New roofs and re-roofing in Bury St Edmunds, Ely and Thetford

How new roofs and re-roofing works

The honest test for whether you need a re-roof is how many separate leaks you have. One leak is a repair. Three or four in different places is a covering that has come to the end of its life, and paying for four repairs to a roof that will need doing next year is the most expensive way to deal with it.

The part of a re-roof nobody sees is the part that matters. Once the covering is off you can see every rafter foot, every purlin end and every bit of wall plate. That is where rot hides, and it is the one moment in a roof's life when putting it right is straightforward. We photograph what we find and price it before we carry on.

Spray foam is the reason for a lot of the re-roofs we quote. It was sold hard across this area, it traps moisture against the timber, and it usually means the roof cannot be inspected or the house easily mortgaged. Removing it and re-roofing properly is a bigger job than it sounds, and we will be straight with you about what it involves.

The quote is where a re-roof is won or lost, not the roof. Ours separates access, strip and disposal, materials and labour, so you can see what you are paying for and compare it line by line against anyone else's. A single number on a compliment slip tells you nothing and is impossible to hold anybody to.

People assume a re-roof means the same tiles again. It does not have to. If the roof is coming off anyway, that is the moment to change the covering, upgrade the insulation at the eaves, add ventilation and get rid of the mortar bedded ridge for good. We will price the like for like option and the upgrade so you can decide with the numbers in front of you.

What the job includes

• Full strip of the existing covering, battens and underlay
• Every rafter, purlin and wall plate inspected once the roof is open
• New or spliced timbers where rot or beetle damage is found, priced before we do it
• New treated battens and a breathable membrane throughout
• Your choice of covering, with the options and the price difference explained
• New lead work, dry ridge, dry verge, eaves protection and ventilation
• Guttering reset or replaced, and everything cleared off site

Signs you need it looking at

• More than a handful of tiles or slates have slipped in the last two winters
• The felt is torn or hanging down when you look at the eaves
• There are several damp patches rather than one
• Previous repairs have been patched over with mortar, mastic or spray foam
• The roof is thirty years old or more and has never been touched