes on flashings and valleys
- Gutters choked with leaves and moss
- Cracked flaunching or crumbling chimney pointing
- A ridge or slope that dips
Valentines Mansion, about 2.8 miles north-east, is one of the historic houses in the wider area around Upton. Buying a period property here means asking about the roof’s age and repairs, and about any listing or conservation area.
Questions to ask before booking
- Do they have a CAA Flyer ID and Operator ID for drone work?
- What insurance they carry
- What experience they bring
- Whether the loft is part of the inspection
Pre-purchase roof surveys for homes and businesses in Upton
If you’re buying a flat, the roof may well be shared. Depending on the lease, roof repairs may fall to the building owner or a management company. We look at as much of the roof as access safely allows, and the report gives you clear points to raise with your solicitor or the managing agent. If the building has a flat roof, we look at that too where access allows. We survey clay and concrete tiles, natural slate and flat-roofed extensions and dormers, and the problems we are asked to look at most are signs of past leaks inside the loft and slipped or missing slates and tiles.
In London, a good many houses have been split into flats, extended or fitted with a dormer loft conversion. Each change adds roof details, such as flat roofs, new flashings and junctions with the original slopes. If you’re buying a flat or house in Upton, or have just had new roofing work done, those junctions are often where problems start. Dormer cheeks, lead work and new flat roofs are worth checking closely, as faults there are easy to miss.
The written findings come by email, ready to forward to whoever needs them. Turnaround is within 48 hours for Basic, 24–48 hours for Standard and same day for Premium.
- Place
- Upton (E7, E13, E15)
- Wider area
- Greater London
- Price
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Report
- Emailed report with photos and recommendations
- Appointments
- Monday to Sunday, daytime
- Cover
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Call
- 07833 053749
- Last updated
- 27 October 2026
Towns and villages near Upton
Other services in Upton
What we do, step by step
Before we start, tell us why you’ve booked: a purchase, a leak, a storm, new work or simply peace of mind. It helps us focus on what matters most to you. The visit typically takes roughly 1–2 hours for a house, though large, tall or awkward roofs take more time. In a London conversion, the way into the loft space is often from a communal landing or the top flat. Where that’s the case, access needs agreeing with whoever controls that landing. Otherwise, the visit in Upton runs like any other.
- Once your offer is accepted, you tell us the address and when you hope to exchange.
- Access to the house and the roof space is agreed beforehand.
- We start outside, looking at the roof from the ground and from vantage points.
- Inside, we check the roof space and look at the roof from windows.
- The report is emailed with photos and recommendations, ready to use before exchange.
Before the survey
- If it is not your property yet, arrange access through the agent
- Leave a clear route to the loft
- Make a note of anything you’d like us to look at
Arrange a survey
When you’re ready to go ahead, ring 07833 053749 or use the contact form. From there it’s a case of choosing a package, agreeing the price and fixing a day.
Related advice
Can I check my roof myself?
Fresh stains on ceilings or walls after rain are worth noting. Take a photo and write down when you saw it, which helps when we look at the roof.
It helps to keep a record: dates of leaks, photos from the ground and any work done on the roof. Share it with us when booking.
Rented homes, blocks and businesses
For a freeholder or residents’ company, a roof report is a sound basis for a maintenance plan, with the most urgent items set out first.
For blocks of flats, a roof survey helps managing agents and residents’ management companies plan ahead. The report sets out what needs attention now and what can wait, which helps with budgets and planning.
What we can’t see
Every survey has limits, and we’d rather be clear about that before booking. Bear these in mind:
- Whether materials contain asbestos (that needs a specialist asbestos surveyor)
- Faults hidden behind ceilings, boards or coverings
- A structural engineer’s report
If you’re not sure which survey you need, call 07833 053749 or drop us an email and we’ll give you a straight answer. What our survey covers.
