200 questions people ask us.

The three things that move the price are access, height and whether the battens underneath have gone. Among single repairs, a slipped slate is at the cheaper end and lead flashing to a chimney at the dearer end.

Often, yes. A single tile on a two-storey house is usually a ladder and a roof ladder job. Anything along a ridge, a full slope, or work on a third storey normally needs a tower or scaffold for safety, and we will tell you which at the survey rather than after.

Most single repairs are between an hour and a day. A slipped slate or a cracked tile is an hour once someone is up there. Re-bedding a ridge or renewing a chimney flashing is half a day to a day. A patch of slope stripped back to new battens and membrane is two or three days. Where a tower or a scaffold is needed, add a day at each end for it to go up and come down.

Nearly always, and it matters more on a repair than on a whole roof — one bright new tile among a hundred weathered ones is exactly what people notice. We match size, profile and thickness, use reclaimed stock where a profile is out of production, and hold the replacement up against the roof so you can see the match before it is fixed rather than after.

Sometimes, and it is worth reading the policy before you assume either way. Insurers separate sudden damage from gradual deterioration, and the condition of the roof beforehand is usually what decides which one yours is. Tell us at the survey if a claim is likely: we photograph everything before we touch it, itemise the repair, and we take on insurance work.

You often do not, and it is worth ruling out the cheap causes first. Blocked gutters, a cracked render, a failed window seal and condensation in a cold loft all look like roof leaks. We check those before we sell you a roof repair.

Ask us for the terms in writing when you get your quote — the length, and exactly which part of the roof they cover. A repair guarantee covers the repair, not the slopes nobody touched, and that distinction is worth having on paper.

There is a 24-hour call-out line. How soon we can be there depends on the hour, the weather and how far you are from Camberwell — during a storm every roofer in London is already out. You will get a real time when you ring rather than a promise printed on a web page.

The hour, and whether the roof can be reached from a ladder. If the emergency repair is also the permanent one — a slipped slate, a blocked valley — that is generally the whole bill. Where a stripped slope has to be sheeted, the permanent repair is quoted separately.

Out-of-hours attendance costs more right across the London trade, because it is two people working at antisocial hours. What matters is that you know the rate before we set off. Ask when you ring and you will be told the figure, and whether the call-out charge is credited against the permanent repair if you go ahead with it.

Parts of one. Slates go back, gutters get cleared, sheeting gets battened down and a split flashing can be sealed temporarily. Bitumen, mortar and liquid coatings all need a dry surface to bond or cure, so those repairs wait for weather. Anyone torching felt onto a soaking deck in a downpour is building you a leak for next year.

Days to a few weeks. Sheeting starts losing to UV and wind the moment it goes on, and its fixings work loose. What it buys is time — time for the roof to dry out, for a scaffold to go up if one is needed, and for the repair to be done properly. It is not a substitute for a roof and we will not sell it as one.

Turn off the lighting circuit at the consumer unit if the water is near a fitting. Put a bucket under the lowest point of the bulge and pierce it once, in the middle, with a screwdriver. It will drain steadily. Plasterboard can hold several litres and then drops the entire sheet, which turns a ceiling stain into a ceiling replacement.

Sudden storm damage is usually covered and wear and tear usually is not. Most policies also oblige you to limit further damage, which is what a make-safe does, so keep the invoice and send it in with the claim. We photograph everything before we touch the roof and write the report in the terms insurers ask for. We take on insurance work.

For work on the outside, usually not — we can attend, make the roof safe and photograph what we found. We do need to get to whatever the water is coming through, so if the leak is in a flat, a loft or above a locked room, somebody with a key has to be there. On a converted house with a shared roof, the freeholder needs telling as well.

Camberwell is the base, and the quickest roofs to reach are in SE5 and the postcodes around it — Peckham, Dulwich, East Dulwich, Herne Hill, West Norwood, Brockley, Brixton, Clapham, Streatham, Tooting, Balham, Wandsworth and Battersea. We also work Putney, Fulham and Wimbledon, and out to Kingston and New Malden, which take longer at night.

