What is the PCA spray foam inspection protocol?
Our contractors: 15,123 verified reviews across 8 platforms, rated 4.9 on GoogleIt is a standard, published with the RPSA in March 2023, that lets a surveyor assess an individual spray foam roof rather than reject a property simply because foam is present. If your lender's objection is inspectability rather than known damage, this is the document that can solve it without removal.
Why it exists
Before the protocol, many surveyors had no consistent way to assess a foamed roof, so the default was often a blanket refusal. The Property Care Association developed the Sprayed Foam Insulation Inspection Protocol with the Residential Property Surveyors Association, published in March 2023, specifically to give surveyors a structured way to judge the individual roof in front of them.
What it actually lets a surveyor do
The protocol sets out a structured way to assess a spray foam roof: identifying the foam type, checking what can be seen of the timbers and the ventilation arrangement, and recording findings in a consistent format a lender's underwriter can weigh up, rather than facing an unstructured yes or no.
Assessments carried out to the protocol are typically done by assessors on the PCA's own register, which gives a lender a way to check that whoever produced the report was working to a recognised standard rather than an informal opinion.
RICS consumer guide
What a lender's surveyor actually wants to see
RICS publishes its own consumer guide on spray foam insulation, dated March 2023, listing the documents an assessment should draw on.
| Document | What it shows |
|---|---|
| BBA or KIWA certificate | Confirms the exact product used and its approved specification. |
| Installer warranty | Evidence of who installed it and what cover, if any, still applies. |
| Condensation risk assessment | Whether the installation accounted for vapour and ventilation at the time it went in. |
| Thermal calculations | The technical basis for the insulation specification used. |
| Photographs from before, during and after installation | A visual record of what the roof looked like at each stage, if the original installer took any. |
| Moisture readings | A measured, not visual, check on the condition of the timbers. |
RICS also states that any assessment should be commercially separate from the installer and the manufacturer, so the person assessing your roof has no financial interest in the outcome. It is worth applying the same principle to who assesses a roof after removal: separate from whoever did the removal.
How it actually happens
Getting a protocol assessment, step by step
Gather what paperwork you already have
A BBA or KIWA certificate, an installer warranty, anything from the original install. It is not required, but it speeds the assessment up considerably when it exists.
The assessor visits and works through the protocol
Identifying the foam type, checking the accessible timbers and the ventilation arrangement, and taking moisture readings, following the same structured method regardless of which assessor is used.
You receive a written report
Recording exactly what was found, in the format the protocol sets out, with photographs and any readings taken.
The report goes to your buyer's or your own broker
Who puts it in front of the lender's surveyor or underwriter. What happens next depends on that specific lender's own position, which the protocol cannot dictate.
The route where the foam does not come out
Where the protocol applies and the assessment finds the foam sound, correctly installed, and the accessible timbers in good condition, that report can be enough on its own to satisfy a surveyor, without any removal at all. This is the route worth exploring before you commit to the cost of removal, particularly if you still hold some of the original installation paperwork.
No obligation, no deposit
Have someone look at it properly
An hour in the loft and you will know exactly where you stand, in writing, with photographs. If the foam is sound, that is what the report says and there is nothing to pay.
Book the free inspection
Two steps. No deposit, and nothing to pay if the foam is sound.
And the route where it does
The protocol is not a way to keep foam that is genuinely causing damage. Where the assessment finds trapped moisture, timber decay, or a ventilation configuration that is actively causing harm, the outcome is still removal, and the protocol's job at that point has been to establish that clearly rather than leave it guessed at.
For that route, the Property Care Association announced a membership category for spray foam removal contractors in August 2026, the first independently recognised benchmark specifically for removal work. It sits alongside the inspection protocol as the second half of the same standard: one document for whether foam should come out, one credential for who is trusted to take it out. Together they cover the whole decision, not just the half that ends in a sale.
Common questions
Is an assessment under the protocol the same as our free inspection?
Not automatically. Our free inspection tells you what is up there, its condition, and whether removal is needed, at no cost either way. A formal assessment written specifically to the PCA protocol, intended to be shown to a lender's surveyor, is a separate, paid, independent document, priced separately for exactly the reason RICS gives: it should not come from whoever might remove the foam.
Will every lender accept a report written to this protocol?
No lender publishes its criteria in full, and positions vary and change. The protocol gives surveyors a recognised structure to work from, which improves the odds, but it is not a guarantee any specific lender will accept it. Confirm with your buyer's or your own broker.
What is the PCA Spray Foam Assessor register?
It is the Property Care Association's list of assessors recognised to carry out inspections to its protocol. A lender or surveyor can check that whoever produced a report is on that register rather than taking a self-description on trust.
Do I need the original installation paperwork for an assessment to go ahead?
It helps and speeds things up, particularly a BBA or KIWA certificate, but an assessment can still be carried out without it. The assessor works from what can be established on site as well as from any paperwork you can provide.
How is this different from the new removal membership category?
The inspection protocol, from March 2023, is about assessing whether foam needs to come out. The removal membership, announced in August 2026, is a separate credential for the contractors doing the removal itself where it does. They cover different stages of the same problem.
Read next
Do you actually need it removed?
The document that can save you the job, and how to work out which situation you are in.
Read thisSelling a house with spray foam
The report route is one of five ways through a stalled sale. See how it compares.
Read thisThe evidence pack
What we hand over after removal, and why it is commissioned independently of us.
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