Straight answers about roofs
No selling. If the answer is that you do not need us, that is what it says.
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Is dry verge worth it?
For most tiled roofs, yes. Dry verge caps clip and screw over the tile ends at the gable edge, in place of the mortar bedded there. Mortar cracks and drops out over time, and once it goes the wind can get under the tiles.
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Why mortar ridges crack
Mortar bedding cracks because the roof moves and the mortar cannot. Timber swells and shrinks with heat and damp, the tiles shift a little with it, and rigid mortar splits along the joint. Water gets into the crack, frost widens it, and the bedding lets go in pieces.
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Leaking with no rain
Most of the time it is not a leak. Warm damp air from the house rises into a cold loft, meets the underside of the roof and turns back into water. That is condensation, and it shows up in cold weather, days after any rain.
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Leaking when it rains
Rain gets in where a roof is joined or broken, not usually through the middle of a sound slope. The usual places are the flashing where the roof meets a chimney or a wall, a slipped or cracked tile, a valley, loose ridge or verge mortar, a flat roof joint or outlet, or a blocked gutter backing water up under the eaves.
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Insurance and a leaking roof
Usually only when something sudden caused it, most often a storm. Buildings insurance normally covers storm damage, but policies exclude wear and tear, lack of maintenance and damage that builds up slowly. A roof that leaks because it has worn out is usually treated as upkeep, not a claim. Your own policy wording decides it.
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Do I need a new roof?
Usually you do not. Moss, one slipped tile and cracked mortar are not reasons to strip a roof. A reroof is the answer when the battens, the underlay or the fixings have failed across the whole roof, rather than in one place.
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How long a roof lasts
It depends on the covering, and on what sits under it. Natural slate can run eighty years or more, clay tile sixty or more, concrete tile forty to sixty. The battens, the underlay and the mortar underneath give up long before the tiles do.
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Fascias and soffits
The fascia is the upright board across the ends of the rafters, and the gutter screws to it. The soffit is the flat board underneath, closing the gap back to the wall. Soffits are usually vented, so air can get into the loft.
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Storm damage
Stay off the roof, and keep everyone out from under it. Look from the ground, photograph what you can see, and move anything valuable out of the room below. Then ring a roofer and describe what came off and where it landed.
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Cleaning gutters yourself
On a bungalow with firm level ground, often yes. On a two storey house, think hard, because the danger is the ladder and not the gutter. If you have to lean, stretch, or stand a ladder on soft ground, pay someone instead.
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Do I need scaffolding?
Not always. A short run of guttering can often be done off ladders or a tower, if the ground is firm. Scaffolding is needed once the run is long or high, or once the work needs both hands and somewhere to stand.
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What changes the cost
Size is only the start of it. Shape, access and the covering you choose move the number more than floor area does. A plain gable roof recovered in concrete tile and a cut up roof in natural slate are two different jobs on the same house.
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What does a new roof cost?
A new roof in the UK costs £5,250 on average on MyJobQuote's guide of 26 August 2026, and that figure excludes scaffolding. Which? puts a new tiled roof on a three bedroom house at £7,000 to £21,000, excluding VAT, from 11 traders surveyed in November 2025. The two measure different things, so do not split the difference.
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What does a roof repair cost?
MyJobQuote puts the average UK roof repair at around £650 in 2026, with costs typically ranging from £150 to £3,000 and above. Which? surveyed 11 traders on the Which? Trusted Traders scheme in November 2025 and put one to six replacement tiles at £75 to £400, excluding VAT. Neither range is our price. We give a free estimate.
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Flat roof cost
MyJobQuote's flat roof replacement cost guide, updated 12 August 2026, puts the average new flat roof at £2,400 and the 2026 range at £1,500 to £6,000. On a single garage of 15 square metres it gives felt at £1,200 to £1,800, rubber at £1,650 to £2,400 and fibreglass at £1,800 to £2,700. Those ranges are theirs, not ours.
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What does a dry ridge cost?
MyJobQuote's dry ridge cost guide, updated 21 August 2026, puts a dry ridge system at £40 to £75 per linear metre installed, and the average whole job at £1,250. That is its market range, not a price for your roof.
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What does replacing tiles cost?
Which? puts one to six standard tiles at £75 to £400, labour and materials, excluding VAT, from 11 traders surveyed in November 2025. MyJobQuote puts five at around £215. The tile itself is the cheap part: MyJobQuote puts clay at £0.80 to £2.50 a tile to supply. You are paying for reaching it safely.
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What does new guttering cost?
MyJobQuote's gutter replacement cost guide, updated 25 August 2026, puts the average gutter replacement in the UK at around £1,000 to £1,600, and uPVC supplied and fitted at £40 to £50 per metre. A three bedroom semi with 32 metres of gutter comes out at £1,300 to £1,600 on the same guide. That range is theirs, not ours. We give a free estimate, because your number depends on the length of the run and how it is reached.
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What is in a roofing quote?
A roofing quote should name the work, not just give a price, and two quotes only compare line by line, never on the total. It should say which covering is going on and what goes underneath. It should also say how much of the roof is included, whether scaffolding, waste removal and VAT are in the number, when the work starts, how long the price stands and what is guaranteed.
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How do I choose a roofer?
There are four routes: a national firm, a directory, a local roofer, or a builder. Use a builder when the roof sits inside a bigger job, a local roofer for a repair or a reroof, a directory to get two or three prices fast, and a national firm if you want finance.
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Roof building regulations
The Planning Portal says re-roofing a house in England will need building regulations approval in most situations, and that roof work which does not materially affect the external appearance of the house will usually not need planning permission. The same site says a repair or re-cover needs no building control application while less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof are affected. A patch repair sits under both limits.
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Is a doorstep quote a scam?
A doorstep roofing quote is not always a scam, but treat it as one until the roof has been checked properly. Real ridge work needs access set up and time on the roof, not a knock and a price on the spot. Take the card, agree to nothing, and get a second opinion from somebody you chose.
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Does jet washing damage tiles?
Jet washing can damage roof tiles. A lance held close strips the surface finish off a concrete tile and takes the valley mortar with it. The tile is solid concrete, so a stripped face opens no hole, but a stripped valley does. The surface does not come back. Grit in the gutters after a clean is that finish.
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