Cambridge Roofers carries out roof repairs in Little Shelford and the surrounding villages, fixing leaks, broken tiles, failed flashings and repointed ridges with no unnecessary work quoted.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A roof repair is not a single job - it covers a range of distinct problems, each with its own cause and fix. The most frequent are slipped or broken plain tiles and interlocking concrete tiles, failed lead or mortar flashings around chimney stacks and where a roof meets a wall, open or crumbling ridge and hip pointing, and flat roof sections where the felt or EPDM rubber membrane has split or lifted at a seam. Knowing which problem you have before you call anyone will save you time.
Most repairs can be completed in a single visit. A slipped tile takes minutes to re-bed; repointing a ridge stack takes a few hours; replacing a lead flashing around a chimney is typically a half-day job. What matters is that the cause of the problem is correctly identified first, because the same damp patch inside can come from three different sources - tile damage, a failed flashing, or a problem with the valley between two roof slopes.
Choosing a roofer is harder than choosing most tradespeople because the work is out of sight. You cannot easily inspect the finished job yourself, and most homeowners go up on a roof only once every decade if that. That makes the questions you ask before you agree to anything more important than in almost any other trade.
Here is a practical set of questions to put to any roofer before you book or sign anything. Use this list regardless of who you are speaking to - a good contractor will answer every one of them without hesitation.
Certain patterns recur when a roofing job goes wrong for a homeowner. Unsolicited knocks at the door from someone who claims to have noticed your roof while working nearby are a common source of problems - a legitimate contractor does not need to cold-call for work. Similarly, a quote that arrives without an inspection, or a quote that changes dramatically once work has started, are both warning signs worth taking seriously.
Pressure to pay a large deposit upfront before any materials are ordered or work begins is another pattern to be cautious about. A reasonable deposit for materials on a substantial job is normal, but paying the full amount before a single tile is touched is not standard practice.
If a quote seems unusually low, ask yourself what has been left out. Very cheap repairs often mean reclaimed materials of unknown quality, no attention to the underlying cause, or work done without the care that a confined roof space demands. A broken tile replaced with a reclaimed tile of the wrong profile will let water in at the edge within a year or two.
Before you agree to any repair, the written quote should cover the following points clearly. If any of these are missing, ask for them to be added before you proceed.
Roof repair costs in the Cambridge area vary considerably depending on access, the extent of damage, and the materials involved. As a general guide, replacing a small number of broken or slipped tiles typically costs in the range of £150-£400 depending on tile type and how many are affected. Repointing a full ridge or hip run on an average semi-detached roof is often £400-£900. A lead flashing replacement around a chimney stack is typically £350-£700. Flat roof repairs using EPDM rubber patching or a full membrane replacement on a small extension roof range from around £300 for a patch repair to £1,200-£2,500 or more for a full re-cover depending on size.
Scaffolding adds cost. For most tile repairs on a standard two-storey house, a tower scaffold or cherry picker can be used rather than a full scaffold, which keeps costs down. Any roofer should be able to advise on the access method at the quoting stage.
Roofs in this area vary in age and style, and problems vary accordingly. Older clay plain tile roofs often develop issues with the original lime mortar bedding on ridges and hips, which cracks and opens over time, allowing water to track behind the ridge tiles and into the roof space. This is a slow failure that may not show as a ceiling stain for some time but can cause significant timber damage if left.
Concrete interlocking tiles are less prone to mortar failure but can crack along the locking edge, particularly on exposed ridgelines, and the nibs that hang them from the batten can fail on older roofs. Lead flashings around chimney stacks and at parapet walls deteriorate at the mortar-tucked joint - the lead pulls away from the brickwork as it expands and contracts with temperature change. We see this regularly on chimney stacks where the original pointing has simply not been refreshed in twenty or thirty years.
Many homes in this area have a flat or shallow-pitched extension roof - typically a garage, single-storey rear extension, or bay window roof. Traditional mineral-felt flat roofs have a limited lifespan - felt typically becomes brittle and splits within fifteen to twenty years, sometimes sooner if the original specification was poor. EPDM rubber membrane is now the more common choice for re-covers because it handles expansion and contraction better and lasts considerably longer than felt when properly installed.
If you have a flat roof that is developing small splits or blisters, a targeted patch repair can extend its life if the rest of the membrane is still sound. If splits are appearing in multiple places, or if the felt is lifting at the edges and you can see the original deck beneath, a full re-cover is likely to be more cost-effective than patching. A roofer should be able to tell you honestly which applies after a proper inspection.
If you have an active leak inside, place a container to catch drips and keep people clear of any electrical fittings in the affected area. Do not attempt to climb on the roof yourself. Note where the water is appearing inside and roughly when it started - after heavy rain, after a period of frost, or after strong winds. That information helps narrow down the cause significantly.
Wind damage - slipped or broken tiles - tends to be sudden and follows a storm. Flashing failures usually cause water to appear during or just after rain, often tracking down a wall internally rather than falling as a direct drip. Condensation problems in the roof space show as damp over a wider area without an obvious drip point and often worsen in cold weather. Telling a roofer which pattern you are seeing will help them identify the cause more quickly.
If you are unsure of the extent of the problem, ask for a roof survey before committing to any repair quote. A survey involves a physical inspection of the roof covering, the flashings, the ridge, valleys, the condition of the visible underlay (if accessible via the loft), and the guttering. From that, you should get a clear picture of what needs attention now, what may need attention within the next few years, and what is currently sound.
To book a survey or to get a repair quoted in Little Shelford or the surrounding area, call Cambridge Roofers and speak to someone directly. We will arrange to come out, inspect the roof properly, and give you a written description of the work and its cost before you agree to anything.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
