Newmarket Roofers carries out commercial roofing in Isleham and the surrounding area, from initial inspection through to the finished job and site clean-up.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
If you have never had a commercial roof replaced or significantly repaired, the process can feel unclear. What happens first? How long does each stage take? What should you be involved in? This page walks through a commercial roofing project from the first look at the roof to the final tidy-up, so you know what a properly run job looks like and what questions to ask before you commit to any contractor.
Newmarket Roofers works on commercial properties in Isleham and across the surrounding area, including Newmarket, Ely, Burwell and neighbouring villages. Our work covers flat roofs, pitched roofs, leadwork, guttering and full re-roofing on warehouses, retail units, office buildings and agricultural properties.
A proper commercial roof inspection is not a five-minute walk around the car park. On a flat roof, it means getting up there and looking at the surface, the upstands, the outlets, the flashings and any penetrations such as rooflights, pipe collars or extraction units. On a pitched roof, it means close-up access to assess the condition of the tiles or slate, the ridge, the valleys and all the lead details.
During the inspection, a roofer should be checking for ponding, blistering or splits in the membrane on a flat roof, and for cracked, slipped or missing tiles or failed flashings on a pitched one. They should also be assessing the deck or structural timbers underneath, because the condition of what the covering sits on determines whether a simple re-cover is viable or whether deck repairs are needed first. This is something that cannot be properly judged without removing a test area of the existing covering in any section where the deck is suspect.
You should expect the roofer to explain what they have found clearly, show you any photos they have taken, and tell you what they consider the best course of action and why. If they quote you a price without telling you the condition of the deck, ask specifically before agreeing to anything.
Commercial roofing is different from domestic work precisely because your building is likely in use. A warehouse, retail unit or office cannot simply be emptied for a week. Part of the pre-job process is agreeing how the work will be phased to minimise disruption. This might mean working in sections, starting on the quietest part of the building, or planning noisier or more disruptive phases for weekends or early mornings.
Scaffolding or access arrangements need to be considered and agreed before work starts. Large commercial re-roofing jobs often require scaffold for safe access and to protect people below. On a smaller repair, a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP) is sometimes more practical. Either way, access should be planned as part of the job, not improvised on the day.
Any necessary permissions, particularly for work on listed or prominently located commercial buildings, should be looked into before work begins. If the property is in a conservation area or is listed, some roofing materials may need to match the original specification.
On a flat roof re-cover, the old felt or membrane usually needs to come off before the new system goes down. In some cases a re-cover directly over existing felt is acceptable if the deck is sound and there is not already more than one layer of covering in place. Adding further layers without checking the deck is poor practice. It hides problems and adds weight to a structure that was not designed for it.
Stripping is the messiest and most disruptive part of the job. Skips or waste bags will be positioned near the building and old material brought down as it comes off. A good contractor will keep the stripped area manageable, particularly if the roof needs to stay weathertight overnight during the job. Temporary waterproofing, such as a heavy-duty membrane or secured tarpaulin, should be put in place at the end of each working day on any section that has been exposed.
Once the old covering is off, the deck gets a proper assessment. On commercial buildings, the deck is most commonly concrete, timber boarding, or a metal deck (profiled steel sheeting). Each has different failure modes.
Any deck repairs add cost and time to the job, but skipping them is never a sensible saving. A new roof membrane laid over a compromised deck will fail early, and the damage to the building's interior will be the owner's problem.
With the deck sound and prepared, the new covering goes on. For a flat roof, this will typically be a torch-on felt system or an EPDM rubber membrane, depending on what was agreed during the quotation stage. Both systems require careful detailing at every upstand, outlet and penetration. This is where most flat roof failures originate, so the detailing stage is not a place to cut time or material.
For a pitched roof, new underlay goes down first over the rafters, followed by battens and then the tiles or slate from the eaves up. Valleys and abutments get their leadwork dressed before the adjacent tiles are fixed, not after. Ridge tiles are bedded last.
Lead flashings on a commercial roof should be cut, lapped and dressed to the correct specifications. The correct code of lead (thickness) matters. Lead that is too thin will fatigue with thermal movement and split prematurely.
Rainwater management is part of the roofing job, not a separate trade to be dealt with another time. Outlets on a flat roof should be checked and cleared, and any that are mispositioned or too few in number for the roof area should be discussed with the owner. On a pitched roof, the guttering capacity and fall need to be checked before the new roof goes on, not after. Commercial gutters on a large building carry a substantial volume of water, and an undersized or blocked system will cause problems regardless of how good the roof covering above it is.
Before leaving site, the completed roof should be inspected, including all upstands, outlets, flashings and any rooflights. Any laps, seams or adhesive points that look underweight or incomplete should be addressed at this stage, not left. Waste materials, packaging and any plant equipment should all come off site. Any areas of the building's exterior that have been marked or affected during the works should be noted and put right.
You should be shown the completed work, either in person or by photos if physical access to the roof is impractical. Ask to see the key details: the upstand flashings, the outlets and any penetrations. These are the areas most likely to give trouble if anything was missed.
If your commercial property in Isleham needs a roof inspection, a repair or a full replacement, call Newmarket Roofers. We will carry out a proper inspection, walk you through what we find and give you a clear price before any work starts. We also cover Newmarket, Ely, Burwell and the surrounding area.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
