A roof inspection typically costs £100–£400 in 2026 for an ordinary house, with a basic ground-level visual check at the bottom of that range and a standard inspection with a written report toward the top. Add drone photography and you're usually still inside £200–£400; add thermal or moisture imaging on top of either and expect another £150–£300. Scaffold or a cherry picker, where genuinely needed just to get eyes on the roof, is a separate cost again and often the single biggest line item on the invoice.
What that fee actually buys varies more than the price range suggests, because “roof inspection” covers everything from someone standing on the pavement with binoculars for ten minutes to a drone flight producing photographs of every elevation with a written condition summary. The access method matters as much as the money: a ladder gets you close to one section, a drone sees the whole roof from angles a ladder never reaches, and a pole camera fills the gap for a single awkward spot — a valley, a parapet, a flat roof upstand — without either.
I fly drones myself and offer drone roof surveys as part of my own practice, so this is one of the few guides in this series where I have a direct commercial interest rather than none. What follows is checked against the wider UK market rather than built around my own price list, and the honest bit I’d ask you to read properly is the section on the “free inspection” a roofer offers unprompted, because that’s where the real cost of a roof inspection tends to hide.
The short answer
Figures below were checked on 29 September 2026 against Checkatrade and MyJobQuote cost guides, cross-referenced against each other. Both sources put London and the South East — Dom’s patch included — at 20–30% above the national figures quoted here.
| Type | Typical cost (2026) | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Ground-level visual check | £100–£200 | Binoculars or the naked eye from the pavement or garden, no access equipment |
| Standard inspection | £200–£400 | Closer look via ladder or vantage points, written condition report |
| Drone inspection | £200–£400 | High-resolution photos of every elevation; more for a large or commercial roof |
| Thermal or moisture imaging (add-on) | +£150–£300 | Spots missing insulation, damp timbers or a failing flat-roof membrane |
Scaffold, where a roof genuinely can't be assessed any other way, typically adds £300–£800 for a standard two-storey house and up to £1,000 or more for anything taller or more complex, once erection and a short hire period are included. A cherry picker is a lighter-touch alternative at roughly £150–£300 a day, still needing a competent operative and level ground to set up on. Against either of those, a £200–£400 drone inspection is rarely a close contest — more on that below.
What drives the price
Size, height and complexity. A simple single-storey roof with one pitch takes minutes to assess; a three-storey Victorian terrace with valleys, dormers and multiple chimney stacks takes considerably longer, whichever method is used to look at it.
Access difficulty. A roof visible from the street or garden costs less to inspect than one boxed in by extensions, close neighbours or a steep, unstable pitch that rules out a ladder altogether.
The deliverable. A verbal opinion costs less than a written report; a written report costs less than one with annotated photographs of every elevation and a repair-priority list.
Method. Ground-level visual and drone inspections both avoid access equipment and sit at similar prices; anything requiring a ladder to be climbed for pay brings the inspector's own working-at-height obligations into the price, and anything requiring scaffold or a cherry picker brings a genuinely separate cost.
Region. As with most trades in this series, London, the South East and other high-cost areas commonly run 20–30% above the national averages quoted here.
Who's doing the looking. A roofing contractor's inspection is usually priced to lead into a repair quote; an independent surveyor's is priced as a stand-alone diagnostic. Neither is automatically the right or wrong choice, but it's worth knowing which one you're booking, because it changes what the inspector has an incentive to tell you.
Ladder, drone, pole camera or scaffold — how it's actually done
A ladder is the traditional method, and on a simple, accessible roof it's still perfectly adequate: someone climbs close enough to look at tiles, mortar and flashings from arm's length. Its limits are physical and legal. It only reaches what it can safely lean against, so rear slopes, valleys and anything above the second storey are often out of range; and for anyone doing it as paid work, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply, meaning a competent contractor should be weighing up whether a ladder is even the right equipment for the job rather than defaulting to it because it's cheapest.
A drone removes most of that limitation for a broadly similar price. Ten minutes of flying photographs every elevation, ridge, valley and stack from angles a ladder genuinely cannot reach, with nobody leaving the ground. I've written separately about what a drone survey costs and, on the equipment side, about the drones actually worth buying for this kind of work — the short version is that a sub-250g drone flown by a CAA-registered operator with the right insurance is now the more common way a roof gets looked at, not the exception.
A pole camera fills a narrower gap: it isn't a substitute for a systematic look at a whole roof, but it's the fastest way to check one specific thing — a valley gutter, a flat roof behind a parapet, the far side of a chimney — without setting up a drone flight or climbing anything. A phone clamped to a telescopic pole, held up and viewed on the screen from the ground, answers a single question in under a minute.
