we study the light diffraction at a reflective grating with triangular profile in scalar wave optics approximation. The case of 1D diffusively reflective rough surface can be described in the first approximation as a random set of reflective gratings with triangular profiles, which are characterised by normal (Gaussian) distribution of amplitude and spatial period. We have obtained the condition for amplitude and period of a diffraction grating in the case of absence of secondary reflections, and the dependence of optical path difference on amplitude and spatial period of the triangular profile. We have investigated the influence of triangular profile parameters on the intensity of reflected wave. We have measured the relative intensity (reflection coefficients) of rough surface reference samples in the case of normal incidence. The relative intensity of reflected wave in the case of normal incidence is used in the design of optical contactless methods for the characterisation of rough surfaces in range of 0.05…0.25 mm. We suggested an optical scheme for the surface roughness measurements, and tested it on the reference samples of rough surfaces. We investigated the dependence of reflected wave intensity on the diffraction angle, and simulated it using numerical solutions of Maxwell equation (FDTD methods). Therefore, we demonstrate that measurements of relative intensity of the reflected wave in the normal to sample plane direction in an objective focal plane allow for determination of the roughness of diffusely reflective surfaces