The covering first: felt is the cheapest to lay, rubber sits in the middle and fibreglass at the top. Then the deck, which nobody can price properly from the ground, so we quote a rate per square metre for board replacement before we lift anything. A warm deck adds material and height at the edge. Rooflights, kerbs, pipes and upstands add labour, and a plain rectangle is cheaper per square metre than a small roof with four corners. Scaffold and a skip are separate lines on the quote, and in South London access, parking and waste disposal are real costs.

For a large plain roof, EPDM rubber: it goes down in one sheet with no seam in the middle and manufacturers put its design life at forty years or more. For a roof you walk on, or one with awkward corners and a balcony finish, GRP fibreglass: it cures into a single hard shell. Felt is the cheapest and the shortest-lived at fifteen to twenty-five years, and it is still a reasonable choice on a garage you do not intend to keep forever. We will tell you which we would put on your roof and why.

Sometimes, with a liquid system or an overlay board, and only if the deck underneath is dry and sound. We check it with a moisture meter and by walking it before we agree to overlay anything. If the boards are soft anywhere, covering them just buys a year and hides the rot while it spreads.

A warm roof puts rigid insulation on top of the deck, under the covering, so the timber stays warm and dry rather than sitting on the cold side where condensation forms. A cold roof puts it between the joists, which is how most older extensions were built and why their timbers rot. Building regulations generally call for insulation to about 0.18 W/m²K once you renew more than half of a roof, and on a flat roof that means a warm deck. It adds cost and about 100 to 150 mm of height at the edge.

Either the fall was never built into the deck, or it has settled out of it, or the outlet is blocked or sits in the wrong place. Water still standing two days after rain is ponding, and it shortens the life of any covering. Sometimes we can build the fall back with tapered insulation on a warm deck; where the joists themselves have dropped, it needs firring pieces or a new deck.

A garage roof is one to two days. A rear extension is two to four, depending on the deck and whether a warm build-up is going on. GRP needs a dry day above about 5°C to cure, so in winter we plan around the forecast; EPDM can go down in cooler weather, which is often the deciding factor between October and March.

Re-covering more than about a quarter of a roof, or changing to a different type of covering, is notifiable to building control, and the insulation rules bite once more than half of it is renewed. Straightforward like-for-like repairs are not. We will tell you at the survey which category your job falls into rather than leaving you to find out afterwards.

Torch-on felt fifteen to twenty-five years. GRP fibreglass twenty-five to thirty. Manufacturers give EPDM rubber a design life of forty years or more. Liquid systems fifteen to twenty-five, depending on the resin and what they were laid over. In every case the number assumes the fall drains and the outlets are kept clear — a ponding roof will not reach the low end of its range.

If the deck is firm and the failure is one seam, a couple of blisters or a lifted upstand, yes, and that is what we will quote for. If water is standing across the roof, or the boards give underfoot, a repair is a false economy and we will say so. A rough rule: once more than about a third of the surface has gone, replacing it costs less over ten years than repairing it twice more.

Whether the deck survives, first. A sound deck is a re-cover; a soft one is a strip and a rebuild, and nobody can tell you which from the ground. A warm deck is the biggest single addition and is normally required when the whole covering is replaced. Upstands, a rooflight kerb and pipes through the roof matter more than area, and access, a skip and a suspended parking bay are real costs on a South London terrace. You get one fixed figure after we have looked, with the deck, insulation, trims and outlet itemised.

Manufacturers put the design life of EPDM at forty years or more, and sheets laid in Britain in the 1970s are still in service. It has no bitumen oils to lose, so it does not harden and crack the way felt does. Nearly every failure we are called to on a rubber roof is at a corner, an upstand or a seam rather than anywhere in the sheet.

