Roofers in Caterham (CR3)
Caterham roofs take more weather than most. The town climbs from the station up to the plateau, and much of its roof stock sits exposed on the higher ground with awkward approaches from the road. We survey the roof, price the work, bring in roofers we have used for years, and stay answerable for the result.
What Caterham roofs are actually made of
The two halves of the town carry different roofs, and they fail in different ways.
The older streets up on the hill are Victorian and Edwardian slate and clay tile, a good deal of it original — and on those roofs the nails and the battens underneath almost always give out before the covering does, which is why a roof can look sound from the road and still be dropping slates. Down in the valley and on the post-war streets climbing the sides, concrete interlocking tile is the common covering, laid from the 1950s on. Plenty of those are now at the age where the tiles have lost their surface and the felt beneath has gone brittle. The right answer is not the same for both: a period roof is often worth stripping and relaying with the sound tiles set aside and reused, where a tired concrete roof is usually better re-covered outright than patched twice more.
Access on a Caterham slope
On the valley sides, half the job is reaching the roof safely. Streets here mean scaffold standing on sloping, stepped or terraced ground, narrow frontages to get material in, and back gardens that drop away sharply. That gets worked out at survey rather than found on the first morning, because it changes both the programme and the price. A scaffold costed properly at the start is what stops a job stalling in its second week.
Who actually does the roofing
Roofing is a specialist trade and we do not pretend otherwise.
SG brings in roofers it has worked with for years and manages them on site — we survey the roof, price it, run the job and stay answerable for the result. One firm to deal with from survey to handover, and one firm to ring if something needs revisiting.
More in Caterham
Everything we do in Caterham is on the Caterham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the roofing page.
Common questions
Q.01Do you cover Caterham for roof work?
Yes. Our base is 27 High Street, Godstone, a few miles down the road, and Caterham is a town we work in week in, week out — we were based there for years before the move.
Q.02My house is on a steep plot. Is that a problem?
No, but it has to be priced honestly. Sloping and stepped ground changes what scaffold is needed and how long it takes to put up. We look at access at the survey and put it in the written price rather than raising it later.
Q.03Can you match the tiles on a period Caterham house?
Usually. On Victorian and Edwardian roofs we set aside the sound original tiles or slates during the strip and relay them on the visible elevations, making up the shortfall with the closest match we can source. Where an exact match does not exist we say so before starting.
Q.04How fast can you look at a leak?
Ring the office on 01883 337 700. Being a few miles away means we can normally get someone to look at an active leak quickly, make it safe, and then price the permanent repair properly rather than guessing at it in the rain.
Thinking about roofing in Caterham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.