When your roof has reached the end of its life, Newmarket Roofers carries out complete strip-offs and re-roofs in Waterbeach and the surrounding villages.
Most homeowners call about a leak and hope for a patch. Sometimes that is the right answer. But there are situations where repeated repairs cost more over time than a single replacement, and a roofer who is straight with you will tell you which one applies.
A roof that needs replacing usually shows more than one failing area at once. Slates or tiles are slipping across the whole surface rather than in one spot. The felt underneath has dried out and split. Timbers in the roof structure are soft or sagging. The flashing at every junction has lifted. When problems are spread across the whole roof, patching one section simply moves the leak to the next weak point.
As a general guide, if more than 25-30% of the covering needs attention, a full replacement is usually more economical across a ten-year horizon than ongoing reactive repairs.
A proper assessment starts from the ground with binoculars, then from the loft space, and finally from the roof itself once scaffolding is up. Each viewpoint tells you something different. The loft reveals daylight gaps, wet timber, and whether the sarking felt has failed. The roof surface shows how many tiles or slates are cracked, slipped, or missing, and whether ridge and hip mortar has crumbled away.
We look at the flashings around any chimney stacks, roof windows, and abutments. Lead that has cracked or lifted forces water behind the covering and into the structure long before you see a ceiling stain. The guttering and fascia boards matter too: rotten fascias can pull the bottom course of tiles out of line and let water track behind them.
Only once we have seen the whole picture can we give you an accurate cost and tell you honestly whether replacement is the right call.
Understanding what actually happens helps you know what to expect and gives you the right questions to ask any roofer you approach. Here is how a full re-roof works on a typical house in Waterbeach.
Safe, secure scaffolding goes up before anyone sets foot on the roof. On a standard semi-detached house this covers the full elevation being worked on, with a loading bay to receive materials and a toe-board system at eaves level. The scaffold protects your garden and paths from falling debris as much as it protects the workers above.
For detached properties with hipped roofs, scaffolding may need to wrap around more than one face. This adds cost but there is no safe alternative. Any roofer offering to do a full strip without proper scaffold should be declined.
The existing covering - whether concrete tiles, clay plain tiles, or natural slate - is stripped off by hand and lowered to skips or a debris chute. Stripping by hand is slower than using a mechanical stripper but it protects the timbers and lets us inspect each batten as it is exposed. Rotten or undersized battens are marked for replacement at this stage.
The old felt or underlay comes off next. On houses from the early-to-mid twentieth century it is common to find the original bitumen-based felt has completely dried out and offers no secondary barrier at all. On some older properties there is no felt whatsoever, just bare boarding or exposed rafters.
With the roof stripped back to the rafters, we check every timber for rot, insect damage, and structural adequacy. Rafters that have sagged, split, or been notched by previous trades get sistered or replaced. Any areas of boarding are checked for delamination.
This is the stage most homeowners do not think about, but it is where hidden costs can arise. If a roofer quotes without seeing the deck - even from the loft - they are guessing. A roofer who has been inside the loft before quoting can give you a much firmer number.
Modern breathable underlay goes down over the rafters before battening begins. Unlike the old bitumen felt, a breathable membrane allows water vapour from inside the house to pass out through the roof while keeping wind-driven rain from getting in. This matters in an uninsulated cold roof where condensation can otherwise build up on the underside of an impermeable layer.
The underlay is lapped correctly at every join - typically a minimum of 150mm horizontal laps and 100mm vertical laps - and dressed into the gutter at the eaves. Getting the eaves detail right is important: it is where water concentrates and where poorly installed underlay causes the most problems.
Treated timber battens are fixed to the rafters at a gauge calculated for the specific tile or slate being used. Different products require different batten spacings to achieve the correct headlap (the amount each course overlaps the one below). Using the wrong batten gauge is one of the most common causes of a roof leaking shortly after replacement, so this calculation matters.
Counter-battens may be used where ventilation at the batten level is specified, particularly on low-pitch roofs or where the manufacturer's requirements call for it.
The covering goes on from eaves to ridge. A range of materials is commonly used on houses in this area, each with different characteristics:
Every tile or slate is fixed mechanically - nailed or clipped - rather than just hung. On roofs above a certain pitch, or in exposed locations, additional fixings are specified. Hip and valley tiles are bedded and pointed in a mortar suitable for the application.
The ridge course finishes the apex of the roof. Traditionally this was mortar-bedded, but a dry-fix ridge system (using a plastic or aluminium carrier and mechanically fixed ridge tiles) is now standard practice on new work. Dry-fix ridges do not crack or shrink the way mortar does, which means they do not need re-bedding after a few winters.
Hips are finished in the same way. Verges (the edges at the gable ends) can be finished with a mortar fillet or a proprietary dry verge clip system. Again, the dry system outperforms mortar over time.
Any chimney stacks, soil vent pipes, roof lights, or abutments against a wall need properly formed flashings. Lead is the standard material and when correctly dressed it is very long-lasting. The flashing is cut, dressed, and fixed into the mortar joints of the brickwork (called a chase), then pointed to seal it.
A common problem on older houses is that the original flashings were made from mortar alone - a detail sometimes called a cement fillet. Mortar fillets crack and lift as the building moves with temperature change, and they eventually let water straight through. Replacing a mortar fillet with properly formed lead flashing is one of the most effective single improvements you can make to an older roof.
A full re-roof is the natural time to replace fascias, soffits, and guttering if they have deteriorated. The scaffold is already in place, which makes the work straightforward. uPVC fascia and soffit boards are durable and do not need painting. Cast-iron guttering can be retained and overhauled if it is in reasonable condition.
Getting the gutter falls right at this stage matters. A gutter that does not fall to the downpipe will hold standing water, overflow in heavy rain, and eventually pull the fascia forward as the water freezes and expands in winter.
Once the covering is complete, all waste material is cleared from the site and the skips are removed. A final check from inside the loft confirms there are no daylight gaps and that the underlay is sitting correctly at every junction. The area around the property - paths, flower beds, lawns - is cleared of any debris that has found its way down during the work.
Before the scaffold comes down, walk the perimeter with the roofer and look at the ridge line, the verges, and any flashings. If anything does not look right, that is the moment to raise it - while access is still easy.
Not every failing roof needs replacing. A roof that is structurally sound with localised damage - a broken slate, a slipped tile, a failed lead flashing - is a repair job. Replacement becomes the better option when the covering is at the end of its design life, when the underlay has failed across the whole roof, or when the cost of repairs would approach the cost of a new roof within a few years.
Ask any roofer to show you specifically what is wrong and why it cannot be repaired. A clear, honest answer to that question is a good sign. A vague answer or pressure to replace without a proper inspection is not.
From Waterbeach we cover Newmarket and the surrounding towns and villages. For jobs in Cambridge, Shelford, and the Cambridgeshire villages, get in touch to discuss whether we can help.
Call us to arrange a roof survey and we will come out to assess the roof properly before giving you a figure.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