For most extensions, garages and garden rooms, yes, for two reasons: it goes down in one piece with no joints in the middle of the roof to open, and it does not oxidise and split with age. Felt is cheaper on the day, and a proper three-layer torch-on roof will give you fifteen to twenty-five years. Its weakness is how often it is laid short — two layers instead of three, narrow laps, low upstands — and it needs a blowtorch on your roof to lay at all.

Fibreglass if you will walk on the roof, or if it is full of corners, pipes and awkward junctions, because GRP is a hard walkable finish that follows shapes a sheet cannot. Rubber if the roof is a plain rectangle, if it is large, or if the weather is against you — GRP needs a dry day above about five degrees to cure and rubber does not. Both comfortably outlast felt.

Sometimes. If the old felt is firm and dry across the whole roof we can board over it and bond the membrane to the board, which saves the strip and the skip. If the deck is soft anywhere, or there is any sign of trapped moisture, we strip it — laying a forty-year membrane over a wet deck buries the problem rather than fixing it. We can only tell you which after we have been up and had a proper look.

Usually yes, where the covering is being replaced rather than patched. Replacing more than half a flat roof's surface counts as renovating a thermal element, which triggers an insulation upgrade to around 0.18 W/m²K — in practice a warm deck with 120–150 mm of PIR on top of the boards. A like-for-like re-cover on a bare deck is rarely the quote to accept. We will tell you at the survey whether your roof falls under it.

There are two separate things here and firms often blur them into one number. The membrane carries the manufacturer's own warranty, which depends on the system fitted and on the installer being registered with that manufacturer. The workmanship guarantee is a separate promise about how it was laid. Ask us for both sets of terms when you get the quote, and be wary of anyone quoting a single figure that covers both.

A rooflight is straightforward: we build a timber kerb, dress the membrane up and over it and fit the unit to that. A terrace needs more. Rubber takes maintenance foot traffic but not furniture and daily use, so it needs paving pads over a protection layer, or GRP instead. Tell us at the survey if a terrace is the plan, because it changes the whole build-up and the price.

A garage roof is usually a day, an extension two, and three if the deck comes off and goes back. The deck has to be dry for the adhesive, so a wet forecast moves the start date rather than the finish. Once the sheet is bonded and the edges trimmed the roof is watertight that evening, and we do not leave a roof open overnight.

The yard is in Camberwell, so most of this work sits in the SE postcodes around it — SE5, SE15, SE22, SE24 and SE4. Brixton, Clapham, Streatham, Balham, Tooting, Wandsworth and Battersea are all inside the same ring, and we will travel to Putney, Fulham, Wimbledon, Kingston and New Malden for a full replacement rather than a patch.

Whether the old deck can stay, which we cannot tell you until the covering is up. A warm deck is normally required if we are replacing most of the covering, and it is the biggest single add-on on an extension roof. Rooflight kerbs, soil pipes, corners and abutments take longer than open area, so a fiddly 12 m² roof can cost more than a plain 20 m² one. In London, access, skips and parking all count, and access is the biggest single variable. We give you a fixed figure in writing after we have been up and looked.

Twenty-five to thirty years is a realistic figure for a properly built one, with a topcoat re-coat somewhere in the middle if it gets full sun. Manufacturers advertise longer. What actually determines the number is the deck: a rigid, dry, screwed-down deck lasts decades, and a flexing one cracks the laminate in a few years.

Yes. That is the main reason to choose it. It takes maintenance traffic without paving pads, and for a balcony or roof terrace we broadcast an anti-slip grit into the topcoat so it is not lethal when wet. If a roof is going to be used as a floor, GRP is usually the right system.

GRP if the roof will be walked on, or it is full of corners, pipes and rooflights. EPDM if it is a big plain rectangle, or the work has to happen in cold or unsettled weather — rubber goes down in conditions where resin will not cure. Both outlast felt by a long way. We will tell you which your roof wants.

