Expert guides, cost breakdowns and homeowner tips to help you get the job done right.
You own a thatched cottage, the ridge is looking tired, and every price you find online is a round number with no explanation behind it. Worse, the two facts everyone repeats — that water reed last…
The garage roof has rusted through at the fixings, the sheets lift and bang in a gale, and there is a puddle on the floor every time it rains. Or you have a workshop, stable block or old outbuildin…
Underneath your roof tiles sits a layer of felt or membrane called the underlay. It is the roof's second line of defence — the thing that catches wind-driven rain that gets past the tiles and carri…
The ridge is the line along the very top of your roof, capped with a row of curved or angular tiles bedded down on mortar. It is the most exposed part of the whole building, and on a great many UK …
A roof valley is the channel where two roof slopes meet, and it carries more water than any other part of your roof. Every drop that lands on both slopes funnels down that one narrow line. When a v…
A redundant chimney is often more trouble than it's worth — taking up valuable internal space, leaking heat through the flue, and requiring ongoing maintenance to stay watertight. Removing the stac…
Green roofs — sometimes called living, biodiverse or sedum roofs — turn an unused flat roof into a thriving planted surface that absorbs rainwater, supports pollinators, insulates the building belo…
A standard homebuyer's survey rarely climbs onto the roof — most surveyors inspect from ground level with binoculars, with anything they can't see clearly recorded as "unable to inspect." For an as…
GRP (glass-reinforced polyester) fibreglass roofing produces one of the most solid, hard-wearing flat-roof finishes available — fully bonded to the deck, completely seamless, and walkable straight …
EPDM rubber roofing has become the default flat roof finish for most UK homes — used on extensions, garage roofs, dormers, bay windows and porches. Compared with traditional felt, modern EPDM is fa…
A slate roof is among the longest-lasting and most beautiful roofing finishes available in the UK — natural Welsh slate can comfortably last 100 years, and on Victorian buildings, original slate is…
If you live in a semi-detached or end-terrace house with a hipped (three-sided sloping) roof, a hip-to-gable conversion is often the single biggest opportunity to add real, usable space upstairs. B…
