When your roof has reached the end of its life, Haverhill Roofers carries out full roof replacements for homeowners in Great Dunmow and the surrounding villages.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A roof replacement is not a repair scaled up. The entire covering is stripped back to the bare timber structure, which gives us the chance to inspect the rafters, battens and felt underlay properly before anything new goes on. Damaged timbers are cut out and replaced, new breathable membrane is laid, fresh treated battens are fixed, and the new tiles or slates are hung and pointed where needed. The result meets current building standards rather than those of thirty or forty years ago.
Lead flashings around chimneys, valleys and abutments are renewed at the same time. Leaving old lead in place under a new tile covering is a false economy: the lead is typically the first thing to fail again, and you end up back on the scaffold within a few years.
A few slipped or cracked tiles is a repair job. A roof that has had repeated repairs, shows widespread cracking or spalling of the tile surface, has felt underlay that has rotted through, or is losing its weathering ability across large sections, is telling you something different. Internally, damp patches on ceilings that reappear after patching, or loft timbers that smell musty or show mould, point to a covering that is no longer doing its job consistently.
A common problem on older roofs is that the original sand-and-cement bedding along the ridge and hips has cracked and opened up. When that happens repeatedly, it usually means the mortar has simply reached the end of its life and re-bedding alone will not hold for long. Dry-fix ridge systems, now standard on new installations, remove that problem entirely.
This is where many homeowners come unstuck. The roofing trade has no mandatory licensing in the UK, so anyone can call themselves a roofer. That makes your due diligence before signing anything genuinely important.
A contractor who has done roof replacements nearby should be able to point you to finished jobs you can look at from the street. You are not asking to inspect someone's home; you are checking that the ridge line is straight, the tiles are laid in consistent, tight courses, and the flashings are neatly dressed. A good job looks like a good job even from the pavement.
The written quotation should state clearly: the area to be stripped, the tile or slate product to be used (including the manufacturer's name and product reference), whether battens and underlay are included, how lead flashings will be handled, how waste will be removed, and the payment schedule. Vague quotations that say only "re-roof using tiles" leave you exposed if there is a dispute about what was agreed.
A contractor who cannot answer those questions clearly, or who pushes back when you ask them, is worth walking away from before you have committed any money.
A deposit before work starts is normal on a roof replacement because materials need to be ordered. A deposit of around 20-25% of the total is reasonable. Paying more than 50% before work is under way puts you in a weak position if something goes wrong. Never pay the full amount until the job is complete and you are satisfied.
Getting multiple quotations is not about finding the cheapest price; it is about understanding what a fair price looks like and whether each contractor is quoting for the same scope of work. If one quote is significantly lower than the others, ask what has been excluded. The most common reasons for a low quote are thinner tile products, no new battens, no lead renewal, or the use of subcontractors the main contractor cannot vouch for.
A full roof replacement on a standard semi-detached house typically costs between £5,000 and £12,000 depending on roof size, pitch, tile or slate specification, and the condition of the underlying timbers. More complex roofs with hipped ends, dormers, or multiple chimney stacks will sit at the higher end. These are current typical UK market figures; your specific quotation will depend on a proper survey.
Artificially cheap prices are usually achieved by skipping battens, using lightweight entry-level tiles, or not replacing lead flashings. Those savings create problems within five to ten years.
Concrete interlocking tiles are the most common choice on post-war housing because they are durable, widely available and cost-effective. Natural slate suits older properties and offers a longer service life, typically 80-100 years when properly fixed, though it costs more both in material and fixing time. Reconstituted slate is a middle option - better looking than concrete tiles on period properties, longer-lasting than basic concrete, and less expensive than natural slate.
The pitch of your roof matters too. Very low-pitched roofs need a tile or slate product specified for that pitch, with a longer headlap. Using a standard product on a low-pitch roof leads to wind-driven rain getting under the covering.
Call Haverhill Roofers to arrange a roof survey. We will look at the covering, the flashings, the ridge and the visible timbers, and give you an honest assessment of whether repair or replacement is the right course. There is no point replacing a roof that has years of life left, and no point patching one that does not.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
