The short answer
There is no legal interval for a house roof, so the answer is a habit and not a rule. For a pitched roof, a check every few years is a sensible rhythm, and a look after any severe storm is worth adding. A flat roof needs checking more often, because its covering wears faster. Do a quick ground check each autumn, before the wet months, and call a roofer if anything looks wrong.
No rule sets a date for your next inspection, but a few habits keep small faults small, and flat roofs ask for more attention than pitched ones.
A sensible rhythm for a pitched roof
Slate and tile are long-lived coverings. CORC puts well-maintained slate at 100+ years, and Marley gives concrete roof tiles around 60 years while stating that this is not a guarantee or warranty. Long life does not mean no attention. The parts around the covering wear sooner: the ridge mortar, the flashing (the metal strip sealing the roof to a wall), the valleys and the gutters. Each of them can fail while the slates and tiles are fine.
Is every few years often enough?
For a roof in good order, a professional look every few years catches slipped tiles and cracked pointing before water reaches the timbers. Between visits, you can do a ground check yourself. Stand back from the house with binoculars if you have them, and scan for gaps, tiles that sit out of line, and moss thick enough to block a gutter.
An older roof, or one that has already needed repairs, deserves shorter gaps between checks. If a roofer has warned you that the covering is tiring, ask how soon to look again, and write the answer in your diary so it is not forgotten.
After a storm, and before winter
Weather is the second reason to look. After a severe gale or a night of driving rain, check the ground for slate fragments, ridge pieces and loose flashing, and look at the ceilings for fresh stains. A fault found within days is a small repair, whereas the same fault found in spring may have soaked the insulation all winter. Our guide to roof inspection after a storm lists what to look for.
Why is autumn a good time to check?
Because the wet months are ahead. Autumn is when leaves fill the gutters and valleys, and a gutter full of them overflows against the wall. Clear the gutters, look at the ridge and the chimney flashing, and deal with what you find before the first long run of bad weather arrives.
An exposed house on the Levels or up in the Quantock and Blackdown Hills takes more weather than a sheltered street in town. For those, a check after each rough spell is cheap protection. None of this is a legal duty. It is a habit that keeps small faults small.
Flat roofs need more attention
A flat roof is a membrane or a sheet of felt laid over boards, and it wears faster than slate. Felt roofs get 10 to 20 years from Less, which adds that a poor felt job may fail in under 10. Less gives EPDM, a single rubber membrane, 30 to 50 years and GRP, a fibreglass-reinforced coating, 25 to 40 years, while GreenSpec puts EPDM at 20 to 30. Those figures disagree, so check often and do not bank on the top one.
What rhythm suits a flat roof?
Yearly as a floor, and again after heavy rain that leaves a pool standing. Blisters, splits at the edges and cracks near the outlet are the signs to look for. A flat roof also gets walked on for access to a window or a gutter, and every trip adds wear.
BS 6229:2025, the current standard, keeps a minimum 1:80 finished fall, so water should run to the outlet. If puddles linger a day after rain, the roof is not shedding water as designed. Our flat roof inspection guide goes through the details.
Putting a plan in your diary
Make it simple. Pick one date each autumn for a ground check of the roof, the gutters and the chimney. Add a second look after any major storm. Book a professional inspection every few years, or sooner for an older roof, and every year for a flat one. Keep the photographs from each visit in one folder, labelled by month, so that you can compare slopes from one visit to the next and see what has changed.
Do I need a report each time?
No. A report earns its fee when the roof figures in a purchase, an insurance claim or a tenancy. For a sound roof you simply want to keep an eye on, a visit with photographs and a plain verdict is enough, and a short written note from the roofer is a bonus. Our answer on the best time for a roof inspection goes into the seasons.
The roof inspections hub explains the kinds of check available. When your autumn date arrives, ask us to survey the roof and we will talk you through the photographs before quoting for any repair.
More on how often
Is a new roof exempt from checks?
No, though it needs fewer. Faults on a new roof usually come from the fitting, such as a missed fixing or a poor flashing, and show up in the first seasons. A look after the first winter is sensible, and a new flat roof deserves a check after its first heavy rain, when any pooling shows up straight away.
Can I just check my roof from the ground?
Yes, and it is a good habit between professional visits. Look for gaps, slipped tiles, stains on the ceiling and overflowing gutters. It will not show the underside in the loft or small faults high up, so keep a professional look in the plan as well.
The full picture: Roof inspections in Taunton ยท More short answers