No. GRP has to be laid on a clean, dry, rigid deck, and old felt is none of those things. Anything sound enough to keep is better overlaid with a liquid system, which is designed for exactly that. If you want fibreglass, the old covering comes off and we see what the boards are like underneath.

Sometimes. The resin needs a dry deck and a temperature above about 5 °C to cure properly, so a cold, wet spell stops work rather than slowing it. We watch the forecast and book accordingly. If the roof has to be covered now and the weather will not allow GRP, we would fit EPDM instead and say why.

Usually not. GRP repairs into itself: the area is ground back, fresh mat and resin laid over it and the topcoat made good, and the repair becomes part of the original sheet. A straight-line crack normally means a board joint moving underneath, so we check the deck before repairing — otherwise it reappears a metre away.

No. Liquid roofing is a resin waterproofing system applied cold in coats, with a reinforcing fleece bedded into it, which cures into one continuous membrane with no joints. The tins of roof seal or liquid rubber sold over the counter are thin unreinforced acrylics meant to buy a year or two on a failing roof. A proper system is around two millimetres thick, laid to a manufacturer's specification, and carries a warranty from the maker.

Area matters less than you would think — it is the metres of edge and the number of penetrations that take the time. Preparation counts as well: what has to come off, what has to dry out and what has to be primed. Then the resin: a cold-cure PMMA with a long manufacturer's warranty costs considerably more than a polyurethane, and both cost more than an acrylic maintenance coating. A plain overlay on a sound felt roof sits at the cheaper end and a heavily detailed roof on a top-tier resin at the dearer end. An overlay usually comes in below a full replacement because there is no strip-out and no skip.

Often, yes, and it is the case liquid does best. The old covering has to be firmly bonded, dry all the way through, and sitting on a deck with no soft spots. We test for that before quoting and cut a small core where the roof looks suspect. If the insulation underneath is wet, coating over it traps the water and the new membrane will blister within a couple of summers — in that case we quote a strip and re-lay and show you why.

Fifteen to twenty-five years is the realistic range. Where you land in it depends on the resin, the film thickness that went on and how much sun the roof takes. Unlike a sheet system the end of that life is normally a clean and a fresh top coat rather than a replacement, provided the reinforced layer underneath is still sound.

Some systems, yes. PMMA-based resins cure at low temperatures and tolerate a damp start. Polyurethanes and acrylics want a dry surface, air above about five degrees and a dew point comfortably below the roof temperature, or the film will not form properly. We pick the system for the season and tell you which one we have specified. If the forecast will not allow a proper cure we move the date.

Yes, where it is specified for traffic. We broadcast a quartz aggregate into the top coat and seal over it, which gives a non-slip surface that takes regular use — the standard finish for a balcony, a walkway or a terrace with a door onto it. Tell us at the survey if the roof will be walked on, because it changes both the system and the price.

If the roof is a plain rectangle and the deck is coming off anyway, usually yes — a rubber sheet or a laid fibreglass laminate on an open deck is quicker work and normally cheaper. Liquid wins where there are details to go round, where the existing roof is sound enough to overlay, or where no flame can be used near the building. On a typical back-addition roof with a parapet gutter and a soil pipe through it, liquid is often both the neater and the cheaper answer. We will price both if you want to compare.

Renewing a roof covering counts as renovating a thermal element under Part L, which can bring a duty to upgrade the insulation to current standards. A liquid overlay leaves the existing build-up in place and is normally treated as a repair, so it usually does not. A strip and re-lay over a heated room usually does, and that changes the design and the cost. We will tell you which side of the line your job sits on, and where it is a close call your borough's building control team will confirm it.

Three things move the price most: the covering you choose, the scaffold the house needs, and what the timbers look like once the roof is open. Nothing is added for VAT, because the firm is not registered for it.

Spread rather than age. One slipped slate on a roof that is otherwise tight is a repair, whatever year the house was built. Slates coming off several different slopes, battens that will not hold a nail, and underlay that tears when you touch it in the loft mean the roof has reached the end. As a rule, once more than about a third of a slope has failed, replacing it beats repairing it again.

