Site diary for roofing: what to record

Roofing lives and dies by the weather, and it buries its own evidence layer by layer. Once the tiles are on, nobody can see whether the membrane laps were right or the valley was detailed properly. A daily site diary for the roofing phase captures the wind stops that explain the programme and the stage photos that prove the workmanship, before either disappears. This guide covers exactly what a roofing diary should record, a worked example of a real day, and how to log it from the scaffold on your phone.

What a site diary for roofing needs to capture

A roofing diary has to track the weather closely and photograph each layer before the next one hides it. Record these every day:

• Weather and wind. Rain, frost, wind speed and gusts. Wind is the main reason roofing stops, so log it and the time the gang came off the roof
• Scaffold and edge protection. Handover status, guard rails, brick guards, and any scaffold defect reported or fixed. Working at height safety is central to a roofing record
• Stage of covering reached. Felt or breathable membrane, battens, underlay laps, tiling or slating, ridge and hip, flashings and abutments. Note the elevation and the area covered
• Details before they are hidden. Valleys, verges, abutments, soakers, lead work and insulation, all photographed before the next layer goes on
• Materials. Tiles, slates, membrane, battens and lead delivered, with quantities and any damaged or rejected loads
• Water and weather protection. Any temporary covering, tarpaulins or scaffold sheeting, and any water ingress protected against overnight
• Labour on site. Roofers, labourers and any subcontractor, with numbers
• Inspections. Any check of membrane, batten gauge or fixings, and the outcome
• Stoppages. The exact time work stood down for wind or rain and what was lost
• Instructions and variations. Any change to the specification, tile type or detailing requested on site

A worked roofing diary example

Here is what a solid entry looks like for a single day tiling a pitched roof on a two-storey job. It is illustrative only, but it shows the detail that holds up if a leak or delay is raised later.

Thursday. Weather: dry, cold, wind fresh from the west, gusting stronger by mid-afternoon. On site: 3 roofers, 1 labourer. Scaffold: full handover in place, edge protection and brick guards checked at start, no defects. Work: completed breathable membrane and battens to rear pitch, laps checked at 150mm, battens set to gauge for the specified tile. Started tiling from eaves to two-thirds up the rear pitch. Valley to rear left dressed and detailed. Materials: 6 packs of tiles and ridge delivered, all sound. Weather protection: rear pitch sheeted overnight. Stoppage: gang taken off the roof at 15:20 as gusts increased, remainder of the day lost to wind. Photos: membrane laps and batten gauge before tiling, valley detail, eaves course, scaffold edge protection. No variations today.

Compare that to "did some tiling, windy later". One protects you. The other does not.

Why it matters on a roofing job

Roofing disputes tend to be about two things: why it took longer than the client expected, and whether a later leak was down to the workmanship. The diary answers both.

Wind and rain stops are real and frequent, but a client who was not on the roof only sees the days go by. Recorded wind speeds and stand-down times turn a vague argument into a documented one. And when a leak appears months later, the only way to show the membrane laps, valley and flashings were detailed correctly is the stage photo taken before the tiles went on. Roofing hides its own work as it goes, so the record has to be made in real time.

Paper vs phone on a roofing site

Nobody wants to fill in a paper diary standing on a scaffold in the wind, so it gets left until the end of the week and reconstructed from memory. By then the exact stages, the wind stops and which photo belongs to which day are all a blur.

Logging from a phone fits the way a roofing gang actually works. You take the stage photo and it attaches to that day with its own time and location, the entry is timestamped as you make it, and the record cannot be quietly changed afterwards. Scaffolds and roofs also sit above the building where the signal can be poor, so the tool has to save offline and sync later. A diary that needs a connection to save the photo is useless three storeys up.

Frequently asked questions

What should a roofing site diary record each day?

Record the date, weather and wind speed, the roofing gang and any labour, scaffold and edge protection checks, what was covered off that day such as felt, membrane, battens or tiling, materials delivered, any water ingress protected against, inspections, and any time lost to weather with the reason. Attach photos of the work before it is covered by the next layer.

Why is wind so important in a roofing diary?

Roofing is stopped by wind more than almost any other trade because working at height in gusts is unsafe and loose materials become a hazard. Recording the wind speed and the time you took the gang off the roof gives you a contemporaneous record if the client questions why the roof took longer than planned.

What roofing work should be photographed before it is covered up?

Underlay and breathable membrane laps, batten gauge and fixing, valley and abutment detailing, flashings, and insulation all disappear once the tiles or covering go on. Photograph each stage with a date and time so you can prove the detail was correct if a leak or defect is raised later.

How does FORGE Command help a roofing team?

FORGE Command lets the site lead log the day from a phone, attach stage photos to each entry, and have every record stamped with GPS, weather and time automatically. It works offline on the scaffold with no signal, then syncs, and exports a branded PDF. It is a one payment of £39.99 with no subscription.

Related: what a defensible site diary records, site diary for groundworks, site diary for a house extension.