Preparing your request
Describe your roof in five questions
Nobody knows how to describe a roof, and that is entirely normal — it is not your trade. Five questions are enough to write something genuinely useful.
A roofer who receives “I have a leak” knows nothing. Not where, not since when, not whether the ceiling is marked, not whether the house can be reached — and it will take two exchanges to find out. The same message, properly described, lets the visit be prepared, and sometimes lets him arrive with the right tile already in the van.
This page only asks questions you can answer from the ground. From your answers it writes a description you can read back, correct, copy or send. It does not tell you what you have, and it puts no figure on anything: both of those are decided on the roof, with the tiles lifted.
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What can you see?
What you can see, not what you conclude from it.
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Whereabouts, exactly?
The place matters more than the look: it is what points the way.
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For how long?
An old mark and a new one are not treated the same way.
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What kind of building is it?
This is what decides access, and therefore how the job is organised.
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And access?
Can a lorry get close? That is the question that changes everything.
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Which village or town?
Optional, but it is what lets us say straight away whether the area is covered.
Your description
Read it back, correct anything that is wrong, then copy it or send it. It is not a formal document: it is a starting point.
Answer the questions above: the description writes itself as you go.
The photographs that will save a visit
- The whole roof, from the street or from somewhere a little higher: that is what places the problem.
- The exact spot, framed closer, if you can see it without climbing.
- The mark inside, if there is one, with the wall or window around it for scale.
- The access: the street, the gate, where a lorry could park.
Got your description?
Send it as it stands. A reply comes back with whatever is still missing, if anything is.