Ely Roofers installs new roofs in Histon and the surrounding villages, using materials chosen to suit your property and built to last through ordinary British weather.
A new roof is one of the most significant investments you will make in your home. Get the materials and installation right and you should not need to think about the roof again for decades. Get it wrong and you will be spending money on patches and repairs within a few years.
This page covers what a new roof involves, what it typically costs, and then goes into detail on the part most roofers skip: what you can do after installation to protect that investment and avoid the next problem before it starts.
Concrete tiles are heavier and slightly less expensive; clay tiles are lighter, hold their colour better over time and are the right match for older properties. Natural slate gives a clean, thin profile and is the traditional material for more formal or period homes. Any of these, properly installed, will outlast the timbers beneath them if the roof structure is sound.
A new tiled roof starts with the battens and felt underlay. The underlay is your secondary line of defence if a tile ever lifts or cracks. Breathable underlays are now standard and allow the roof space to manage moisture rather than trapping it. Tile clips are used on exposed pitches to stop individual tiles lifting in wind. Ridge and hip tiles are bedded or dry-fixed at the apex; dry-fix systems are now widely preferred because mortar-bedded ridges tend to crack and need repointing after fifteen to twenty years.
A typical new tiled roof for a semi-detached house ranges from roughly £6,000 to £12,000 depending on the pitch, tile specification and whether scaffolding is shared with a neighbour. Slate costs more, typically starting around £8,000 for a mid-sized house. These are honest UK ranges; the only way to get an accurate figure for your property is to have a roofer up on the roof to assess the structure and measure properly.
Flat roofs on extensions, garages and outbuildings need a different approach entirely. Traditional torch-on felt has a reasonable lifespan when installed well but does degrade over time, particularly at the seams and edges. EPDM rubber membrane is now a popular alternative: it is a single-piece sheet with very few joints, which means fewer places for water to find a way in. EPDM typically lasts considerably longer than traditional felt and handles frost and UV exposure well.
A flat roof is not truly flat; it needs a fall of at least 1:80 (roughly 1.25 cm per metre) to drain properly. A roof without adequate fall will pond water, which accelerates surface breakdown and can force moisture into the structure. When specifying a new flat roof, always confirm the planned fall with your roofer before work starts.
Flat roof costs vary considerably with the system and size. As a guide, EPDM for a standard garage or small extension typically runs from around £1,500 to £3,500. Larger or more complex areas will cost more.
Flashings are the strips of lead or other metal that seal the joints between your roof covering and any vertical surface: chimney stacks, parapet walls, dormers and skylights. Lead is the traditional material and, when correctly dressed, can last fifty years or more. A new roof should always include new or refurbished flashings; leaving old lead in place on a new tile installation is a false economy because the lead will fail before the tiles do.
Step flashings, soaker flashings and back gutters each serve a different purpose. Step flashings run up the side of a chimney in overlapping sections; back gutters sit behind the chimney to catch water running down from above. Poorly fitted or perished lead at these junctions is one of the most common causes of ceiling leaks, even when the tiles themselves are in good order.
A new roof is the right time to replace tired fascias, soffits and guttering. The fascia board carries the weight of the bottom course of tiles and supports the gutter; a rotten fascia will allow the gutter to sag, causing water to overshoot and run down the wall. UPVC fascias and soffits are now standard: they do not rot, need no painting and carry the gutter brackets securely.
Soffits close off the eaves. On older properties they are often solid; on newer builds they are usually vented to allow airflow into the roof void. When replacing soffits, it is worth confirming the ventilation arrangement is correct for your insulation type, as blocking airflow in a cold roof space leads to condensation.
Gutters should be sized to match the roof area they drain. Half-round and square-profile gutters are both common; the important thing is that the falls are set correctly so water flows to the downpipe without pooling. While scaffolding is in place, check downpipes and the underground drainage connection too.
Before any new roof is specified, a proper inspection should be carried out from the roof itself, not just from the ground. A roofer on the roof can check the condition of the existing timbers (rafters, purlins and wall plates), look for signs of rot or woodworm, assess whether the existing structure can carry a heavier tile if you are changing materials, and identify any problems with the chimney or stack that need addressing at the same time.
