Slough grew fast around its trading estate, and its housing reflects that: a large stock of interwar and postwar semis and terraces, later estate housing, and a great many single storey rear additions with flat roofs. Those three things between them account for most of the roof repairs the town actually needs, and they fail in predictable ways.
Interwar and postwar pitched roofs
Houses of that age were usually covered in clay or concrete tiles laid on softwood battens and nailed. What ages is not normally the tile but the fixings and the battens beneath them, and the underlay, which on the older stock is a bitumen felt that becomes brittle and tears at the eaves. A slope that sheds a tile every winter has usually reached that point, and patching it repeatedly is renting time rather than buying a fix.
Flat roofs on rear additions
Kitchen and bathroom additions of that era are commonly flat roofed, and many still carry built up felt laid decades ago. The things to check are the falls, because ponding water finds every weakness, the upstand where the roof meets the house wall, the edge trims, and whether the deck below has softened. Modern single ply and liquid systems have changed the durability of flat roofing considerably, and a recover is often a better purchase than a third repair.
Chimneys, valleys and the terraced streets
Terraces and semis put valleys and party wall abutments in the middle of the roof, which are the junctions water exploits. Chimney flashings and the mortar around them fail slowly and are visible from the ground with binoculars if you know what to look for. On a terrace, access and scaffolding are the practical constraints, and a quote that does not name how the roofer is getting up there is incomplete.
Checking who you are hiring
Work that replaces a substantial part of a roof covering is notifiable, and the two lawful routes are a building control application or certification by a contractor registered on a competent person scheme for roofing. Check the registration on the scheme's own register rather than on a logo, check the company at Companies House, and take references on work finished more than a year ago. After a storm, be particularly careful with callers offering an immediate repair.
Questions people ask about roof repairs Slough
Does a roof repair need building control?
A small repair does not. Replacing a substantial part of the covering is notifiable, and is handled either by a building control application or by a registered contractor's certificate.
Repair or replace an old tiled roof?
If the fixings, battens or underlay have gone, repeated repairs will keep failing. A roof shedding tiles every winter is usually telling you which of the two it needs.
Is a felt flat roof worth recovering?
Often, yes. Modern single ply and liquid systems last considerably longer, and the falls and upstands can be corrected at the same time.
Someone knocked offering roof repairs after a storm, should I use them?
Be careful. Doorstep selling carries cancellation rights, and the safer route is a written quote from a registered contractor you have checked yourself.