Condition ratings
The text mentions roof spread while the covering is rating 2. Has spread been given a separate condition rating?
Not quite. Mentioning roof spread in the text, while the covering is rating 2, has not by itself handed spread a separate condition rating. Spread is the roof pushing the walls. The covering rating is about slates or tiles. A sentence can warn you without awarding a second number. Look for a structure line of its own, and ask if the table never gave spread a mark.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Roof spread is the roof frame pushing the tops of the walls out, often with a gap at a wall plate or a bow in the masonry. That is not the same thing as a tile that needs replacing. A covering at rating 2 needs repair or replacement but is not serious or urgent. The sentence about spread may be a warning, a cause, or a rated defect, and you cannot tell which from the mere fact it was mentioned. A condition rating is a number on an element. If the table has a roof-structure line, read that number. If it does not, the spread has not been rated yet, and silence is not rating 1.
Where spread is serious or urgent, the fitting mark is rating 3, and the what to do now note tells you to get written quotations before legal commitment. Do not assume that step applies just because the word appears next to a rating 2 covering. The note advises you. It does not invoice the seller, and it does not let you relabel spread as something else in the email to the agent. Ask the surveyor whether the structure has its own rating, what they actually saw, and whether the covering's rating 2 is only about the tiles. Concealed ends of rafters are not guaranteed sound because a sentence mentioned them.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Does roof spread have its own rating, or only a mention in the text?
- Is the covering's rating 2 about the tiles alone?
- If spread is serious or urgent, why is it not rating 3?
What are the typical next steps?
- Find the structure line before you treat spread as rated.
- Ask the surveyor to confirm the number, or the lack of one.
- Do not describe spread to the seller as the tile rating.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Can the covering be rating 2 and the structure rating 3?
Yes. Tiles can need ordinary repair while the frame's thrust is serious. They are different elements.
If the table is silent, may I treat spread as rating 1?
No. A missing number is not rating 1. Ask for the mark, or accept that it was not given.