Roof-Mounted Equipment Questions Checklist

Write down what the roof is covered in, as far as you can tell, and note whether the same covering runs across the whole area concerned.

Different coverings behave very differently when something is fixed through them, and owners often do not know which they have.

Look for any record of when the covering was last renewed or repaired, including paperwork from a previous owner, and note what you find.

The age of the covering is the single most useful fact in this whole conversation, and it is usually recoverable from paperwork.

Ask a qualified professional to look at the covering before anything is agreed, and keep their written observations with the project record.

An installer quoting for equipment is not the person who will tell you the roof beneath it is near the end of its life.

The condition and remaining life of a roof are determinations for a qualified professional on site. Nothing here establishes them.

Ask how long the equipment is expected to remain in service, and hold that against what you were told about the covering it would sit on.

Mounting long-lived equipment on a covering near the end of its life is the mistake this whole checklist exists to catch.

Note anything you already know about the roof, such as where water has appeared inside, where moss grows heavily or where ponding is visible.

Owner observations of a roof are genuinely useful evidence, and they are frequently the only history anybody has.

Ask plainly whether it would make more sense to renew the covering first, and record the reasoning you are given either way.

Asking the question openly changes the conversation, because it invites an honest answer rather than an assumption.

Ask what the roof is made up of beneath the covering, and get the layers named rather than described as a single thickness.

Knowing the layers by name lets you ask what happens to each of them where something passes through.

Ask how many penetrations the installation would make in total, including fixings, cable routes and pipe entries, and get that number written down.

Owners are usually shown the equipment and never told how many times the roof would be perforated to hold it.

Ask whether any arrangement exists that does not pass through the covering at all, and what that would depend on.

A non-penetrating option changes the entire risk profile of the installation and is worth asking about even where it turns out not to apply.

Ask for the positions of every penetration to be marked on a drawing, and keep that drawing with the building's own records.

Once the equipment is installed the penetrations are underneath it, and the drawing becomes the only way to know where they are.

Ask who forms and seals each penetration, whether that is the equipment installer or a roofing trade, and confirm it is in somebody's scope.

A penetration is created by a services package while the plane it crosses belongs to an envelope package, so it frequently belongs to nobody.

How a penetration should be formed and sealed is a matter for qualified professionals. Record whose scope it sits in; leave the method to them.

Ask what the installation would look like from inside the building, including where cables or pipes emerge and what they pass through.

The internal side of a roof installation is regularly left undiscussed until it appears in a ceiling somewhere unexpected.

Ask how the roof would be reached for maintenance, and whether that is from inside the building, from a fixed provision or from outside equipment.

Access provision is part of the installation decision, not something to be worked out the first time the equipment needs attention.

Work at height is a matter for qualified people with the right equipment. Record how access is provided rather than planning it yourself.

Ask what the equipment is expected to need attention for, and whether any of those tasks are things a household would be expected to do.

Owners are frequently surprised to learn that some routine task was assumed to be theirs from the start.

Ask whether reaching the equipment involves walking on the covering, and whether anything is proposed to protect it where people would tread.

Traffic on a covering that was never intended to be walked on is a slow and largely invisible cause of damage.

Ask which parts of the installation could be inspected or replaced in place, and which would require the equipment to be taken off.

The difference between a component that can be swapped and one that requires dismantling is worth knowing before you choose it.

Note whether reaching the roof would need equipment standing on ground you do not own, and record that as a permanent condition.

An access route depending on somebody else is a lasting feature of the installation rather than a one-off arrangement.

Ask whether anything is to be permanently fixed to the building for access, what maintains it, and what documentation comes with it.

Fixed access provision is itself a thing to be looked after, and its paperwork should reach the owner at handover.

Ask what would have to be removed from the roof before the covering could be renewed, and whether it could be refitted or would be replaced.

Some equipment can be taken off and put back, and some effectively cannot, and the difference matters over a covering's life.

Ask who would remove and refit the equipment, and whether that is something a roofing trade could do or requires the original installer.

