Solar Surveys Research

Primary work, published in full

Research on the structural condition and capacity of UK commercial roofs. Every paper states its basis, publishes its data where it has data, sets out its limitations, and carries a citation block. Open, ungated, and quotable with attribution.

OpenNo registration QuotableAttribution required CitedMethod and limits stated

Basis stated. Every paper says where its findings come from, and says plainly when it has no data.

Limits published. What the work does not establish is set out alongside what it does.

Citable. A citation block on every paper, so the work can be quoted accurately.

Papers

Published

Data · 575 roofs 82% The condition of Britain's commercial roofs Across roofs where a condition assessment was carried out, 82% showed defects capable of affecting long-term waterproofing performance. What that means for anything mounted above them. Roofs where a condition assessment was carried out 82% carried defectsdenominator stated on the paper Paper 03 · August 2026
Condition assessed on approximately 90% of the datasetRead → Foundation What a structural survey establishes, and what it does not The phrase carries no protected meaning in the UK. Several different pieces of work travel under it, and only one of them answers the load question. Paper 01 · Standards and practiceRead → Principle Capacity is spent, not renewed A roof carries what it was designed for, less whatever has been added since. That subtraction has usually been running for decades. Paper 02 · PracticeRead → Method Assessing roofs that cannot be walked on A fragile covering does not reduce what has to be established. It changes how. Paper 04 · MethodRead → Eurocode Snow, altitude and the postcode problem Ground snow load rises with site altitude. A postcode does not describe altitude. Paper 05 · BS EN 1991-1-3 + UK NARead → Scheme scope Where the prescribed check stops A scheme prescribes what happens inside its own scope. Above the ceiling the prescription ends. The requirement does not. Paper 06 · Scheme scopeRead → Sampling How many roofs characterise an estate An estate is several populations, not one. A flat percentage can leave an entire structural form unsampled. Paper 07 · Sampling and stratificationRead → Practice The documentation gap Most British commercial stock cannot produce a reliable structural record. What that absence forces, and what an appraisal rests on instead. Paper 08 · PracticeRead → Data · 575 roofs 62% Asbestos cement and the uplift failure It stops more commercial schemes than any other covering, and the reason is not the one most people expect. It is rarely about the frame. Paper 10 · August 2026Read → Load path The roof is not usually the constraint Load does not stop at roof level. The element that governs is rarely the one anybody was worried about. Paper 09 · Load pathsRead → Wind actions Ballast is a designed load, not a delivered quantity Wind suction peaks at corners and edges. So does the ballast, and so does the load the deck actually carries. Paper 11 · Wind actions and restraintRead → Sequence The cost of finding out late The same structural finding costs different amounts depending on when in the programme it arrives. Paper 12 · Project sequenceRead → Open dataset 575 PV Structural Feasibility Dataset 2026 Every roof we assessed between 2024 and 2026. Outcomes, composition, and the failure mode we name. Dataset · UK commercial rooftopsRead → Specification Structural Feasibility Assessment Specification The specification we work to, published openly so it can be required, compared or improved upon by anybody. Open specificationRead → Reference library Standards Library Every standard governing structural assessment for rooftop load, each with what it covers and what it does not, including those withdrawn. Eight pages · ReferenceRead →

How Solar Surveys approaches this

The engineering practice behind the series

These papers are written by the people who do the work. Solar Surveys carries out structural surveys and roof condition assessments on commercial buildings taking solar PV, across the UK, and everything published here comes out of that practice rather than out of a marketing department.

575 roofs, and counting

The dataset behind these papers is our own completed work between 2024 and 2026. Where a paper states a figure it states the population it came from and how cases entered it, so a reader can judge it rather than take it on trust.

Structural engineers, on every report

Every roof we assess is reviewed and signed by a qualified structural engineer. That is our own standard rather than a scheme requirement, and we hold it on the small jobs as well as the large ones.

Both halves of the question, one attendance

The structure is recorded from below and the covering from above, on the same visit. It is the arrangement these papers keep arguing for, and it is how we actually work.

We publish the findings because the decisions being made on these roofs are better made with them than without them.

On-Site Structural Surveys Roof Condition Assessments Discuss a Project

Solar Surveys Ltd · structural surveys and roof condition assessments for commercial solar PV across the UK · £5m professional indemnity cover in force.

Method

How these are published

Papers are published when their basis is sound, not to a schedule. Where a finding cannot be stated together with its denominator and the basis on which cases entered the sample, it is held rather than published qualified.

Two figures appear across this series, and both carry their source

Where a paper states a proportion, the population it was drawn from and the way cases entered it are stated alongside. Where a paper has no data — and most of these do not — it says so in its basis section rather than implying otherwise. Several papers deliberately publish no values at all, because the quantities they discuss are properties of a specific site and a generic figure would be worse than none.

Corrections are welcome and will be made openly

If something here is wrong, or a figure needs a breakdown we have not published, ask. A correction on the record is worth more than a paper nobody checked.

Solar Surveys Research

Writing about this?

Every figure we publish carries its basis and its limits. If you need something clarified, a breakdown we have not published, or a point expanded, ask.