For a re-roof, yes. The battens and underlay under the covering are usually the actual problem, and you cannot renew them without taking the covering off. If only one slope has gone we can re-roof that slope on its own and tie it into the rest, which is common on the rear addition of a terrace.

Often a good proportion of them. Welsh slate routinely outlives the nails and battens holding it, so we sort what comes off, re-hole the sound ones and re-lay them — usually on the front elevation where the roof is seen, with new slate on the rear. Spanish slate and old concrete tiles survive a strip far less well. We will not know the exact split until the roof is off, so the quote says what happens either way.

Yes for a full re-roof. Re-covering more than a quarter of a roof is notifiable work in England, and a change of material or a heavier covering brings structure into it as well. We are not on the Competent Roofer scheme, so the work is notified to your council's building control and inspected by them, and you get a completion certificate at the end. Keep it — it is the paper your buyer's solicitor will want.

If more than half the roof is being renovated, Part L of the Building Regulations treats the roof as a renovated thermal element and asks for the insulation to be brought up to 0.16 W/m²K. In an open loft that is normally topping up to about 300 mm of mineral wool and costs very little alongside a re-roof. If the loft has been converted into a room, the insulation sits at rafter level and the work is more involved, so we price it separately and explain the options before you decide.

It can. Replacing like for like is usually permitted development anywhere. Changing the covering on a slope that faces the street — slate to concrete tile, most often — may need consent in a conservation area, and Article 4 directions in parts of Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham and Wandsworth remove permitted development rights from ordinary terraced streets. Roof windows are the other common question: a flush one within 150 mm of the slope is normally permitted development on any slope, and it is an Article 4 direction or a listing that changes that. We check your address against the borough's map before quoting.

Five to eight days for a terrace, one to two weeks for a semi, two to three weeks for a detached house, plus days lost to weather. You can live in the house the whole time. We strip one slope at a time and sheet everything before we leave each evening, so the house is never left open overnight. Scaffold goes up a day or two before and comes down within a few days of finishing.

We stop, photograph it, and phone you with a price before we cut anything. The quote includes a stated allowance for battens and small timber repairs so that the ordinary finds are already covered. Anything beyond that allowance is yours to approve or refuse, in writing, and the roof stays sheeted while you decide. Nobody should be handed a bigger bill at the end of a job they did not agree to during it.

Ask us for the guarantee terms when you get your quote — the length and the scope, in writing, in front of you before you commit. A guarantee you have not read is not worth much. It is separate from the manufacturer's warranty on the slate or tile itself, which is its own document and yours to keep.

The slate you choose and what we find in the timbers move the price more than anything else. Welsh slate costs more than Spanish, and the state of the timbers is not known until the slates are off. On a full re-slate, the scaffold is part of the bill too.

Welsh slate commonly runs to 100 years and often well beyond. Good Spanish slate does 50 to 80, fibre-cement 25 to 40. The fixings are the shorter life: nails, battens and mortar typically give out somewhere between 60 and 100 years, which is why old roofs get stripped and re-laid with slate that is still perfectly good.

Not necessarily, but slates coming down in a different place each winter usually means nail sickness — the nails have corroded across the slope while the slate itself is sound. If it is confined to one area we repair it. If it is happening everywhere, repeating that repair costs more over ten years than stripping and re-laying the slope once.

Nearly always. Most London terraces are laid in 500 × 250 mm or 600 × 300 mm slate, and both sizes are still quarried and widely reclaimed. We match size, thickness and colour. If a new slate is going to sit obviously proud of the old ones, we tell you before it goes on the roof rather than after.

Often. On a Welsh slate roof, half to two-thirds typically survive a careful strip. We sort them, re-hole them and lay the best on the elevation that is seen from the street, topping up with new slate on the rear. Anything cracked or delaminating goes in the skip rather than back on your roof.

