A roof inspection is more than a box-ticking exercise; it’s the foundation of safe, strategic, and cost-effective building management.
Roofs are your building’s first line of defence against the elements, but their location and construction often mean defects go unnoticed until costly damage occurs.
Through a combination of visual inspections, specialist testing, and defect analysis, we can help you identify issues early and give you the data you need to act fast.
As technical specialists in hard-to-access and complex roofs, we offer detailed commercial roof inspections that support building managers, surveyors, and property owners in making confident maintenance, budgeting, and refurbishment decisions.
At Building Transformation, we specialise in technical, hard-to-access commercial roof inspections that deliver the insight, clarity, and confidence for building managers, surveyors, and asset owners.
A comprehensive roof condition survey can help keep your buildings safe, compliant, and structurally sound.
Our surveys include:
Our team can provide a detailed picture of the building’s issues, risks and health, avoiding potentially large repair bills in the future. So, we actively help our clients make informed decisions about their roof assets.
We work across all roof structures, including liquid applied membranes (LAM), reinforced Bituminous Membranes (RBM, flat and pitched to complex historic or metal roof structures. Using safe and compliant access methods, such as abseiling, MEWPs, anchorage systems and cradles, our team can deliver comprehensive condition surveys with minimal disruption.
Take a look at our work on the Hilton Hyde Park Dome, which won the 2024 LRWA Award for Best Liquid Roofing Project – it’s just one example of our technical ability and conservation-led approach.
A professional roof condition survey is the foundation for informed asset management. Commercial roofs, whether flat, pitched, metal, or membrane, require regular specialist inspection to stay watertight and avoid unexpected deterioration. Our roof surveys help identify early signs of wear, assess compliance, and guide planned preventative maintenance.
For buildings with restricted or challenging access, we use rope access, MEWPs, and cradles to inspect the complete roof safely and efficiently.
Roof surveys are essential for:
By tailoring each roof survey to the individual building, we give our clients complete confidence in their investment planning and compliance strategy. Our service supports both reactive and proactive maintenance approaches.
Accurate visualisation is a key part of our survey process. Our in-house technical team analyse roof CAD drawings and 3D visual representations using SnagR technology. These allow clients to pinpoint the exact location of defects without ever needing to access the roof themselves.
This method provides multiple practical benefits:
Precise defect location mapping
Defects are clearly tagged on the plan, removing ambiguity and ensuring operatives or contractors know exactly where attention is needed.
Improved stakeholder communication
CAD visuals are easy to interpret and ideal for communicating technical findings to non-technical audiences, such as building owners or board members.
Support for project and budget planning
With a visual breakdown of defects, clients can group repairs into phases, assign budgets accordingly, and prioritise based on severity and location.
Progress visualisation and repair tracking
Our system allows us to document works before, during, and after repair, helping you monitor progress and ensure agreed outcomes have been met.
We also provide before, during, and after photography, making it easy to visualise progress and justify works to internal teams or external consultants.
Roof defects can remain hidden until they cause serious issues. That’s why we’ve designed our surveys to spot potential failures early and categorise them based on severity and urgency.
Typical defects we identify include:
We map these faults directly onto roof plans using SnagR and CAD drawings, complete with defect codes and repair recommendations. This data-rich approach enables stakeholders to visualise the full extent of damage, plan for targeted repairs, and track changes over time.
We also deploy a suite of advanced, non-destructive testing methods to uncover hidden issues:
Dry test: A dry test uses electrical resistance to detect breaches in waterproof membranes. This helps us pinpoint punctures or splits in single-ply systems that may not be visible on the surface.
Wet test: A wet test simulates rainwater ingress by applying controlled water across the surface and observing where it penetrates. This method replicates real-world conditions and is effective for detecting poor detailing or installation issues.
DEC scanning (Dielectric Electronic Conductivity): DEC scanning identifies moisture trapped beneath roof surfaces by measuring conductivity. It helps determine the extent of water ingress without needing to remove layers.
Thermal imaging: Detects heat loss and areas where insulation may be compromised. Temperature variations help us locate potential leaks, damp patches, or saturated insulation, especially useful on large-scale roofs.
By combining visual inspection with data-backed diagnostics, we can produce a comprehensive condition report that empowers building managers to prioritise repairs based on risk, cost, and operational impact.
From government buildings and hospitals to universities and hotels across the UK, at Building Transformation, we specialise in roof condition surveys for a wide variety of buildings and structures.
When visual inspections and surface-level diagnostics don’t provide the full picture, core sampling offers essential insight into what lies beneath your roof membrane. A core sample roof inspection involves physically removing a small section of the waterproofing system to assess the full build-up, from surface to deck, and determine the presence, extent, and location of moisture ingress.
Our technicians carry out this work with minimal disruption and full restoration of the tested area using compatible patching systems.
The goal of this roof testing method is to gain a detailed understanding of:
Each core sample analysis is recorded with photographic evidence, and moisture readings are taken using a calibrated probe to assess whether water has entered or been retained within the system. This makes it easier to verify suspected water ingress or structural inconsistencies.
A core sample roof analysis plays a critical role in forming a robust condition report and future-proofing strategy. It allows asset managers, surveyors, and contractors to:
A drone roof survey, also known as aerial roof mapping, utilises unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to capture high-resolution images and video footage of hard-to-access roof areas. Whether you’re dealing with a steep spire, a historic dome, or an industrial chimney stack, drones enable rapid, risk-free visual assessments without the need for immediate human access.
A strategic first step in the inspection process, drone surveys help identify whether scaffolding, rope access, or MEWPs will be required at all. In many cases, they allow surveyors to make informed decisions on access, safety, and remediation priorities—saving time, cost, and reducing risk.
Drone inspections are particularly useful in the early stages of a roof condition assessment.
They’re ideal for:
In just a few hours, a drone survey can capture thousands of high-definition images, providing an invaluable top-down view of the roofscape. These images can be stored for comparative analysis over time, supporting ongoing maintenance plans and visual tracking of deterioration or remedial work.
While aerial roof surveys provide invaluable context and visibility, they are not a complete substitute for manual inspection. Drones can detect visual faults such as missing tiles, blocked gutters, large cracks, but they cannot assess the material condition beneath debris, test for water retention, or feel structural weaknesses through weight-bearing.
A pile of moss may be hiding a fractured joint. A shadow may mimic a defect. A drone won’t detect springy timbers or damp insulation. And crucially, it won’t fix the issue. For this reason, we recommend using drone inspections to support, not replace, full roof surveys.