Needing a specific installer to remove equipment before roof work is a real constraint, and it should be known in advance.

Ask what would happen to the existing penetrations if the covering were renewed, and whether the equipment would go back in the same positions.

Positions rarely repeat exactly, which means a renewed roof may end up with old holes and new ones in different places.

Write down the order any future roof work would have to happen in, so that whoever arranges it later is not discovering it then.

A short note about sequence is worth more at that point than the whole rest of the installation paperwork.

Ask whether the equipment is expected to still be in service when the covering next needs renewing, and record the answer.

This single question puts the two timescales next to each other, which is exactly what nobody does in the sales conversation.

Keep the answers with the building's roof records rather than with the equipment paperwork, since that is where they will be looked for.

Future roof work starts from the roof file, and equipment information filed elsewhere is effectively lost.

Ask in writing who is responsible for each penetration after completion, and whether that is the same party responsible for the equipment.

The equipment and the hole it sits in are frequently the responsibility of different people, which only emerges when water appears.

Ask what cover or guarantee applies to the equipment, to the fixings and to the covering around them, and keep the wordings.

Three different documents with three different scopes is the normal situation, and owners typically hold only one of them.

Whether an installation affects any existing warranty or cover is a question for the party that issued it. Ask them directly and in writing.

If the covering has any existing guarantee, ask the party that issued it, before installation, what fixing something through it would mean.

This question has to be asked of the issuer beforehand, because afterwards the answer cannot change what was done.

Ask who you would call if water appeared inside beneath the equipment, and write down the answer while everyone is still involved.

A leak under roof equipment is the classic situation where two parties each point at the other.

Note what your building insurer should be told about the installation, and ask them directly rather than assuming it makes no difference.

Telling an insurer is a short conversation before installation and a much longer one afterwards.

Write down every party who worked on the roof, what each did, and when, and keep that list with the building records.

This list is what makes any later question answerable, and it is only assemblable while the work is happening.

Read any lease or title wording about the roof, the external fabric and what may be fixed to the building, and mark anything unclear.

In many buildings the roof is retained by somebody else entirely, which settles the question before it is asked.

What any lease or title wording permits is a question for your own legal adviser rather than for an installer.

Where there is a freeholder or managing agent, ask them in writing what their position is, and keep the reply.

A written reply is what will matter later, and a verbal indication from a managing agent is not the same thing.

Ask the relevant local authority what applies to equipment of this kind at your property, and record what you were told and when.

Requirements vary between localities and by the character of the building, and they can only be confirmed directly.

Note whether the building or the area carries any designation that affects what may appear on the roof, and ask where that is recorded.

Designations that affect external appearance are commonly discovered after an installer has already been round.

Ask the installer what permissions or approvals they assume are in place, and whether obtaining any of them is part of their work.

Installers frequently assume the owner has dealt with this, and owners frequently assume the installer has.

Keep the lease wording, the written replies and the note of what the authority said in one file with the roof records.

These answers are asked for again every time anything changes on the roof, sometimes years apart.

Photograph the roof before the work, during installation with the fixings visible, and after completion, and keep all three sets dated.

The during-installation images are the only record of what is underneath the finished equipment.

Keep the drawing showing where every penetration was made, marked against a feature you can still identify from inside the building.

A drawing that references something identifiable is usable years later; one referencing a site datum is not.

Collect the documentation for the equipment, the mounting system and anything fixed for access, and keep it together in one folder.

What any of these require is set by their own documentation, and handover is the only realistic chance to gather it.

Write down how the equipment is isolated or shut down, where the controls are, and who showed you, and keep that with the household papers.

The demonstration happens once, usually on a busy day, and it is forgotten within weeks unless somebody writes it down.

Write down what you were told the equipment would need over a year, and which of those tasks were described as yours.

Upkeep expectations stated verbally at handover are otherwise the least durable part of the whole installation.

File all of this with the building's roof records so it is found by whoever deals with the roof next, including a future owner.

Project files get archived and forgotten; the roof file is what somebody actually opens when the roof is next touched.