Re-Roofing in Reading — New Roofs, Stripped and Rebuilt
Roof repairs, re-roofing and flat roofs across Reading and the Thames valley. Free surveys, fixed written quotes, tidy workmanship.
Reading Roofing Company takes roofs off and puts new ones on. A re-roof means the old covering, battens and underlay come off completely, the rafters get looked at while they are visible, and the roof is rebuilt with breathable membrane, new treated battens and your choice of tile or slate fixed to BS 5534.
It is a big spend, so this page sets out what is in it and what makes the number move, rather than asking you to ring for a price.
When a Reading roof has run out of road
Slate roofs in the older parts of town rarely die of slate failure. They die of nail sickness: the iron nails corrode, slates start letting go across a whole slope, and every repair loosens the ones either side. Once a slope is dropping slates a few times a year, re-slating over new battens — often re-using the sound slate — is the honest answer.
Tiled roofs on the inter-war and postwar stock go the other way. The tiles are fine and the felt below them is finished. Original bitumen felt was designed for about 30 years and much of it is well past 60, brittle at the eaves and no longer diverting the water that always gets past a tile. Any roof where the loft shows daylight through torn felt is on borrowed time, whatever the tiles look like from the road.
Where the money actually goes
A typical Reading semi or terrace re-roof comes to around £9,000 in concrete tile. This is how that figure breaks down, so you can see what a cheaper quote has left out. Roughly a third of it is labour, a third is materials and the rest is access and disposal — which is why a quote that is £2,000 lower has almost always dropped one of those three rather than found a clever saving.
| Part of the job | Cost within a £9,000 re-roof | Why it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Scaffold and any street licence | £900 – £1,600 | Frontage width, height, and whether staging sits on the pavement |
| Strip out and waste disposal | £500 – £1,000 | Slate is heavy — two skips is normal on a terrace |
| Breathable membrane, battens and fixings | £600 – £1,100 | BS 5534 sets the fixing schedule; treated battens are graded and marked |
| The covering itself | £1,600 – £3,200 | Concrete interlocking at the bottom, clay or natural slate at the top |
| Leadwork, ridge and verge | £500 – £1,300 | Party wall stacks and abutments eat code 4 and code 5 lead |
| Labour | £2,400 – £3,600 | Five to eight working days for a crew of two or three |
A worked example, not a quote. Your roof gets surveyed free and priced fixed in writing, itemised the same way.
The spec we build back to
Breathable membrane, not felt
A vapour-permeable underlay lets the roof space dry out instead of trapping moisture against the rafters. It is the cheapest part of the job and the one that changes the loft most.
Fixings to BS 5534
Every tile and slate gets nailed or clipped to a schedule worked out for the exposure, not left sitting under its own weight. Reading catches plenty of south-westerly wind up the valley.
Dry ridge and dry verge
Mechanically fixed ridge and verge systems replace mortar that would need re-pointing in fifteen years. Marley, Redland and Sandtoft all make systems we fit.
Rafters and eaves put right
Rotten rafter feet, sagging wall plates and blocked eaves ventilation are all visible with the roof open, and priced per timber at a rate stated on the quote before we start.
Frequently asked questions
Ready for a free, no-obligation quote?
Call 0118 230 9278