Welsh if the house is period, the front elevation is on show, or you are in a conservation area — it is the material the roof was designed around and it lasts longest. Good Spanish slate is a sound choice for a rear slope or a whole roof on a tighter budget, but the grade matters. Ask for the BS EN 12326 classification; W1/T1/S1 is the top of it.

Putting the same slate back is normally permitted development. Changing the material is not, and neither is anything on a listed building. Much of Dulwich, Herne Hill, Clapham and Brixton sits in conservation areas or under Article 4 directions where the council can require matching slate, so check with your borough before anything is ordered. Re-covering more than about a quarter of a roof also needs a Building Control notice.

A few slates within reach of a roof ladder, usually yes. Anything along a valley, a parapet gutter, a ridge or a full slope needs a scaffold. Slate is brittle and walking about on it breaks more than it fixes, so the scaffold is as much about your roof as about our safety. We tell you which you need at the survey, not afterwards.

No. We strip and re-lay in sections and sheet the roof watertight at the end of each day. A terrace re-slate typically runs 7 to 14 days including the scaffold going up and coming down. Heavy rain stops slating for a few hours; it does not leave your house open.

Ask us for the terms in writing when you get your quote, and keep the paperwork with the deeds — it matters when you sell. The slate carries its own manufacturer's warranty separately, which is a different document and a different promise.

On a single slipped or cracked tile, most of the cost is getting to it safely. On a bigger job, what moves the price is the tile you choose, the scaffold, what the battens and underlay look like once the roof is open, and how complicated the roof is. Clay plain tiles cost more supplied and laid than concrete interlocking, because there are six times as many of them and every one is handled. Split battens, perished felt or rot at the eaves add days, and a hipped roof, valleys, dormers and chimneys all add detail work. Skip permits, parking suspensions and footway licences belong on the quote, not on the final invoice.

Usually. Most concrete interlocking profiles are either still made or have a current equivalent that sits correctly with the old ones. Clay plain tiles match on blend rather than exactly, and reclaimed tiles from the same era match best. Where a profile is out of production we source reclaimed stock or the closest current tile and hold it against your roof before anything is fixed, so you see the match rather than being told about it.

Almost always nail sickness. The steel nails holding the tiles have rusted through inside the roof, and on many 1950s to 1970s roofs only every third or fourth course was nailed in the first place. Re-fixing the ones that have moved buys time, but if several are going each winter the fixings across that slope have reached the end and the roof needs stripping and re-laying rather than patching.

Clay plain tiles give 60 to 100 years and frequently more. Concrete tiles give 40 to 60 before the surface weathers off and they turn porous. What rarely lasts that long is everything behind them — nails, mortar bedding and bitumen felt are usually done at 30 to 50 years. That is why so many roofs get replaced while the tiles themselves are still perfectly good.

For most roofs, yes. A dry-fix ridge screws each tile down to a batten through a ventilated seal, so there is nothing to crack, nothing to re-bed in a few years, and the roof space vents at the highest point. Mortar still has its place on period and conservation roofs where the look matters, but under BS 5534 it can no longer be the only thing holding a ridge tile on — there has to be a mechanical fixing behind it.

Not for one tile on a two-storey house — that is normally a ladder and a roof ladder. Anything along a ridge or a verge, a whole slope, or work at third-storey height needs a tower or a scaffold to be done safely and to be done properly, because nobody does careful work hanging off a ladder. If a scaffold is needed we say so at the survey and it appears on the quote as its own cost.

Replacing like for like on a normal house is usually permitted development and needs no planning application. Changing the material — clay to concrete, or slate to tile — is the one to check, especially in a conservation area, under an Article 4 direction or on a listed building, and the council is the only body that can answer it. Separately, building control has to be told when you re-cover more than about a quarter of a roof, or when the new covering is significantly heavier than the old.

Not without the timbers being looked at. Natural slate weighs roughly 30 kg per square metre, concrete interlocking tiles about 45, and clay plain tiles around 70. Putting plain tiles on rafters sized for slate can be a significant increase in load, and it is notifiable work. Sometimes the answer is an interlocking clay or a lightweight profile instead. We would rather have that conversation before the scaffold goes up than after.

