Pitched roof replacement in Sutton Coldfield
Thirty years of re-roofing one town. It means we usually know what is under your tiles before we take them off — and how often the answer is "leave it alone".
The useful thing about having worked one town since 1996 is pattern recognition. We have re-roofed Victorian villas near the centre, interwar semis out towards Wylde Green, 1960s infill on old garden plots, and 1990s closes. So when we walk up to a Sutton house we already have a fair idea of the era, the likely rafter spacing, whether the covering is original, and what the previous people are likely to have done to it.
That is also why we turn down more re-roof enquiries in Sutton than anywhere else. We are asked to quote for a lot of roofs that do not need doing. A ninety-year-old roof with sound timbers, good clay tile and blown mortar hips does not need stripping — it needs the hips re-bedded on a dry system and the bay lead sorted, which is a fraction of the price. We lose the big job. We have been losing that particular big job in this town for thirty years and it is precisely why the phone rings.
When a Sutton roof genuinely is due, the local wrinkle is nearly always weight. If we open up a period house and find concrete tile on rafters that were cut for slate, that is a structural conversation before it is a covering conversation — and it is a good moment to ask whether the roof should go back lighter. With the roof open and the scaffold already paid for, that decision costs a lot less than it will ever cost again.
What people in Sutton Coldfield ask us.
The two we get most on this job round here. The full list is on our FAQ page, and the pitched roof replacement page goes into the trade in more depth.
Do you use subcontractors on Sutton re-roofs?
No. There are five of us and we do our own work. It is why we are usually booking six to eight weeks ahead, and why you get the same people all week.
My roof is ninety years old. Is it due?
Age is not a fault. Plenty of ninety-year-old Sutton roofs have twenty years left. We will go in the loft and tell you honestly, even when the honest answer costs us the job.