New Roofs and Re-Roofs

One of our re-roofs, from the scaffold up

The photos on this page all come from our own jobs. On the semi shown from the air, the old roof came off down to the rafters and a breathable membrane went over the top before any battens were fixed.

Then the new grey tiles went on, course by course, with a dry verge along the gable. The last shot is the finished roof, tiled up to the ridge.

Photos from the job

Dry verge and dry ridge

Dry verge and dry ridge are listed on our vans. Both are mechanical systems: plastic verge caps clipped along the gable and ridge units screwed down over a roll, instead of tiles bedded in sand and cement. There's no mortar to crack, so nothing to wash out onto the drive in ten years' time.

Flat roofs re-covered too

A re-roof isn't only for pitched roofs. This extension had a tired, patchy covering. We took it back and laid one continuous new membrane, dressed in under the tiles where the flat roof meets the main roof, which is where water usually finds its way in.

When a repair stops making sense

• Tiles slipping again a few months after the last one was put back
• Daylight showing through in the loft, or the old felt torn and hanging between the rafters
• A ridge line that dips or bows when you look along it from the street
• Tiles that are flaking, crumbling or covered in thick moss right across the roof
• Damp patches turning up in a different room each winter

How a re-roof usually runs

Scaffold goes up first, then a skip for the old tiles and battens, as in the aerial photos above. Once the roof is stripped, the timbers can be checked before anything new goes on. After that it's membrane, battens, tiles, verge and ridge, and finally the scaffold comes down.