Questions

What people ask before the quote lands.

Storm damage, materials, back-to-backs and shared gutters, guarantees and getting the work booked, grouped so you can find yours quickly.

SectionsStorms, materials, terraces, paperwork, booking
Not listed?Ring 0113 460 1042 and put it to a roofer
CostSurveys and quotes are free either way
Storm damage and leaks

When the weather off the moor has taken something with it.

  • Get anything valuable out from under it and stand a bucket where the drip lands. If the ceiling is bulging, pierce the middle of the bulge with a screwdriver so the water drains in one place rather than bringing the plaster down across the room. Then ring us. Do not go up a ladder in wind, and do not send anybody onto a wet stone slate roof; they are lethal.
  • Callouts are taken seven days a week. Planned jobs run Monday to Friday plus Saturday mornings, and the diary is deliberately left with gaps after a bad night so a genuine emergency is not stuck behind booked work.
  • Yes. You get dated photographs of what has failed, a written description of the damage, and a written scope for the repair. We will speak to the loss adjuster directly if it saves you a fortnight of letters.
  • No, and you should hear that from a roofer rather than from an adjuster. Insurers draw a line between damage a named storm caused and a roof that had been on its way out for years and happened to give up in the wind. We will tell you honestly which one we think yours is before you make the claim.
  • Because they are genuinely more exposed. Queensbury sits above a thousand feet, and Thornton, Denholme, Cullingworth, Oxenhope and Haworth all sit on the Pennine edge with nothing between them and the west wind. Ridges, verges and the first courses at the eaves go first. On anything up there we mechanically fix rather than trust mortar, and the quote says so.
  • Not on the doorstep. Nobody can see a failed batten or a perished flashing from the pavement, and a hard-sell knock after a windy night is a familiar pattern round here. Take a name, take no decision, and ring somebody you have chosen yourself for a free look.
Materials and the way the work is done

The parts nobody ever sees are the parts that decide how long it lasts.

  • Usually. Reclaimed gritstone slate and reclaimed Welsh slate are both obtainable, and most clay and concrete profiles can be traced even when they went out of production decades ago. Diminishing courses get re-laid as diminishing courses. Where a true match no longer exists anywhere, we show you the nearest option and you decide before anything is ordered.
  • Very much so. Yorkshire stone slate can run to a tonne on a single small slope, and the original roofs were framed for it. If a previous owner swapped stone for concrete tile, or somebody is proposing to put stone back onto timbers that have been cut about, the structure has to be looked at before the covering is discussed. We say so at the survey rather than halfway through a strip.
  • Lime on gritstone stacks, lime on solid stone walls, lime on anything Victorian that has been breathing quite happily since it was built. Cement on modern work where it belongs. Hard cement on a soot-black Bradford stack traps moisture in the stone and blows the face off it in the first hard frost, so we will not use it there.
  • Always. Treated battens at the correct gauge, a breathable membrane, and ventilation designed in at the eaves and the ridge. They are part of the job, not extras that appear on the invoice once the old covering is already in the skip.
  • Dry fix as standard on tile roofs and on the estates at Holme Wood, Buttershaw, Allerton and Thackley, because mortar shrinks, cracks and eventually lets a ridge tile go in a gale. On period stone property where a bedded and pointed ridge is part of how the street looks, we bed it traditionally and write that choice into the quote.
  • Lead on anything intended to outlast us: chimney flashings, back gutters, valleys and abutments. The lead-free alternatives have a place on certain flat-roof details and on jobs where theft is a real concern. If we plan to use one, we tell you where and why rather than letting you find out later.
  • Where it earns its place. Tall gritstone stacks, steep slate pitches, mill roofs and anything over a busy road are quicker and far safer to inspect from the air, and you get the photographs alongside the quote instead of having to take our word for it.
  • Yes. Saltaire is a World Heritage Site with a conservation area around it, and there are listed buildings and conservation streets through Little Germany, Bradford city centre, Bingley, Baildon and Haworth. Like-for-like materials, traditional detailing, and a straight answer on whether consent is needed before a price is put together.
Back-to-backs, terraces and shared roofs

The part of Bradford roofing that catches people out.

  • On a true back-to-back the covering runs across both halves and there is no rear elevation to work from, so nearly every job needs agreement with the house behind. We are used to knocking on, explaining what is proposed and splitting a quote cleanly between two owners so nobody feels they are paying for the other one's slates.
  • It usually works badly, because everybody assumes somebody else is clearing it. A shared eaves run can be cleared, re-falled or renewed in one go at a far lower cost per house than six separate visits, and we will price it both ways so the neighbours can see the difference in writing.
  • Yes, though it changes how the job runs. Materials and waste go through the front or over the roof, scaffold is designed round the street rather than the yard, and on the stepped terraces up the valley sides the scaffold has to be built off the fall. It is all costed before you agree to anything.
  • Where a stack straddles the boundary, both owners usually have an interest in it and the fair split is normally down the middle. We photograph it, write the scope in a way that makes sense to both households, and are happy to talk it through with the neighbour if that helps it get done.
  • Almost always the management company's decision rather than yours, because the roof is common parts. We survey the whole roof, photograph it, report on it and quote the whole thing, so the directors or the managing agent have something they can actually put to a meeting.
Guarantee, insurance and paperwork

What is still standing behind the job once the van has gone.

  • Ten years on our workmanship, written down, on all major work. You are handed it at sign-off with the finished photographs, rather than waiting on a postman weeks later.
  • Slates, tiles, membranes, fittings and flat-roof systems carry their own manufacturers' warranties, and several of those run longer than our ten years. Where a manufacturer wants the installation registering, we register it and send you the paperwork.
  • Public liability is covered to £5m and employer's liability to £10m. Ask for the certificates before anybody sets foot on the property, and put the same question to everyone else who quotes.
  • You ring the same number and somebody comes and looks at it. A written guarantee is worth nothing if answering the phone afterwards turns out to be optional.
  • Yes. Surveys, photographs, written scopes and the guarantee can all be reissued for a solicitor, a lender or a buyer's surveyor. Say what the file needs and we will put it together.
Getting the work booked in

What actually happens between the phone call and the scaffold.

  • Normally within a few working days across the Bradford district, and inside the week for Leeds. Live leaks and wind damage jump the queue and we get to them as fast as we physically can.
  • Small repairs tend to be a week or two after you accept the quote. Re-roofs, chimney rebuilds and anything needing scaffold are booked further ahead, and you are given real dates when you book rather than a vague nod towards next month.
  • Flat roofing and most repairs need a dry day. A re-roof comes off in sections, so the house is closed up and weathertight before anybody goes home. If we are not coming, you get a phone call that morning, because sitting in all day for a van that never turns up is its own kind of insult.
  • For the survey it helps, so we can get into the loft and you can hear what was found. For the work itself usually not, provided we can reach the back of the house and there is an outside tap. Access is agreed when the job is booked, not improvised on the morning.
  • Not for a survey or a quote, which cost nothing. On larger jobs a materials deposit is normal and is set out in the quote. Nobody should ever be asked to hand over cash on the doorstep before a job starts.
  • A good deal. Fixed written scopes, photographs with the invoice, and the work arranged around tenants rather than sprung on them. A good deal of what we do on rented property is guttering, flashings and re-fixing slates, with strips booked between tenancies.

Still something you want answering?

Ring, or send the form. A roofer picks it up, and the survey costs you nothing whichever way it goes.

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