Brandon Roofers installs new pitched roofs for homeowners in Mundford, and this page covers what to do while you are waiting for roofing work to start - and the things best left strictly to a professional.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A new pitched roof, properly installed, protects a home for decades. We cover Mundford and the surrounding area, fitting clay tiles, concrete tiles and natural slate to suit each property. The work involves stripping the old covering, inspecting and repairing the timber structure, laying breathable membrane or quality felt, fixing new battens, and installing the tile or slate to the correct fixing specification. Lead flashings, ridge and verge details are all part of a complete re-roof.
There is often a gap between deciding you need a new roof and the work starting. That gap might be a week, it might be several weeks. What you do - and do not do - during that time can make a significant difference to how the job goes and how your home fares in the meantime.
Before agreeing to any new roof installation, it helps to understand what a good job actually involves. A roofer should inspect the timber structure before quoting, not just the tile covering. The underlay condition, the batten fixings, the state of any existing lead work and the condition of the ridge and verge are all relevant. If a quote does not mention the structural check, ask about it directly.
Material choice matters too. Natural slate is expensive but long-lasting. Clay plain tiles age well and carry good manufacturer life expectancy figures. Concrete interlocking tiles are the most cost-effective route for a straightforward roof. Breathable membranes are preferable to standard bitumen felt on new installations, and dry-fix ridge systems remove the long-term maintenance problem of cracking mortar. These are all things worth discussing with your contractor before the job is priced.
If your roof is in a poor state and the replacement cannot begin immediately, there are practical steps you can take to protect your home and make the job run more smoothly once it does start.
If your existing roof is leaking or likely to leak before the new one is on, move anything valuable or water-sensitive out of the loft space. This includes stored documents, clothing, photographs, electrical equipment and anything irreplaceable. A leaking roof can deposit water in unexpected places as it tracks along rafters and timbers, so do not assume that a leak in one corner will stay confined to that corner.
In rooms below the loft, move furniture away from any areas where water staining is appearing on the ceiling. Place buckets or bowls under active drips and check them regularly. If a ceiling is actively sagging with trapped water, keep everyone out of the room and do not poke, prod or pierce it - it can come down without warning.
Think about access to your property before the scaffold goes up. If the scaffold will be erected at the front of the property, parking needs to be cleared from that section of the driveway or road. If it will go up over a gate or path, let the contractor know about any obstacles. Overhanging trees or shrubs close to the roof line can make erecting scaffold more difficult; if these can be trimmed in advance it helps.
Inside the property, make sure the loft hatch is accessible. The roofing team will need to inspect the structure from inside, and a loft blocked with stored items slows that process down. Clearing a path to the hatch and making the space at least partially accessible saves time on the first day.
If your existing roof is in a state that presents a real risk of water ingress before the new one can be installed, notify your home insurer. Some policies have conditions about maintaining the property in a reasonable state of repair, and informing them of the situation - and that work is booked - protects your position. Keep any correspondence in writing.
If the roof has been damaged by wind or storm rather than simple age, your policy may cover the cost of emergency temporary works. Ask your insurer before authorising any temporary repair work, as some insurers require approval before such costs are incurred.
While waiting for a new roof, it may be possible to have a roofer apply a temporary repair to the worst areas - for example, replacing a few missing tiles, covering an exposed section of felt with heavy-duty tarpaulin fixed by a professional, or temporarily re-bedding a ridge tile that has come loose. These measures can buy time and reduce the risk of water damage while you wait for the full job to be scheduled.
What is not reasonable is expecting a temporary patch to perform like a finished roof. Any temporary work should be understood as exactly that. A tarpaulin will not hold indefinitely in wind, and a few replaced tiles on an otherwise failing roof are not a long-term fix. Use temporary measures to protect the interior, not to delay the decision to replace.
The instinct to get up and fix a problem yourself is understandable, but on a roof it is an instinct worth overriding. A pitched roof is a working surface that is angled, often slippery, and a long way from the ground. Falls from roofs account for a significant proportion of serious DIY accidents every year in the UK. The following activities should not be attempted without professional access equipment and training:
If you can see a problem from the ground - a lifted tile, a gap at the ridge - report it to a roofer and let them deal with it from a proper working platform. The money saved by doing it yourself is not worth the risk.
There are practical steps that genuinely help, and that do not require going on the roof at all. Clearing gutters from a ladder with the feet on the ground is safe and worth doing before a roofing job starts, because blocked gutters can back water up against the fascia. Checking the loft space after heavy rain - with a torch, from the hatch - gives useful information about where water is entering and can help the roofer identify problem areas quickly. Taking photographs of any visible damage from the ground, using a phone's zoom function, gives a useful record before the job starts.
Once scaffold is up and stripping begins, the roof is open to the weather for a period. A reputable roofing team will work with heavy-duty protection sheets to cover the open structure at the end of each working day, and will plan the sequence of work to minimise the time any section is unprotected. Ask your contractor how they manage this before work starts - it is a reasonable question and a confident, experienced team will have a clear answer.
The structural inspection happens once the old covering is stripped. This is when the actual condition of rafters, wall plates and any hip or valley timbers becomes clear. If timber repairs are needed, your contractor should show you what they have found and explain what work is required before proceeding. Keeping a few hundred pounds in reserve for unforeseen structural work is sensible budgeting on any re-roof.
If you are at the planning stage for a new roof in Mundford or a nearby village, call Brandon Roofers to arrange a survey. We will assess the condition of your existing roof and give you a clear picture of the work involved, the materials suited to your property, and what to expect at each stage of the job.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
