Newmarket Roofers provides roof repairs across Mildenhall and the surrounding villages, covering everything from individual tile replacement to flat roof membrane work and flashing renewal.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
When a roof needs repairing, the material you use matters as much as the quality of the workmanship. The wrong product on the wrong roof system can fail within a season, even if it was fitted carefully. This page sets out the main materials used in roof repairs, with honest notes on where each one works well and where it falls short, so you can have an informed conversation with any roofer before work begins.
Clay tiles are kiln-fired and, when made to a decent standard, are extremely durable. They resist frost well, hold their colour and can last the life of the building. The main challenges with clay are matching older handmade profiles and sourcing replacements for discontinued patterns. A mismatched tile does not affect the waterproofing, but it can matter if you are in a conservation area or simply want the repair to be invisible.
Concrete tiles are heavier and more porous than clay. They absorb water slowly over time, and on older concrete tiles the surface can delaminate, which allows moss to take hold faster. They are generally cheaper to replace than clay, and matching standard concrete profiles is usually straightforward. The downside is that concrete tiles are more likely to crack under point-load if someone walks on them without crawl boards.
For a like-for-like tile repair, the standard approach is to source a matching tile, lift the surrounding courses, check the batten and underlay, and rebed or renail as needed before the new tile goes in. Fitting a tile without checking what is behind it is a shortcut that can lead to repeat problems.
Natural slate is a high-quality material that lasts well - Welsh slate particularly so - but it is brittle, and walking on a slate roof incorrectly causes more slates to crack.
The most common repair on a slate roof is fixing individual broken or slipped slates using a technique called nailing or, more commonly now, using a metal clip called a tingle. A tingle is a small strip of lead or stainless steel that holds the bottom of the slate in place. It is a sound and widely used repair, though it does not restore the original nail fixing. On a roof where many slates are slipping, the real problem is often the nails, which have corroded - a condition called nail sickness. Repairing fifty slates individually using tingles is possible, but at that point a full re-slating starts to become better value.
Matching slate is important. Spanish and Chinese slates are readily available and significantly cheaper than Welsh, but they vary in quality and durability. They can be a sensible choice for a repair on an already mixed roof, but using poor-quality imported slate on a sound Welsh slate roof is a false economy.
Ridge tiles are bedded in mortar along the apex of the roof, and hip tiles run down the angled edges where two slopes meet. The mortar joint is the weak point. Sand-and-cement mixes shrink as they cure and crack over time, particularly where the roof moves slightly in wind. Once mortar cracks, water gets in, frost widens the gap, and eventually the ridge tile becomes loose or detaches.
The repair is to rake out the old mortar to a sound base and re-bed the ridge tiles in a fresh mix. Some contractors now use a flexible, polymer-modified mortar that handles slight movement better than a standard sand-and-cement mix, and it is worth asking which product is being used. Mortar-free dry-fix ridge systems are the modern alternative: a mechanical fixing with a ventilated end cap and a rubber seal. They require no mortar at all, handle movement well and do not need periodic repointing. The material cost is higher, but for a roof where the mortar has failed more than once, it can be the more practical long-term option.
Lead is the standard material for flashings at chimneys, dormers, valleys and roof-to-wall abutments. It is soft, malleable, highly durable and compatible with most roofing materials. A correctly installed lead flashing, dressed to the right code (Code 4 for most step and soaker applications, Code 5 for larger aprons), should outlast the tiles around it.
Problems arise when lead is installed too tightly without adequate laps, when fixings corrode and the lead lifts, or when a previous repair has used a mastic or sealant rather than a proper lead fix. Sealant repairs look effective initially but usually fail within two or three winters because the sealant does not bond reliably to weathered lead or masonry in the long term.
A proper flashing repair involves cutting a fresh chase into the mortar joint, tucking the lead in, securing it with lead wedges and pointing with a lime or sand-and-cement mix. If the lead itself is sound but has simply lifted, it can often be re-dressed and refixed without replacement. If it is cracked, corroded through or badly repaired previously, a new section is the right call.
Flat roofs are commonly covered in one of two systems: built-up felt or EPDM rubber membrane. Each has its own repair method, and using the wrong one causes problems.
Traditional built-up felt consists of layers of bitumen-impregnated felt bonded together, often with a mineral-surface cap sheet on top. It is a proven system but has a finite life, typically 10 to 20 years depending on specification and exposure. When it fails, the usual signs are blistering (where air or moisture is trapped between layers), cracking along laps, or splits around outlets and upstands. Small areas can be repaired with a torch-on patch, but if the felt is brittle across a large proportion of the roof, full replacement is more cost-effective than repeated patches.
EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) is a synthetic rubber membrane increasingly used on flat roofs. It is flexible even at low temperatures, resistant to UV and relatively straightforward to repair. Patch repairs use a compatible primer and EPDM tape or cover strip, bonded with the appropriate adhesive. The key is using materials from the same system - mixing EPDM repair products with bitumen-based products does not work reliably.
Flat roof repairs in Mildenhall typically cost between £150 and £500 for patch work, rising to £1,000 to £3,000 or more for full membrane replacement on a single-storey extension, depending on size and system. These are broad typical UK ranges and the actual cost depends on the specific roof.
These are not awkward questions. Any experienced roofer will have straightforward answers, and the answers will tell you a lot about how they approach the work.
If you have an active leak, materials questions can wait - getting the entry point made watertight comes first. Call us directly and explain the situation so we can prioritise accordingly.
We carry out roof repairs across Mildenhall and the surrounding area, including Newmarket, Isleham, Fordham, Chippenham, Moulton, Kentford, Exning, Cheveley and nearby villages. Call us to check if we cover your location.
For roof repairs in Mildenhall, call Newmarket Roofers to arrange a survey. We will inspect the roof properly, show you what we find and provide a written quote that sets out exactly what materials and work are included. Do not agree to any repair without a written scope and price in your hand first.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
