Cambridge Roofers carries out commercial roofing in Milton and the surrounding area, covering flat roof repairs, full re-roofs, pitched roofing and all associated work on offices, warehouses and business premises of all sizes.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
Most business owners and facilities managers don't see a lot of commercial roofing work done. You get a quote, work starts, and then at some point someone tells you it's finished. What happens in between can feel like a black box.
This page walks through the process from the first look at your roof through to the day we leave site. Understanding each stage helps you ask the right questions, manage your building appropriately during the work, and check that what's been done is what was agreed.
Before any price is given and before any work is planned, the roof needs to be looked at properly. For a commercial building that means getting on the roof itself - a look from the ground or a glance through a rooflight is not sufficient to assess a flat roof or the ridge of a large pitched span.
A thorough inspection on a flat roof checks the surface condition, the seams and laps, the upstands and edge details, the outlets and any internal gutters, and the condition of the deck where it can be assessed. On a pitched roof the inspection covers the covering material (slates, tiles or profiled sheeting), the ridge and hip details, any valleys, flashings at abutments and the condition of the underlay where visible from inside.
The inspection determines whether a repair is appropriate or whether the roof has deteriorated beyond the point where patching makes sense. It also identifies any structural issues - a rotten deck on a flat roof, or failing roof timbers on a pitched building - that need to be addressed before the covering is replaced.
For larger or more complex commercial buildings, the inspection may include moisture testing on the flat roof deck. This establishes how much of the insulation beneath the membrane has been saturated, which directly affects the scope and cost of the work.
After the inspection you should receive a clear explanation of what's been found and what needs doing. A straightforward assessment of your commercial roof should tell you: what the current problem is, what is causing it, what the options are, and what each option involves in practical terms.
At this stage you should also be told about access requirements. Commercial roofing often involves scaffolding, mobile elevated work platforms (cherry pickers or scissor lifts) or specialist roof access equipment. The method depends on the building height, the roof type and whether the building will be occupied during the work. This affects both the programme and the cost, and it should be clear in any quote what access method is being proposed.
For occupied business premises - offices, retail units, buildings with staff or customers present - the access and working method needs to be planned so that the building can continue to function. That may mean working in sections, providing temporary weatherproofing at the end of each day, or programming the work around quieter periods.
Once work is agreed and a start date confirmed, preparation is the first stage on site. For a flat roof re-roof that means stripping the existing surface back to the deck. The stripped material needs to be removed from site correctly - this is not domestic waste and cannot be disposed of in the same way.
The deck is then inspected in detail once stripped. Any areas of rot, water damage or structural failure that weren't fully visible during the initial inspection are identified at this point. Good practice is for the roofer to flag these to the client before proceeding, so that any additional scope is agreed and understood before costs change.
On a pitched roof, preparation involves removing the existing covering - slates, tiles or profiled sheeting - and checking the battens and underlay. Where the structure is sound, only the covering and batten may need replacing. Where timbers have failed, repairs or replacement of rafters, purlins or ridge boards may be needed before the new covering can be fixed.
Any damaged or rotten decking on a flat roof is cut out and replaced with new material before the membrane or felt system goes on. Laying a new covering over a compromised deck is a false economy - the roof will fail again in the same places, and the new covering will be damaged in the process.
On older flat-roofed commercial buildings, it's not unusual to find that the existing falls (the slope built into the roof to drain water to the outlets) are inadequate. Ponding water accelerates membrane failure and can structurally overload a deck. Where falls are insufficient they can be improved by adding tapered insulation above the existing deck, which deals with both the drainage problem and improves the building's thermal performance at the same time.
Installation method depends on the system specified. A built-up felt system is applied in multiple layers, each bonded to the previous. An EPDM rubber membrane is either fully adhered to the deck with adhesive, mechanically fixed or ballasted with stone chippings. The edge details - how the membrane terminates at parapet walls, upstands and roof edges - are as important as the field area, and a high proportion of leaks begin at poorly finished edges.
For pitched roofs the process is: fix new underlay, fix new battens at the correct gauge for the tile or slate being used, and then lay the covering from eaves to ridge. Ridge and hip tiles are bedded in mortar or fixed using a dry-fix system. Dry-fix ridge systems are increasingly specified for commercial buildings because they don't rely on mortar, which can crack and fail over time.
Leadwork around flashings, abutments, chimneys and roof lights is cut, formed and dressed on site. Lead is a hand-worked material - it needs to be worked in short sections to allow for thermal movement, and laps need to be correctly sized and fixed.
A new roof surface needs a functioning drainage system to work properly. Blocked or undersized gutters, failed downpipes and deteriorated parapet box gutters all need to be dealt with alongside the main roof work.
Where fascias and soffits are being replaced, this is typically done at the same stage as guttering. On commercial buildings with large overhangs or wide eaves, fascias take significant wind loading and need to be properly fixed - not just clipped in place.
Once the main work is complete, the roof should be walked and checked before scaffolding or access equipment is removed. Any areas where the finish is not right are easier and cheaper to address while access is still in place.
The site should be left clean and clear. Roofing generates significant waste - old felt, stripped tiles or slates, packaging - and all of it should be removed from site as part of the job. A reputable roofer does not leave waste for the client to arrange disposal of.
You should also receive a clear description of what was done - what system was installed, what repairs were made to the deck or structure, and what maintenance the roof will need going forward. Knowing what system is on your building matters for future maintenance planning.
We carry out commercial roofing work in Milton and across the surrounding area including Cambridge, Histon, Impington, Ely, Trumpington, Saffron Walden, Newmarket and further into Cambridgeshire. Call Cambridge Roofers for a straightforward assessment of your commercial roof - we'll explain what we find, what needs doing and how we'll carry out the work.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
