New Roofs in Ely

What we do here

A new roof is the biggest single thing most people will ever have done to their house, and it is worth taking time over. We come out, look at what you have, and set out honestly whether you actually need a full re-roof or whether repair will genuinely see you right for a good while yet. Plenty of roofs we are called to look at in Ely turn out to have years left in them. When one has genuinely reached the end, we will show you why rather than ask you to take our word for it. We work from Dersingham, so Ely is a planned job for us and we will be straight about scheduling from the outset.

What a re-roof in Ely usually involves

• Stripping and checking the timbers: the part that matters most and the part nobody sees. On Fen property that has moved, this is where you find out what you are really dealing with.
• Breathable membrane: replacing old bitumen felt, which is often the reason a loft has been damp for years.
• Battens and fixings: new throughout, specified for exposure, which on open Fenland means more fixings rather than fewer.
• Dry ridge and verge systems: mechanically fixed rather than bedded in mortar, so they do not crack open again in ten years.
• Tile or slate: matching what the street and the building want, whether that is clay pantile, plain tile, natural slate or concrete interlocking.
• Making good: flashings, stacks, gutters and anything else disturbed, finished properly rather than left for someone else.

Choosing a covering

Around the cathedral and the conservation area, the choice is often made for you, and rightly so. Gault brick property with clay pantile or slate should generally get the same again, and where a building is listed that is not negotiable. Out on the newer estates towards Littleport and Soham, concrete interlocking is the sensible and economical answer and there is no reason to spend more. The place people go wrong is putting a heavy modern concrete tile on an older roof structure that was never built to carry it. We check the timbers before we recommend a covering, not after.

Exposure on the Fen edge

Roofs here are more exposed than their surroundings suggest. Flat drained land means wind arrives with nothing to slow it, and it does not come from one reliable direction the way it does on the coast. That shapes how we specify a roof in Ely: more fixings, mechanical ridge and verge rather than mortar, and particular care at the edges, because edges are where wind gets under a roof and starts lifting. It costs a little more at the outset and saves a great deal later.

What to expect while the work is on

A straightforward house re-roof is usually a week or so, weather permitting, and scaffolding normally goes up a day or two beforehand. You can stay in the house throughout. The noisiest part is the strip, which is generally the first day or two, and we sheet up and clear as we go rather than leaving a site to deal with at the end. On the Fen edge weather is the main thing that moves a date, because there is no sense stripping a roof with a hard blow forecast, and we would rather tell you that than start and stop.

Looking for something else? You can see everything we do as roofers in Ely, including our other services, the villages we cover nearby and recent work in the area.

Working with us

We are third generation, fully insured, and everything is quoted in writing before it starts, so you know the figure and what it covers. No deposit chasing and no sales pressure. If you want to see the range of coverings and how we work, our main new roofs page goes through it in more detail. We cover Ely and the Fen villages including Littleport, Soham, Witchford and Haddenham, as well as Wisbech and King's Lynn to the north, and we work across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and the wider East of England.

Ring us or send a few details and we will come and take a proper look.