Haverhill Roofers fits and repairs timber, fibre cement and composite exterior cladding on homes, extensions and outbuildings in Kedington and the surrounding villages.
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Exterior cladding is a layer of boards or panels fixed to the outside of a wall to protect it from the weather and to change how the building looks. We fit and repair timber, fibre cement and composite cladding on houses, extensions, dormers and outbuildings. The work ranges from replacing a handful of damaged boards on a garage to fully re-cladding a house extension from scratch.
If your cladding has been damaged suddenly - by a storm, an impact, a fallen branch or a leak that has soaked through - the time between noticing the problem and a contractor arriving matters. What you do in that window can limit how much damage spreads, and what you avoid doing is just as important.
If a board has come away from the wall and water is getting behind the cladding, the priority is keeping rain out of the gap until the repair is made. A piece of heavy-duty polythene sheet held against the wall with battens or secured under the adjacent board edge can reduce water ingress without causing additional damage. Use fixings only into the existing battens if you can locate them - do not push screws through boards that are still sound if you can avoid it, as extra holes in the wrong place just create new entry points for water.
If a board is cracked but still in position and still fixed securely, leaving it in place is better than pulling it off yourself. A cracked board still offers some weather resistance. A missing board leaves the substrate and the wall directly exposed.
If water has already got behind the boards and you can see or feel damp on an internal wall, keep an eye on it. Note where the wet patch is and how large it is. Take a photo. This information helps a contractor understand quickly where to look and how far the damage may have spread.
If the board damage has left raw timber edges, bare fibre cement or any cut edge exposed to rain, a coat of exterior wood preservative on timber or a quick brush of edge sealant on fibre cement helps slow down moisture absorption while you wait. These products are available at most builders merchants and DIY shops. This is a holding measure, not a repair, but it can make a difference if you are waiting more than a day or two before the contractor arrives.
Do not apply filler, expanding foam or roofing felt over a large damaged area and leave it. These materials can trap moisture behind them and make it harder for the contractor to assess what is underneath when they arrive.
This is the part that saves homeowners from making a straightforward job more complicated. There are a few things that are tempting to try but regularly cause additional problems.
When you contact a contractor, having a few pieces of information ready makes the conversation more useful and the quote more accurate. Know roughly how large the affected area is - even a rough measurement in metres helps. Know what the cladding material is if you can, or describe what it looks like (smooth flat boards, grooved panels, featheredge timber). If the damage followed a specific event like a storm, say so. And if you have already noticed damp inside, mention it - that changes what the contractor needs to look at first.
A cladding repair starts with a physical inspection of the damaged area, including checking the boards either side of the obvious damage and looking at the battening and fixings behind. On a straightforward repair, damaged boards are removed carefully, the substrate is checked and dried if needed, and replacement boards are cut, fixed and finished to match the original as closely as possible. Junctions around windows and corners are re-sealed as part of the job, not as an optional extra.
A full re-clad on an extension or a pair of dormers follows the same sequence but at larger scale: strip, inspect, rebatten where needed, fit new boards from the bottom up, flash and trim all junctions, and finish with any paint or treatment the material requires.
A cladding repair on a small area typically costs £150 to £500 depending on the material and how many boards are affected. Full re-cladding on a modest extension runs from around £900 to £2,500 installed, depending on size, material choice and access. Composite and fibre cement sit at the higher end of material costs; timber is generally lower. Any scaffolding needed for upper elevations or dormers adds to these figures and should be quoted separately so you know what you are paying for.
We are based in nearby Haverhill and cover Kedington along with Saffron Walden, Halstead and Braintree. If your cladding has been damaged or is showing signs of failure, call us to arrange a roof and cladding survey and we will give you a clear picture of what needs doing before you commit to anything.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
