North Walsham Roofers carries out roof repairs in Honing and the surrounding villages, from the initial inspection right through to clearing up and leaving the site tidy.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
If you have not had roofing work done before, it can be hard to know what to expect - how long it takes, what stages are involved, and whether the price you are quoted is fair. This page walks through a typical roof repair job from start to finish, so you know exactly what good work looks like at each stage.
A proper repair starts with a proper look at the roof, not a glance from the kerb. The roofer needs to get up there - either on a ladder to the eaves level, or onto the roof itself if it is safe to do so - and check the actual condition of the covering, the flashings, the ridge, the gutters and the felt or underfelt underneath where it is visible.
From ground level, you can spot missing tiles and sagging ridges. But you cannot see whether the neighbouring tiles are cracked, whether the felt has rotted, or whether the batten a tile sits on has failed. A roofer who quotes without going up is quoting blind, and the price is likely to change once they do start work.
During the survey we look at the whole picture, not just the obvious fault. If a tile has slipped, we check whether the nail fixing has corroded (which would mean neighbouring tiles are at the same risk), whether the underfelt is in good order, and whether the repair will be stable or whether there is a wider problem underneath. This takes longer than a five-minute visit, but it avoids the common situation where a customer pays for a repair only to have another tile come down a fortnight later.
Once we have seen the roof properly, we explain what we have found in plain terms - what is causing the problem, what the options are, and what will happen if the issue is left. Some repairs are urgent: a missing section of flashing in heavy rain can allow water into a wall cavity in hours. Others can be scheduled: a slightly loose ridge tile in dry summer weather can wait a few weeks without serious risk.
We tell you which category a repair falls into, so you can make an informed decision rather than feeling pressured into immediate work. If there are two options - a patch repair versus a more thorough fix - we explain the honest cost and longevity difference between them.
Access to the roof is the part of the job most homeowners never think about, but it is where a significant part of the cost and time lies. For a standard two-storey house a scaffold tower or a set of roof ladders will usually be sufficient. For a chimney, a full chimney scaffold may be needed. For a large area of re-tiling, a full scaffold may be the safer and faster option.
Roof ladders - sometimes called hook ladders - are curved metal ladders that hook over the ridge so a roofer can move across the slope without putting direct foot pressure on the tiles. Walking directly on a tiled roof without proper boards or ladders causes more damage than the original fault in many cases. If a roofer arrives with just a standard ladder and proposes to walk across your roof without any protection, that is worth questioning.
The access method affects the price, but it also affects safety and the risk of additional damage. We discuss what access is needed before starting work, so there are no surprises.
What actually happens on the roof depends on what needs fixing. For a slipped or broken slate, the process is to remove the damaged slate using a tool called a ripper (a flat bar with a hooked end that cuts the nail holding the slate), slide in the new slate, and fix it with a copper or stainless steel clip. The clip hooks over the tail of the slate and tucks under the course above, holding it in place without needing to nail through the face. This is called a secret fix or tingles method and is standard practice for individual slate repairs.
For re-bedding ridge tiles, the process is to carefully lift each loose tile, chip off the old mortar, clean the surface, apply a fresh mortar bed, relay the tiles, and re-point the joints between them. The mortar needs to be the right consistency - too dry and it crumbles, too wet and it slumps and does not bond. The finished pointing should be slightly recessed and angled to shed water rather than proud of the tile surface where it would trap it.
For lead flashing repairs, the lead is cut back to sound material, the mortar chase in the brickwork is re-raked if it has crumbled, and new lead is cut, dressed to the profile of the roof, and tucked and wedged into the chase before the joint is pointed. On chimney stacks, there are typically several separate pieces of lead - a back gutter, step flashings along the sides, and a front apron - and each needs to be checked and dressed correctly.
For flat roof repairs, the affected area is cleaned and dried as thoroughly as possible, any blistered or split material is cut back, and a compatible patch is applied and bonded. On felt roofs, the patch is torched down; on EPDM rubber roofs, a self-adhesive EPDM patch and lap sealant are used. The key point is that the patch material must be compatible with what is already on the roof - bonding EPDM adhesive to a bitumen felt surface does not work reliably.
Once the repair is done, the area is checked from close up and, where possible, from below or from a different angle to confirm everything is seated and sealed correctly. On a slate repair, the new slate should sit flush with its neighbours and move when the course above it is lifted. On a ridge repair, the pointing should be continuous with no visible cracks or gaps. On a flat roof patch, the edges should be fully bonded with no lifting.
A quick check inside the loft after a repair is also worthwhile on a clear day - you should not be able to see daylight where the repair was carried out.
Roofing work produces debris - broken tiles, old mortar, felt offcuts, packaging. A tidy site means all of this is bagged and taken away, gutters are cleared of any material that fell during the work, and the garden or driveway is left in the same condition it was found. This is not a bonus service; it is part of the job. If a quote does not mention waste removal, ask whether it is included.
A few straightforward questions will tell you whether a roofer is worth hiring. Ask them what access method they propose and why. Ask what material they will use and whether it matches the existing roof. Ask for the price to be broken down into labour and materials. Ask whether the work includes clearing up and removing waste. A roofer who cannot or will not answer these questions clearly is one worth being cautious about.
Common red flags include a very low price with no detail on materials, a quote given entirely from the ground, payment demanded in full before any work is done, and pressure to start the job the same day. None of these are signs of a professional operation.
Most single-fault repairs - a slipped slate, a loose ridge tile, a failed flashing on a chimney - take between half a day and a full day including setting up access and clearing up. More involved repairs, such as re-bedding a full ridge, replacing a run of damaged slates, or replacing a flat roof membrane, will typically take one to two days. Repairs that require a full scaffold to be erected will add a day for erection and a day for striking at either end of the job.
Roof repair timescales in the north Norfolk area are broadly similar to elsewhere in the UK, but demand for roofers picks up sharply after autumn and winter storm events, which can extend waiting times. For an emergency such as a large section of covering displaced in high winds, a temporary tarpaulin fix can be done quickly to stop water ingress while a permanent repair is arranged.
We cover Honing and the surrounding area. If you want a straightforward survey with a clear explanation of what needs doing, call us to book a visit and we will walk you through exactly what we find.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