About one to two weeks for a terraced roof in concrete tile, longer for clay plain tiles or a hipped roof with a lot of detail. We only strip what can be re-covered, and the roof is made watertight at the end of every day rather than left under a sheet for the weekend. Rain slows the work; it does not leave your loft exposed.

Access is usually the largest single item, and on most terraces that means a scaffold. After that, most jobs run from recasting the flaunching and re-bedding the pots at the cheaper end to a full repoint of a tall stack at the dearer end. New lead flashing costs more where a back gutter is involved, and rebuilding a stack above the roofline costs more than repointing it. We are not VAT registered, so there is nothing to add on top.

Because the stack is a hole in the roof with brickwork round it. Water comes in through cracked flaunching at the top, through a failed cement fillet or split lead where the stack meets the slates, through a back gutter that has silted up behind it, or straight through brickwork that is saturated. The roof either side can be perfect and you will still get a stain on the bedroom ceiling.

Take it seriously. A lean usually means sulphate attack has swollen the mortar joints all the way through, so the stack is weaker than it looks and it will keep moving. It is rarely about to fall, but it will not straighten and it cannot be repointed back into shape. The answer is a rebuild above the roofline, or removal. If it has moved suddenly after a storm, call us and we will make it safe first.

Rarely, and we would not want to. You cannot work safely on four faces of a stack from a ladder, and you cannot reach the back gutter at all. A small stack on a low rear roof can sometimes be done from a tower. Anything on a two- or three-storey front slope needs a scaffold, and we would rather tell you that at the survey than after.

Usually some. Removing brickwork that carries load or supports a neighbour's flue is notifiable to building control, so it goes through the council or an approved inspector, often with a structural engineer's drawing. If the stack sits on a party wall — most London terraces — you also need to serve notice on your neighbour under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. In a conservation area or on a listed building, check with the council before you commit to anything, because stacks are part of what the designation protects.

Capping is cheaper and reversible. It keeps the stack as part of the roofline, which matters on a terrace where every other house still has one, and it stops rain and birds getting in. The condition is that it must be vented top and bottom — a sealed flue condenses and you get damp on the breast inside. Take the stack down if the brickwork has failed and a rebuild is not worth it to you, and only after you have squared it with the neighbour if the stack is shared.

No. We do the masonry, the flaunching, the pots and the weathering, and we make the roof around a stack watertight. Flue liners, stoves and gas appliances are HETAS and Gas Safe work and we are not registered for either. If you are bringing a fireplace back into use, have it swept and tested first by someone who is, and we will do the brickwork side.

Yes, but not while the nest is active. Nesting birds and their nests are protected while in use, so an occupied jackdaw nest has to be left until the young have flown. After that the flue can be cleared and a bird guard or cowl fitted.

Repointing or new flaunching is a day. New lead is half a day to a day. A rebuild above the roofline is two to four days, plus a day either side for the scaffold to go up and come down. Weather stops brickwork — mortar will not cure properly in a hard frost — so a winter job can sit for a few days, and we would rather wait than lay work that will fail.

Access is the biggest variable. Whether the work is reached from a ladder, a tower or a scaffold moves the price more than the lead does, and a scaffold on the footway needs a council licence. Where a scaffold is needed, it is quoted separately. After that comes how much has to come off to get at the lead, the masonry behind it, and the code and quantity of lead, which is sold by weight. Rot under a gutter or a dormer top turns the job into carpentry first, and nobody can price that until it is opened up.

Often it can be repaired. A clean split in lead that is otherwise the right code and the right length can be lead-welded, which fuses new metal into the old and lasts as long as the sheet around it. Replacement is the right call when the piece is too long, too thin, or crazed with fine cracks across a whole face.