Scaffold is the method that stops being about the inspection at all. If work is going to be carried out — re-pointing, re-bedding ridge tiles, flashings replaced — the scaffold is going up regardless, and a hands-on inspection while it's there is close to free. Where it's a genuine cost is when scaffold is put up purely to inspect, which is rarely the cheapest route to an answer and is usually only justified where a roof's condition is disputed and a physical, hands-on check is needed to settle it.
The “free inspection” — what it actually costs you
The offer that should make you pause is the one you didn't ask for: a caller at the door, often within days of a storm, who happens to have spotted a problem with your roof from the street and would be glad to take a closer look for nothing. It's a genuine and well-documented pattern, not a rare exception — consumer bodies flag it as one of the most common pretexts for pressure selling in the roofing trade, and the shape is consistent enough to recognise: damage is found that nobody else can see, urgency is manufactured ("it'll only get worse"), and a decision is wanted before you've had time to check anything, sometimes with a claim about having “just finished your neighbour's roof” thrown in.
None of that means every free inspection is dishonest. A free inspection you arranged yourself, from a company you found and vetted, carries none of that pressure — you called them, you can end the conversation any time, and a legitimate contractor is content to leave you with a written quote to think over rather than a form to sign on the doorstep. The distinction that actually matters isn't whether the inspection was free; it's whether the inspection and the decision to spend money happened in the same visit, with someone else controlling the clock.
The practical cost of the bad version isn't the inspection, which was genuinely free — it's whatever gets sold off the back of it. A "damaged" tile pointed out from the ground is hard to independently verify without going up yourself, and work agreed under pressure is routinely priced well above what the same job would cost booked calmly through three quotes. If a roof genuinely needs looking at, the far cheaper route is to commission it on your own terms, from someone you chose, and treat any inspection that arrives on your doorstep uninvited as a sales visit wearing a survey's clothing.
What I'd watch for in a quote
- Exactly what's being inspected, and from where. "Roof inspection" from the pavement is a different job to one with drone photographs of every elevation — ask which, before comparing price against another quote.
- A written report, not just a verbal opinion. Photographs and a short summary are worth having on file, especially if the inspection is feeding into a buying, selling or insurance decision.
- Whether the inspector is also quoting the repair. Not disqualifying on its own, but worth knowing — an independent second opinion costs little against the size of a re-roofing quote it might save you from.
- CAA registration and insurance, for a drone inspection. An Operator ID, a Flyer ID, and commercial insurance meeting EC 785/2004 — ask, and expect a straight answer.
- No pressure to decide on the day. A fair quote survives being taken away and compared. One that has to be signed immediately usually isn't one.
Questions I get asked
How much does a roof inspection cost in 2026? A ground-level visual check typically costs £100–£200, a standard inspection with a written report £200–£400, and a drone inspection £200–£400 for a house, more for a commercial or complex roof. Adding thermal or moisture imaging typically puts another £150–£300 on top. London and the South East commonly run 20–30% above these figures.
Are free roof inspections a scam? Not automatically, but the pattern worth watching is specific: an uninvited caller, often straight after a storm, who finds damage nobody else can see and wants a decision on the spot. A free inspection you arranged yourself, from a company you researched, is usually fine — you can walk away with nothing bought. The version that costs you is the one where the inspection and the sale happen in the same conversation, with no time to check anything.
Is a drone roof inspection worth the money over a ladder? For most houses, yes, mainly because it's safer and it photographs the parts a ladder never reaches squarely on — valleys, rear slopes, the top of a stack. A ladder inspection can be perfectly adequate on a simple, accessible roof, but the moment there's more than one storey, an awkward pitch, or a slope with no ladder access, drone photography is usually both the cheaper and the more thorough option.
How often should a roof actually be inspected? For an ordinary house in reasonable condition, every two to three years is a sensible routine, plus a check straight after any named storm or a fall of debris you can see from the ground. Older roofs, roofs already showing minor defects, or roofs on a property you're about to buy or sell are all reasons to inspect sooner rather than waiting for the schedule to come round.
If a roof needs a proper look before you buy, sell or spend money repairing it, that's exactly what my drone roof surveys and building survey work cover — an independent inspection with no repair quote to sell off the back of it. Call 07946 618203 or get in touch and I'll tell you honestly whether the roof needs more than a look.
Small print. This guide is general information, not advice on a specific roof, and it doesn’t replace a written quote for your own property. I offer drone roof surveys myself, as noted above; the pricing here is checked against the wider market, not just my own rates. Prices were researched and correct to the best of my knowledge on 29 September 2026; costs move and vary by region and provider. Always get at least three written quotes.