Pitched roof replacement

A pitched roof replacement means stripping the covering off, taking the battens and underlay with it, inspecting every rafter and every purlin, and building the roof back up. It is the biggest job on this list and it is the one most often sold to people who do not need it. We turn down re-roof enquiries most months because the roof in front of us has fifteen years left in it and needs about six hundred pounds of attention instead.

When it is genuinely due, the part that matters is what happens after the strip and before the new tiles. That is the only time anyone will ever see the structure. We check rafter sizing and spacing, look for splits, deflection, historic beetle damage and rot at the wall plate, and we check whether the last covering was heavier than what the timbers were cut for — which is common on any Sutton roof that went from slate to concrete tile in the seventies. If something needs sistering or replacing, we tell you then, with the roof open, and we show you.

Then it goes back up: breathable membrane, treated battens gauged to the tile, new fixings throughout, and dry-fix systems on the ridge, hips and verges rather than mortar. Mortar on a ridge is the single biggest source of repeat callouts in this trade. It cracks, water gets behind it, frost finishes it, and in ten years you are paying someone to re-bed the lot. A mechanically fixed dry ridge does not do that.

We do not use subcontract labour for re-roofs. The people on your roof are the people whose names are on the van, and there are five of us. That limits how many roofs we can do in a year, and it is the reason we are usually booking six to eight weeks out. We have decided we would rather be a small firm that does its own work than a big one that manages other people badly.