When your roof in Mildenhall has reached the end of its life, Thetford Roofers handles the full replacement from strip-off to the last ridge tile, keeping your home watertight at every stage.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A roof reaches a point where patching stops making sense. If you are calling a roofer every couple of years for slipped tiles, leaking flashings or crumbling mortar, the cumulative cost of those visits often overtakes the price of a full replacement. A complete re-roof gives you a clean, uniform covering that performs as it should rather than one that is half original material and half patchwork.
Thetford Roofers covers Mildenhall and the surrounding area, including nearby towns and villages such as Thetford, Brandon, Mundford and Elveden. We manage the whole job: scaffolding, strip-off, inspection of the timber structure underneath, supply and laying of the new covering, all leadwork, ridge and verge finishing, and clearance of the old material.
The first task after scaffolding is to strip the existing covering back to the rafters and battens. This is when the real picture emerges. Battens rot from the underside when the felt beneath them has broken down and condensation has been sitting on the wood. Rafters can show localised rot, particularly around valley and chimney areas where water has been tracking for years.
Once the structure is checked and any timber repaired or sistered, new breathable underlay is laid across the rafters before battens are fixed. The covering goes on last. For pitched roofs, that usually means concrete interlocking tiles, natural slate, or plain clay tiles depending on what was there before and what the homeowner wants to go back with.
Ridges are re-bedded and pointed or fitted with a dry-fix ridge system, verges are finished either in mortar or with a dry verge unit, and valleys are lined with lead or purpose-made valley troughs. Chimney and wall flashings are re-dressed in lead. The whole roof is inspected from the scaffold before it comes down.
Concrete interlocking tiles are the most common covering on post-1960s houses and typically last 40-60 years, though their mortar bedding and ridge work often needs attention well before the tiles themselves fail. Natural Welsh slate, when laid correctly on sound battens, can last over a century. Reconstituted slate sits between the two in cost and longevity. Plain clay tiles are more common on older properties and last well when the roof structure beneath them is sound.
The covering choice affects cost significantly. Natural slate costs more to supply than concrete tiles, and takes longer to lay. Reconstituted slate is a practical middle ground for many homeowners. We will discuss the options with you before any work starts so you understand what you are paying for and why.
A full roof replacement on a typical semi-detached house in or around Mildenhall usually falls in the range of £5,000 to £12,000, depending on the size of the roof, the material chosen, and the condition of the timber underneath. Larger detached properties and those with complex rooflines, multiple chimneys or dormers sit at the higher end. Natural slate adds to the material cost compared with concrete tiles. Any rotten timber found during the strip adds to the labour and material bill, but it must be dealt with before the new covering goes down.
A new roof is not a set-and-forget installation. The single most effective thing you can do to protect it is keep the gutters clear. Blocked gutters cause water to back up under the eaves, and over time that moisture works its way into the fascia, the soffit and eventually the top of the wall. Clear them in autumn after the leaves have fallen and again in spring.
Moss is the other thing to keep on top of. It holds moisture against the tile surface and, over years, accelerates weathering of the tile face and the mortar at ridges and verges. A roof biocide treatment every few years slows moss growth without the mechanical damage that pressure washing causes. Never pressure-wash a tiled or slated roof: the force strips the surface of tiles and dislodges mortar that is still serviceable.
After any spell of hard frost, it is worth looking at the ridge from ground level. Frost expands moisture that has sat in the mortar bed overnight. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles loosen ridge tiles faster than almost anything else. Catching a loose ridge early means a simple re-bed rather than tiles falling and damaging the covering below.
You do not need to go on the roof to catch early problems. From the ground, with binoculars if you have them, look for:
Internally, check your loft after heavy rain. Damp patches on the felt or insulation, daylight visible through the roof, or a musty smell are all worth acting on promptly. The earlier a problem is caught, the smaller the repair bill if the roof is otherwise sound - or the more clearly it tells you that a replacement is due.
If you can see daylight through the roof boards from the loft, or if water is reaching the ceiling below, call us for a roof survey rather than waiting for the next available slot. A small number of tiles missing or a failed flashing can let water in fast enough to damage ceiling plasterwork, insulation and, in time, joists and the wall beneath. Acting quickly limits the secondary damage.
After a full replacement, the most common reason roofs fail prematurely is debris blocking the gutters and valleys. Keep valley gutters particularly clear: they carry a high volume of water and a blockage sends that water under the edges of the tiles. If your property is near trees, valley maintenance is especially important in autumn.
There is no fixed rule on how often a roof should be professionally inspected, but a check every five years on a tiled roof and every three years on an older slate roof is reasonable on most properties. After any significant storm, a ground-level check followed by a loft inspection costs nothing and can catch problems before they worsen. If you had a chimney stack on the old roof that has been retained, have the flashings checked separately - chimney lead is often the first thing to move and the last thing homeowners think to look at.
We work across Mildenhall and into the nearby area, including the surrounding villages. If you are unsure whether we cover your village, call us and we will tell you directly. Call us to arrange a roof survey so we can give you an honest assessment of whether your roof needs replacing or whether targeted repairs will buy you several more years.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
