If you are planning a new roof for your Sutton home, knowing exactly what happens at each stage helps you prepare and ask the right questions.
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A new roof is one of the largest single home improvement projects most people ever commission. It disrupts the household for several days, involves contractors working at height above your home, and produces a result you cannot easily inspect once it is done. Knowing what a properly managed job looks like - and what should happen at each stage - means you can hold any roofer to a reasonable standard and spot if corners are being cut.
Ely Roofers carries out new roof installations across Sutton and the wider area around Ely, including Haddenham, Stretham, Wilburton, Soham and Littleport. We work on pitched roofs in slate, clay and concrete tiles, and on flat roof systems using felt and EPDM rubber membranes for extensions and outbuildings.
A proper assessment happens before any price is discussed. That means getting up onto the roof, not just standing on the ground and looking upward. From ground level, it is possible to see that tiles are missing or that a ridge looks crooked. It is not possible to see whether the battens are rotten, whether the underlay has perished, or whether there is hidden decay in the rafters at the eaves. All of these affect the scope and cost of the job.
In the loft, a good roofer checks for daylight coming through, damp staining on the rafters, any signs of insect or pest damage to the timber, and the condition of any existing insulation. The pitch of the roof is also confirmed at this stage, because certain tile types have minimum pitch requirements and using the wrong tile on a shallow pitch leads to water ingress.
At the end of the assessment you should receive a clear explanation of what was found, what needs replacing, what can be reused if anything, and a breakdown of the price. If a roofer cannot tell you specifically why they are recommending a full replacement over a repair, that is a question worth pushing.
For any property where work is being done at ridge height, scaffolding is required. This is not optional and it is not a sign of a contractor trying to add margin to a quote. Working at height on a residential roof without proper access is unsafe and any reputable roofer will not do it. Scaffold is typically erected by a specialist scaffold firm and takes a few hours for a standard semi-detached property. The scaffold should fully enclose the working elevation with a working platform at eaves height and a further lift at ridge height where the pitch is steep.
A skip or large waste bags should also be arranged before stripping begins. A new roof on a typical semi generates a significant volume of broken tiles, old felt and batten waste, and it needs to go somewhere before the new covering goes on. Some roofers include waste removal in their quote; others price it separately. Confirm this at the quote stage.
Stripping is the most physically demanding part of the job. Tiles, slates or any existing flat roof covering are removed and dropped to the scaffold platform or directly into the skip below. The original battens come off next, followed by the old underlay. On most roofs being fully replaced, the underlay will be original felt from the last re-roof and it will almost certainly be brittle. On older properties, some roofs were built without underlay at all - the tiles were laid directly on battens over open rafters. This is common on pre-war housing and it is one of the reasons a loft inspection before stripping matters.
Once stripped, the roof deck or rafter structure is exposed and a second check is carried out. Any rafter ends at the eaves are inspected for rot, because this is the part of the structure most exposed to moisture from blocked gutters. Isolated sections of rotten timber can be cut out and spliced in. If multiple rafters or the wall plate are affected, the scope of the job changes and you need to be told before work continues.
New breathable underlay is fitted across the whole roof deck, starting at the eaves and lapping upward so each sheet overlaps the one below and any water that penetrates the tile covering runs down and off rather than under. The overlap at each sheet join should be a minimum of 150mm. The underlay is draped slightly rather than pulled tight at each batten line, so that any water that reaches it can run down to the gutter rather than pooling.
New treated timber battens are then fixed through the underlay into the rafters. The batten gauge - the distance between each batten - determines the tile overlap, which in turn determines how well the finished roof sheds water. Each tile type has a specified minimum lap and a corresponding batten gauge. Using too wide a gauge to reduce the number of battens and tiles needed is a way of cutting costs that is not visible from the ground but reduces the weatherproofing of the finished roof.
Eaves ventilation is also addressed at this stage. Modern breathable underlays allow some moisture movement through the membrane itself, but the rafter void below the insulation still needs adequate cross-ventilation. Proprietary eaves ventilators or over-fascia vents are fitted to ensure airflow at the base of the rafter, which prevents condensation in the roof space.
Tiling begins at the eaves with a starter course, and works upward course by course toward the ridge. Each tile is hung over the batten and, on pitched roofs with a pitch above a certain angle, nailed at a proportion of tiles to prevent wind lift. On shallow pitches and in exposed positions, a higher proportion of nailing is recommended. For slate, every slate is nailed, usually with two nails per slate at the correct head lap.
Valleys - the internal angles where two roof slopes meet - require particular care. Lead-lined valleys are the most durable approach. Mortar-filled valleys or tile-cut valleys can also be used but are more prone to cracking and blocking with debris. At abutments between the roof and a wall or chimney, lead flashings are cut, dressed and pointed into the masonry. This is a skilled part of the job and it is where many roof leaks originate when the work is not done correctly. The lead needs to be dressed tightly to the tile profile below and stepped or soaker-flashed to prevent water from running behind it.
Ridge tiles are fitted last. A dry-fix ridge system using mechanical clips and a continuous ventilated cap is the recommended approach on a new roof. It does not rely on mortar, does not crack in frost, and allows the structure to flex slightly without breaking the weather seal. If mortar bedding is used, it should be a sand-cement mix rather than a pure cement mix, which would be too rigid.
If the property has a flat-roofed extension or bay, this is dealt with separately but usually at the same time. For an EPDM rubber roof, the existing covering is stripped back to the deck boards. Any decking that is soft, split or damp is replaced. A new layer of OSB board is often fixed over the existing deck to provide a clean, flat surface for bonding. The EPDM membrane is then bonded to the deck using water-based adhesive, with the membrane turned up and bonded at all upstands and edges. Trim is fitted at the perimeter. The membrane should have no wrinkles or lifting edges when the job is done.
A flat roof replaced with EPDM rubber carries manufacturer-quoted product lifespans of 40-50 years, which is considerably longer than standard built-up felt. For a typical rear extension, the cost runs from around £1,500-£4,000 for EPDM depending on area, and from around £1,000-£3,000 for a standard felt system.
Before the scaffold comes down, the fascias, soffits and guttering should be inspected. Rotten timber fascia is common on older properties, and the scaffold that is already in place makes replacement straightforward. New uPVC fascia and soffit boards are fitted if needed, and guttering is checked for alignment, fall, joint condition and outlet size. A gutter that falls back toward the house rather than toward the outlet will overflow at the low end, which leads to the same eaves dampness that may have contributed to the original roof's deterioration.
New guttering should be clipped at the correct spacing and fall - a drop of around 6mm per metre toward the outlet is typical. Joints should be sealed and the downpipe outlet confirmed clear before the scaffold is removed.
Once the tile work and roofline are complete, the scaffold is struck and the area below is cleared. Broken tile fragments, batten offcuts and packaging should all be removed. A final visual check from the ground confirms that the ridge line is straight, all verges and hips are neat, and there are no obvious lifted or misaligned tiles. Any lead work should be pressed home and tidy at the edges.
Inside the loft, a final walk-round check should confirm no daylight is visible, no debris has been left inside and the underlay is correctly draped at each batten without tension. If your roofer does not offer to show you the loft check, ask for it. It takes five minutes and it is the clearest evidence that the job is done properly.
Costs depend on roof size, pitch, the condition of the existing structure and the material chosen.
If you are planning a new roof in Sutton and want a proper site assessment before committing to anything, call us. We cover Sutton, Haddenham, Stretham, Soham and all the villages around Ely, and we will walk you through exactly what your roof needs and why.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
