The short answer: a proper handover pack lets somebody who never saw the work understand it. It should hold dated photographs of each stage, a record of the build-up as laid, the guarantee documents with who stands behind each layer, the maintenance conditions, a marked plan where details changed, and on larger projects the health and safety file.
This guide is for whoever signs a roof job off: a managing agent, a facilities manager, a main contractor closing a subcontract package, or an owner who wants to know what to ask for. It applies whoever did the work, including us.
Why does the pack matter once the roof is dry?
Because most of the questions a roof raises arrive long after the contractor has gone. A guarantee claim, a sale, a service charge challenge and the next contractor's quotation all begin with the same request: show us what was done. Without a pack, the only honest answer is that nobody knows.
The finished surface hides nearly everything that decides how a roof performs. Insulation, deck repairs, base layers and the reinforcement at each detail are buried by the time anyone signs off, and the pack is the one place they stay visible. That is why it deserves as much scrutiny at handover as the roof itself.
What should the photographs show?
Every stage, including the ones nobody will see again. A useful record begins with the roof as found and ends with the drainage working, and the valuable frames are the ones in between:
- The deck and insulation once exposed, and any repair made to either.
- What the old covering was hiding, especially anything that changed the price.
- Each detail part-built: upstands, outlets, kerbs and penetrations before they were closed.
- The finished roof, taken after rain or a water test, showing where water actually goes.
Look for pictures that are dated and placed on the roof, so a photograph of an outlet can be matched to the outlet it shows. A set of flattering finished views proves very little. If the job uncovered something unexpected and it was charged as a variation, the photograph that justified the variation belongs in the pack as well.
What is a record of the build-up as laid?
A plain description of every layer now on the roof, from the deck up, with the products and systems named. It records what was actually installed, which is not always what the original specification said, because a roof that has been opened routinely changes the plan.
It earns its keep on the day somebody needs to repair, extend or re-cover the roof. A contractor who knows what is underneath can price accurately and choose materials that suit it; one who does not has to open the roof to find out, at the owner's expense. Where insulation or boarding was renewed, the record should say so, together with anything left in place and the reason it stayed. The data sheets for each material used belong beside it, so nobody has to guess what a product will tolerate.
Which guarantees belong in the pack, and who gives each one?
Usually two, from different parties, and the pack should make plain which is which. The contractor guarantees its own workmanship. Where a membrane manufacturer is involved, it guarantees its products, commonly to the contractor it approved and not to whoever owns the building.
Read both before signing off: who issued each, what it covers, what it excludes and what maintenance it depends on. A product guarantee held by the contractor appears in the pack as confirmation that it exists and who holds it, not as a certificate in your name. How the two layers fit together, and why the conditions attached to them matter, is the subject of our guarantees and inspections guide.
Why keep the manufacturer's maintenance conditions?
Because they belong to the product guarantee, which sits with the contractor, and they are met through the upkeep the owner arranges, which the contractor helps with; nobody can keep to a schedule they were never shown. Most membrane manufacturers expect regular inspection and clearing, with records, and exclude damage that routine care would have prevented.
In the pack, those conditions turn from small print into a schedule that can be handed to whoever looks after the roof, whether an in-house team or a planned maintenance programme. The record of every visit belongs in the same file, because that file is the first thing asked for when a guarantee is tested.
When should there be a marked plan or drawings?
Whenever the finished roof differs from what anybody would assume. If outlets moved, falls were altered, upstands were raised or a detail was built differently from the original drawing, a marked plan is the only record of that change likely to survive.
It need not be an architect's drawing. A roof plan with the outlets, penetrations and changed details marked and dated is enough for the next contractor to understand the drainage and the junctions without starting again. On a larger scheme the as-built drawings do the same job formally.
Mark anything added for access or safety as well: a new hatch, a rooflight, an anchor point or a walkway. The next person on the roof needs to know where the fragile surfaces and the fixing points are before stepping onto it, not after.
What is the health and safety file, and when is it required?
On a project under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations large enough to need a principal designer, the health and safety file is a required document. It holds the information anybody will need to carry out future construction, maintenance or demolition work on the building safely, and it passes to the client at the end.
The principal designer prepares it from information the contractors supply, and the client keeps it and hands it on if the building is sold. For a roof it typically covers how the roof can be reached safely, fragile surfaces such as rooflights, anything hazardous left in place, and the materials used. The HSE's guidance on the Regulations sets out what the file should contain; the roofing contractor's part is to supply its information accurately and on time. How that exchange runs when we work under a principal contractor is described on our main contractor packages page.
What should you do if the pack is missing pieces?
Ask for them in writing, naming exactly what is missing, before final payment or retention is released. Most gaps are administrative rather than sinister, and a contractor that kept proper records can fill them quickly. Keep the request and the reply with the pack, so a later reader can see what was asked for and what came back.
Where the records truly do not exist, the next best thing is a baseline made now. A condition survey records the roof as it stands, photographs every detail that can be seen and notes what cannot be confirmed, so the building at least has a starting point for maintenance, guarantee questions and future work. It cannot recover what was buried, and a good report will say so plainly.