Cambridge Roofers install new roofs on homes across Cambridge and the surrounding area, using materials chosen to match your property and meet any planning requirements.
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Repairs can only go so far. Once a roof reaches the end of its serviceable life, patching individual tiles or re-felting sections stops being cost-effective and starts being a holding exercise. Knowing the difference between a roof that needs a repair and one that needs replacing can save you a significant amount of money and stress.
A new pitched roof on a typical Cambridge semi-detached or terrace will cost in the region of £5,000 to £12,000 depending on size, material and access. That figure covers stripping the old covering, inspecting and replacing any rotten timber, fitting new underlay and battens, and laying the new tiles or slate through to the ridge and verge details.
Most roof failures do not happen suddenly. They develop over years, and the signs appear well before a major leak soaks your ceilings. The difficulty is that most homeowners only go into the loft occasionally, and the early warning signs are easy to miss or easy to mistake for something minor.
Here are the signs that should prompt you to get a proper inspection rather than a quick patch:
Understanding why a roof deteriorates helps you ask better questions when getting quotes. The causes split broadly into material age, structural movement and maintenance neglect.
Felt degradation under tiles is one of the most common underlying causes of failure on houses built before the 1980s. The original bitumen-based underlay becomes brittle, shrinks and tears. When it fails, wind-driven rain that gets beneath tiles has nowhere to drain and soaks straight into the timbers.
Batten rot goes hand in hand with felt failure. Once water sits on rotted battens, the tile nibs have nothing solid to grip. Individual tiles begin to slip, and the problem spreads.
Rafter and ridge board deterioration is less common but more serious. It usually results from a long period of unaddressed water ingress. A sagging ridge line is a visible symptom; collapsed rafter feet at the eaves are another.
Thermal movement causes mortar on ridge tiles, hip tiles and verges to crack over time. Frost can accelerate the breakdown of traditional sand-and-cement bedding mortar. Once ridge mortar fails, the tiles sit loose and wind can lift them. Dry-fix ridge and hip systems avoid this problem entirely and are now standard practice on new installations.
Lead and flashing failure is a major source of leaks, particularly around chimney stacks, valleys, dormers and rooflights. Lead that was dressed correctly but is now 40 or 50 years old can split or lift at the edges. When a new roof is installed, all flashings should be renewed as part of the job.
A new pitched roof is not simply a case of swapping old tiles for new ones. The correct sequence matters, and each stage affects the one that follows.
Once the scaffold is up and the old covering is stripped, the exposed timbers are inspected. Any rafter sections, wall plates or ridge boards showing signs of rot are cut out and replaced. The roof structure should be sound before anything else goes on top of it.
New breathable roofing membrane is then laid, overlapping correctly at every joint. The membrane keeps wind-driven water out while allowing moisture vapour from inside the house to escape, reducing the risk of condensation in the roof space. Over the membrane, new treated timber battens are fixed to the rafters at the correct gauge for whichever tile or slate is being used - the gauge determines how much overlap each tile has, which affects both weathertightness and the finished appearance.
Tiles or slates are then fixed from the eaves up to the ridge, with double courses at the bottom and appropriate fixings at the top of the slope and at verges. Ridge and hip tiles are fitted using a dry-fix system with mechanical clips and mortar-free caps, or traditionally bedded in mortar depending on the specification. Valley gutters are either laid with lead or fitted with purpose-made valley troughs. All flashings at abutments, chimney stacks and penetrations are dressed in lead or a compatible flashing material.
Flat roofs on extensions, outbuildings and garage roofs across Cambridge do reach the end of their life, typically after 15 to 25 years depending on the system and how well the drainage has been maintained. A flat roof that is blistering, cracking at laps or showing signs of ponding water on a previously level surface is worth having assessed properly rather than patched repeatedly.
EPDM rubber membrane is now one of the most widely used systems for residential flat roofs. It is a single-ply membrane that is bonded or mechanically fixed to the deck, has no joins that can open up in the same way as traditional felt laps, and handles thermal movement well. Properly installed on a sound deck, EPDM systems can last well in excess of 20 years. Felt systems using torch-on modified bitumen membranes are also a reliable option and are suited to larger flat roof areas.
The type of roof covering that is appropriate depends on the property, its age and, for listed buildings or properties in conservation areas, what the local planning authority will permit.
Natural slate is frequently specified for older properties where the original roof was slate. Concrete interlocking tiles are suited to post-war housing where speed of installation and cost matter. Clay plain tiles give a traditional appearance on cottages and period buildings. Each material has a different weight, which affects whether existing rafters need to be assessed or upgraded before installation.
Before signing any agreement, ask the roofer to put in writing exactly what is included. A good specification should cover: whether all underlay and battens are being replaced, what the plan is if rotten timbers are found, what tile or slate specification is being used (manufacturer and product name, not just "concrete tile"), how ridge and hip details will be finished, and what arrangements are in place for waste removal and scaffold.
Ask also whether the contractor carries public liability insurance and, if the job requires scaffold, whether the scaffold contractor is included in the quote or an extra. Get more than one quote, and compare what each one includes rather than comparing headline prices.
If you are seeing any of the warning signs described above, or your roof is more than 20 to 25 years old and has not been assessed, call us to arrange a roof survey in Cambridge. We will inspect the structure from inside the loft and from the roof itself, give you an honest assessment of whether repair or replacement is the right course of action, and provide a clear written quote for the work if replacement is needed.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