What we check
- Lead flashings and valleys
- Flat-roofed extensions and dormers
- Gutters and downpipes
- Natural slate
- Chimney stacks
- Clay and concrete tiles
- The roof space
Local roofs and buyers in Upton
Upton is about 1 mile from the edge of the flight restriction zone around London City Airport. If your survey includes the drone, we check the exact boundary for the address before flying. Welsh slate on Victorian and Edwardian terraces is a familiar sight across inner London. From the street you may see only a parapet, with a butterfly roof and a valley gutter behind it draining to the back. Lead flashings, party-wall upstands and shared chimney stacks are typical of these houses, if yours is one of them. Each material has its own typical faults, which is what a buyer or the owner of a new roof needs to know about.
For a London address like Upton, it is useful to know about controlled parking before the day. The streets around a church such as St Peter's Church are often among the oldest in a place, and if you own one of the older houses nearby, a survey will show how the roof has been repaired before, which helps you judge what’s coming.
Upton is about 1 mile north of Plaistow, in Greater London. Wherever you are in Upton, we can carry out pre-purchase roof surveys at your property. Across Greater London, we cover Upton and the places around it. There’s also a page for London.
Here we cover the E7, E13 and E15 postcode area for pre-purchase roof surveys. That includes homes and businesses on May Road, West Road and Park Road and the roads around them. We also cover the places around Upton: Upton Park (1 mile south-east), Greengate (1 mile south), West Ham (1 mile south-west), Forest Gate (1 mile north) and Plashet (1 mile east). Larger places within reach include London (6 miles south-west), City of Westminster (8 miles west), Marylebone (8 miles west), Kensington (10 miles west), St Pancras (6 miles west) and Shoreditch (5 miles west).
What’s near Upton
Locally, jobs take us to homes and businesses close to St Bonaventure's RC School, West Ham Park and Spotted Dog pub and the streets around them. The closest station to Upton is Forest Gate station, roughly 0.8 miles north. A little further out are Queen Mary's Hospital for the East End (1 mile west) and Greenwich Castle (4.4 miles south). The countryside around Upton includes Hollow Pond and Tower Hill.
Upton questions
Is drone flying allowed in Upton?
That depends on where the roof is and on the weather. Upton is about 1 mile from the edge of the flight restriction zone around London City Airport. We check the exact boundary for the address before flying, and if the roof falls inside it, we ask for permission first. Across London there are restriction zones around Heathrow, London City and London Heliport, plus restricted areas over Hyde Park, the City of London and the Isle of Dogs. Every London address is checked against them before a flight. Strong wind or a downpour also stops a small drone flying, and the rest of the survey does not depend on the drone.
Can parking be tricky for a visit in Upton?
It depends on the street. Where there are permit zones, a visitor permit or nearby pay-and-display bay works well, and a driveway is even better.
How many surveys have you done?
Over 5,000 surveys so far, over more than 20 years.
Do you need access inside the house?
Ideally, yes. The loft tells us a lot about the roof, and upstairs windows give useful views. Access is normally arranged through the agent or seller.
Do you survey on Saturdays and Sundays?
We survey seven days a week: Monday to Friday, Saturdays and Sundays. Tell us which days suit you as you book.
Is this the same as a RICS Level 2 or Level 3 survey?
No. It’s a roof survey by an experienced roof surveyor, with a written report and photos. It does not cover the rest of the property, which a RICS survey does.
Will you climb onto the roof?
Only where it’s safe to do so. We inspect from ground level, from windows and vantage points, from the loft and from the roof itself where safe. On Premium, a drone is used where applicable.
What happens if roof problems are left?
Plenty of buyers go ahead anyway, but with their eyes open. The report shows what needs doing first, so you can plan work before small faults get bigger. Many older London roofs have only old felt under the slates, or no underlay at all, so once the slates or flashings let water past, little stops it reaching ceilings. Left alone, that means wet timbers and plaster, which is a far bigger job than the roof fault itself.
Thermal imaging and drone inspection (where it applies) come with the Premium Survey, which starts from £400, inc. VAT. We will tell you which package suits the questions you have.
What you get with us
- More than 5,000 surveys completed
- Surveys seven days a week
- An independent view of the roof
- A report with photos
Take a look at our cost guide and two real surveys.