Roof installations in Hythe, Folkestone and Kent

A replacement is not a new covering laid over an old one. It is a strip back to the timbers, and that is the only point at which anybody can see the condition of the thing holding your roof up.

Concrete interlocking tiles are the most common choice on Kent housing stock and the least expensive to fit. Clay tiles cost more and last longer, and on a period property they are often the only thing that looks right.

Natural slate is the longest lived and the most expensive, and it suits a lot of the older stock across east Kent. Flat sections, which most houses have somewhere, are now normally done in a single ply membrane or fibreglass rather than the old pour and roll felt.

We will tell you what the roof you have will take, what the building will look like with each option, and what the difference costs. If the cheaper covering is the sensible answer for your property, that is what we will say.

Size and pitch first: a steeper roof is slower and needs more scaffold. Then the covering you choose, how much structural repair turns up once the roof is open, how many chimneys, valleys and dormers there are to detail around, and how easily scaffolding and a skip can get to the property.

That last one matters more than people expect on the terraced streets in Hythe and Folkestone, where access is often from the front only.