From inside, the loft space tells its own story. Dark staining on the timbers or felt indicates past or ongoing leaks. Daylight visible through the roof covering is an obvious sign of damage. Insulation that is damp or compressed has lost most of its thermal value. A thorough roofer will look at all of these before pricing the job.
If you have a chimney, it should be assessed as part of any new roof project. Chimney stacks are exposed on all sides and the mortar pointing deteriorates over time, allowing water into the brickwork. A stack that has not been repointed in twenty years will almost certainly need attention. The flaunching - the sloped mortar collar at the base of the chimney pots - also cracks and can allow water to track down inside the stack. Replacing the lead flashing and repointing the stack while the scaffold is already up adds relatively little cost compared to returning later.
This is the section most roofers leave out, and it is the one that determines whether your new roof causes you problems in year eight or sails through to year thirty. A properly installed roof needs very little attention, but a small amount of the right maintenance at the right time will significantly extend its life and catch problems before they become expensive.
Blocked gutters are the single most preventable cause of roof edge and wall damage. When a gutter overflows, water runs behind the fascia, saturates the rafter feet and can work its way into the eaves. This happens gradually and is often not noticed until the fascia board is already soft. Clearing gutters in autumn, after the leaves have fallen, and checking them again in spring takes less than an hour and costs nothing beyond a ladder and a pair of gloves. If you cannot safely access the gutters yourself, a gutter-clearing service is inexpensive and well worth booking annually.
You do not need to go on the roof yourself. From ground level with a pair of binoculars, you can spot a slipped tile, a cracked ridge tile or a section of lead flashing that has pulled away from the wall. Do this in spring and again in autumn. The best time to check after a storm is straightforward: walk around the property and look up. Any tile on the ground is an obvious sign. Less obvious is a slight misalignment in the ridge line, which can mean mortar has failed internally even if nothing has fallen off yet.
Inside the loft, check after any prolonged heavy rain. A torch and ten minutes looking at the felt and timbers will tell you whether water is getting in. A small damp patch caught early is a repair job; left until the timber is rotten it becomes a structural job.
Moss builds up on north-facing and shaded slopes faster than on south-facing ones. A thin layer of moss does little damage but a thick mat retains moisture, can lift the leading edges of tiles and eventually forces its way under them. On a new roof, moss growth is unlikely for several years if the tiles are reasonably smooth and the roof has good airflow, but it is worth keeping an eye on shaded sections.
If moss does establish, the safest approach is a professional biocide treatment applied by spray, followed by allowing the dead moss to wash off naturally over several months. Pressure washing a tiled roof is not recommended: the force strips the surface granules from concrete tiles, damages the edges of natural slate and can displace tiles or force water past the underlay. A good roofer will always recommend treatment over washing.
Homeowners often delay calling a roofer because the problem seems small. A single cracked tile is a small job; the damage caused by six months of water entering through it is not. These are situations where you should call sooner rather than later:
None of these problems fix themselves. Each one gets worse and more expensive the longer it is left. Call Ely Roofers for a roof survey in Histon and we will give you an honest assessment of what needs doing now and what can wait.
Lead is durable but it does move with temperature. Over many years the constant expansion and contraction can work lead step flashings loose from the mortar joint they are tucked into. Check the lead around your chimney, skylights and any abutment walls every few years. If a section of lead has pulled out by even a centimetre, water will find its way in during driving rain. Re-dressing and re-pointing a flashing is a small job; replacing a rotten rafter caused by years of undetected ingress is not.
The time a full tiled roof replacement takes depends on the size of the house and whether the structure beneath is sound. If timbers need replacing or there are chimneys to repair, allow longer.
Like-for-like replacement using the same materials generally falls within permitted development and does not need planning permission. Changing the profile of a roof or using materials significantly different from those on the original building may need consent, particularly on listed buildings or in conservation areas. Check with your local planning authority if you are unsure.
Yes, in most cases. The house is weather-tight at the end of each working day. The main disruption is noise during the day and the scaffolding around the building.
If more than a quarter of the tiles are damaged or the underlay has deteriorated across large areas, repair becomes poor value: you are spending money on individual tiles while the bigger problem continues. A roofer should be able to tell you honestly after an inspection whether a repair or a full replacement makes better financial sense for your property.
To arrange a roof survey for your Histon property, call Ely Roofers and we will talk through what your roof needs.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
