Fakenham Roofers carries out roof repairs for homeowners in Holt and across North Norfolk, from a first look at the problem through to finishing the job and leaving the site clear.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A roof repair is not just turning up with a few tiles and a trowel. Done properly, it follows a logical sequence - inspection, diagnosis, preparation, repair, and check. Each stage matters. Cutting corners at any point is what leads to the same problem coming back six months later. This page walks through exactly what a thorough repair looks like and what you should expect at each stage.
Before any tools come out of the van, the roofer needs to understand what is actually happening. That means getting onto the roof or as close to it as safely possible - not a brief scan from the pavement.
The inspection should cover the area of reported damage and the roof around it. A leak above a bedroom, for example, rarely originates directly above the damp patch on the ceiling. Water enters at one point, runs along a rafter or batten, and drips somewhere else entirely. A roofer who replaces only the tile closest to the ceiling stain may well be replacing the wrong tile.
The loft space, if accessible, gives valuable information. Staining on rafters, wet insulation, mould on the underside of the deck - these all help pinpoint where water has been entering and for how long. A torch and a careful look around the loft is worth doing before anyone goes up on the roof.
The inspection should also check flashings around any chimneys, dormer cheeks, skylights and valleys, because these are where the majority of persistent leaks originate. A tile may look fine from below while the flashing behind it has been letting water in for years.
Once the roofer has had a proper look, they should explain clearly what they have found. That means telling you:
That last point matters. If a roofer replaces three cracked concrete tiles on a roof where half the remaining tiles are nearing the end of their life, you should know that before you decide how much to spend. Sometimes the right advice is to repair now and monitor; sometimes a full re-roof is the more cost-effective choice. You cannot make that decision without the information.
Before the actual repair starts, the work area needs to be prepared properly. On a pitched roof, that means removing the damaged tiles or slates carefully - not breaking them out roughly and risking damage to adjacent ones. If the tiles either side of the repair are in good condition, they need to come off and go back on without cracking.
The battens beneath the tiles should be checked for rot or damage. A tile sits on a timber batten, and if that batten is soft or broken, renailing the tile to it will not hold. Rotten batten runs need cutting out and replacing before new tiles go on.
Any old mortar from ridge tiles or verge bedding needs to be fully raked out back to clean masonry before new mortar is applied. Pointing over old, crumbling mortar is one of the most common reasons repairs fail quickly. The new mortar has nothing solid to bond to, and within a season it cracks away again.
For flashing repairs, the old flashing chase (the slot cut into the mortar joint in brickwork) should be inspected. If the lead or the pointing around it has failed, the chase may need re-cutting slightly deeper to get a clean edge for the new lead to sit in.
The repair stage varies considerably depending on the job. Here is what is involved in the most common repairs:
On a plain-tile roof, the rows above the repair need to be lifted temporarily to get access. Each tile hooks over a batten via nibs at the top and may also be nailed. The new tile goes in with the nibs correctly seated on the batten, and any nailing matches the pattern used on the rest of the roof. The lifted tiles above are reset properly - not just laid back loosely.
On a slate roof, each slate is individually nailed, typically through the face or at the head. Replacing a single slate in a run often requires a tool called a slater's ripper to remove the old fixing without disturbing neighbours. The new slate is fixed with a copper or stainless steel nail (not a galvanised iron nail, which will corrode) and a lead or copper clip holds the tail down. Skipping the clip is a false economy - the tail of an unclipped slate will lift in wind.
Ridge tiles sit at the apex of the roof and are bedded in mortar. They loosen over time as the mortar weathers and cracks. A roofer should remove loose ridge tiles entirely, clean the old mortar off both the tile and the roof surface, and re-bed the tile with fresh mortar. Pointing the outside of a loose ridge tile without removing and re-bedding it is not a lasting repair.
Where a full re-ridge is being done, dry-fix ridge systems - using a mechanical batten and ventilated end caps rather than mortar - are now widely used and offer a longer service life because there is no mortar to crack.
Lead flashings around chimneys are fixed into a mortar joint and dressed down over the tiles. When the joint opens or the lead lifts, it needs to be properly re-pointed with a mortar appropriate to the masonry - not sealed with bitumen tape, which is a temporary measure only. The lead itself should be checked for cracking, splits and adequate overlap at step joints.
If the haunching on a chimney stack (the mortar cap that sheds water away from the pot and flaunching joints) has cracked, that needs raking out and making good too, separately from the flashing.
A flat roof that has one or two isolated blisters or splits in the felt can often be repaired in isolation. The area around the failure is cut back to find clean, dry felt beneath, and a compatible patch is bonded over it with a full overlap. If the deck beneath the felt is wet or soft, it needs replacing - applying felt over a rotten deck will not hold.
If a flat roof has widespread cracking, multiple blisters, or pooling water because of insufficient falls, a patch repair is not a sensible investment. A full replacement using modern torch-on felt or EPDM rubber membrane is the correct approach, and a roofer should be honest about that.
When the repair is complete, the roofer should check the area around the work - not just the repair itself. Are all the tiles that were moved back in their correct position? Is any mortar sitting on the tile surface that needs cleaning off before it sets? Has any debris fallen into the gutters?
The site should be left as it was found. Off-cuts of lead, broken tiles, old mortar and packaging should be taken away. Leaving material on the roof or scattered on the path below is not finishing the job properly.
Typical repair costs in Norfolk range from around £150-£300 for a small, single-visit job such as replacing a few tiles or re-pointing a loose ridge tile, up to £500-£1,000 or more for chimney flashing work or larger patch repairs involving timber replacement. More extensive work such as a flat roof replacement or full re-ridge is priced separately based on the area involved.
Fakenham Roofers carries out repairs across Holt and the wider North Norfolk area, including Sheringham, Burnham Market, Docking, Fakenham, Reepham, and nearby villages. For a straightforward explanation of what your roof needs and what the work involves, call us to arrange an inspection.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
