Roof condition questions

Answer these three on paper first. What is it covered in? Natural slate is usual on older streets toward the town centre and Castletown. Concrete tile is usual on later estates. Plenty of houses have both, with a different covering on the extension. When was it last stripped or overhauled? A rough decade is enough. If nobody knows, say that. How many places has water shown this winter? One slipped slate after a gale is a repair. A ridge open along the frontage, valleys that stay full and daylight at the eaves seen from the loft is a bigger conversation. Then check the usual hiding places from the garden: chimney stacks with cracked flaunching, stepped flashings where a two-storey return meets the main roof, and valley gutters. A stack can wet a room in a way that looks just like a valley leak. Write down anything that makes the job awkward: a narrow terrace, cars parked tight, a steep pitch, a chimney that would need scaffolding. Those move the price more than any national cost page. If insulation went in under the rafters lately, mention it. Condensation can look like a leak from below. If the house is a protected structure or sits in an architectural conservation area, say that too, so nobody suggests a tile the street would not allow.

Ask the roofer to say whether this is wind damage on a sound covering or a covering near the end of its life, and whether condensation is part of it.

Covering type, the rough date of the last work, how many rooms have stained, and any access problems on the street.

Old Dundalk slate and later concrete tile wear out in different ways, so a replacement price that does not name the covering tells you very little.