How do I know if my roof has a problem?

A slow walk around the property, ideally with binoculars, answers more than people expect. Look along each roof slope for coverings that sit lower, higher or at a different angle than their neighbours, and along the ridge and the verges for mortar that has cracked, fallen away or grown vegetation.

Then look at where water is meant to go. Gutters that overflow in ordinary rain, staining down a wall below a joint, or fragments of slate and mortar in the gutter all tell you something has moved above.

The roof space is the most useful place a homeowner can safely look. On a dry day, dark staining on timbers or on the underside of the underlay shows where water has been, even when nothing is dripping. Damp or compressed insulation, a musty smell, and rust on nail heads all point the same way.

Daylight is worth noting but is not automatically a defect: some older roofs were never sealed, and a pinhole of light at a verge is not the same as a gap at a valley. What matters is whether daylight and staining appear in the same place.

Severity depends less on how dramatic the symptom looks than on whether water is getting in, whether anything is likely to fall, and whether the problem is spreading. A single displaced tile on a sound roof is usually a planned repair. The same tile above a doorway in use is a safety issue first.

Movement in the roof line, a bulging ceiling, or water anywhere near electrical fittings changes the picture immediately, and should be treated as urgent rather than monitored.

A useful inspection names the component that has failed, shows you the evidence, and says whether the same failure appears elsewhere. That is what turns a symptom into a decision: an isolated defect on an otherwise sound roof points to a local repair, while the same failure repeated across an elevation points to renewal of that area.

Where the answer depends on something nobody can see from the surface, the honest recommendation is further investigation before anyone specifies work or quotes a figure.