The Short Answer
If the covering is sound and the problem is one failed detail, repair it. If the fixings have gone across the whole roof, or the felt and battens underneath have perished on every slope, replace it. A roof can be old and fine, and it can be forty years old and finished. Age is not the test.
Signs It Has Years Left
One leak in one place. A few slipped tiles on one slope. Damp on a chimney breast, which is the chimney, not the roof. Cracked ridge mortar. Gutters overflowing. All of these are details, and details are repaired.
Signs It Is at the End
Slates or tiles slipping on every slope, not just one, which on a slate roof is nail sickness. Felt visible and crumbling at the eaves or in the loft. Battens you can push a screwdriver into. Daylight in the loft in more than one place. A leak that has been patched three winters running. When several of those line up, patching is throwing money at it.
The One That Fools Everyone
A roof that looks fine from the ground and is letting water in. The covering outlives the felt and battens underneath it, so an old roof can look perfect and be rotten from the inside. That is why the survey goes into the loft as well as onto the roof.
What a Survey Actually Checks
Every slope from the roof, not the ladder. The loft: felt, battens, rafter ends, daylight, staining. The lead at every chimney, valley and abutment. The ridges and hips. The gutters and the roofline. Photographs of all of it, which we go through with you.
If It Is a Repair
We quote for the repair. We do not sell roofs to people who need a tile, and it is most of why people call us back.
If It Really Is a New Roof
We show you the photographs that make the case, and we price the whole job in writing: scaffold, strip, timbers, felt, battens, covering, lead, ridges, disposal. Reusing sound slates or clay tiles where they are worth keeping. And a roof you can forget about for thirty years.