New roofs in Attleborough

Attleborough has grown quickly along the A11, so a large share of its housing is recent. That changes the conversation. On a house built in the last couple of decades a full roof replacement is rarely the right answer, and anyone who arrives and quotes for one without going up to look should be treated with suspicion.

A newer roof usually needs its details put right

What goes wrong on the newer estates is almost always the same short list: verges formed badly, dry systems fitted without being properly fixed down, ridge that was never mechanically secured, and abutments where lead has been skimped or replaced with a proprietary strip. Those are repairs, and expensive ones to ignore, but they are not a new roof. We will tell you so and price the work that is actually needed.

When a replacement is the right call

There are three situations around Attleborough where it genuinely is. The older property in the town centre, where pantile and slate on original timbers has reached the end of its fixings. A house where the covering itself has gone porous and mossy rather than simply losing its underfelt. And a roof where so many separate faults have been patched over the years that the patches now cost more each winter than the job would have done.

One slope at a time

It is worth knowing that a re-roof does not have to be all of it. A south or west facing slope weathers harder than the one behind it, and replacing a single plane is a perfectly normal job. We will tell you honestly whether the other slopes have life left in them rather than quoting the whole house as a matter of course.

Extensions and the flat roof on the back

A lot of the newer Attleborough housing has had a single storey extension added, and on a good number of them the flat roof was laid with a nominal fall the deck has since lost. Where a pitched re-roof and a flat roof meet, both need to be in the quote, because water dealt with properly on the main roof and dumped onto a ponding extension has simply been moved.

What we look at before we price it

We get on the roof, or fly the drone over it, and look at four things: the state of the covering itself, the state of the felt or membrane under it, the condition of the battens, and whether the timbers have taken any water. Those four decide whether you are looking at a repair, a re-cover reusing what is already up there, or a new covering. You get the answer in writing with photographs attached, which also makes it possible to compare us properly against anyone else who has quoted.

What is in a re-roof from us

• A fixed written quote with the specification set out, not a ballpark
• Timbers exposed, inspected and repaired before the new covering
• Breathable membrane and treated battens set to the correct gauge
• Dry ridge and dry verge, mechanically fixed rather than bedded
• Leadwork renewed while the scaffold is standing
• Scaffold, skip, disposal and clear up in the price