Usually the back gutter, which you cannot see from below and which collects the most water. After that: cracked flaunching around the pots, an open joint in the stack letting rain soak through soft brick, a redundant flue with no cowl, or condensation inside an unlined flue. We check those before quoting for lead you may not need.

Correctly detailed lead is measured in decades, not years — it will normally outlast the tiles or slates around it. Badly detailed lead fails on a much shorter clock: over-long pieces tend to split within about ten years, and a cement fillet used instead of lead often cracks within five.

Not to live under. Rolled lead sheet is stable and sits outside the building. The sensible precautions are practical ones: wash your hands after handling offcuts, keep children away from scrap, and do not drink or water vegetables with rainwater collected off a lead roof or a lead-lined gutter.

That is lead carbonate, which forms as new lead weathers and washes down the wall as a chalky white stain. It is preventable, not inevitable. Patination oil wiped over the sheet on the day it is fitted stops it forming. The staining itself can usually be cleaned off the brick, but it takes work.

We can, as a temporary measure to stop water coming in tonight, and sometimes that is the sensible thing while a proper repair is scheduled. As a permanent fix it fails, because it traps water behind it against the masonry and hides the split that caused the leak. We will say which of the two we are doing.

Not always. A chimney flashing on a two-storey house can often be reached with a ladder and a roof ladder. A valley, a parapet gutter, a full stack re-lead or anything on a third storey normally needs a tower or a scaffold to be done safely and properly. We tell you which at the survey, before the price, not after.

Where theft has already happened once, replacing like for like is worth thinking about. Options are marking the lead with a forensic property-marking kit and signing it, or fitting a non-lead alternative on the exposed, reachable areas and keeping lead where it cannot be got at. We will price both so you can compare.

We come back to it. We water-test the finished detail before leaving the roof and photograph the work, so there is a record of what was done and how. Ask us for the guarantee terms when you get the quote, and check they are on the paperwork before any money changes hands.

Whether the opening already exists. A like-for-like replacement, with a new flashing kit, goes into the hole that is already there. Cutting a fresh opening costs more, because a rafter has to be cut and trimmed. A conservation rooflight costs more again, and nearly all of that difference is the window itself rather than the labour. Scaffold, where it is needed, is priced as its own line. We are not VAT registered, so nothing is added to the figure we quote you.

Usually not, as the rules stand. On a house it is permitted development on any slope so long as the window does not stand more than 150 mm proud of the roof plane and is not higher than the ridge, and a side-facing window into a loft room has to be obscure-glazed. What removes that right is an Article 4 direction over your street or a listing, and a good deal of Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham and Wandsworth carries an Article 4. A conservation area on its own does not: it decides which rooflight is appropriate rather than whether you may have one. We check before we quote.

In most cases yes, and it is a separate process from planning. Cutting a new opening means cutting a structural rafter and trimming round it. A replacement unit has to meet the current Part L thermal standard. If the loft is used as a bedroom, the window may also need to serve as a means of escape, which sets a minimum openable size and a maximum sill height. Ask us at the survey and we will tell you what your job needs and who submits it.

Usually not. Most dormer leaks are the flat top, the back upstand where it meets the main roof, or one cheek, and each of those can be dealt with on its own. What decides it is the deck. If the boards under the covering are dry and firm, a re-cover is the right answer. If they are soft, or the joist ends have rotted where they bear on the wall, the top has to come off and it becomes a bigger job. We lift a corner and photograph what is underneath rather than guessing at it.

Probably not. A roof window is the coldest surface in a loft room, and warm damp air condenses on the glass and runs down onto the sill. It looks like a leak and often gets sealed like one, which does nothing. Two things fix it: a lining cut with a horizontal head and a vertical sill so warm air washes over the glass, and ventilation — a trickle vent left open or the window on its night latch. A simple test is the weather. Wet after rain and dry in a cold dry snap is a genuine leak; wet on cold still mornings regardless of rain is condensation.

Often, yes. Anything at second-floor level, and any window big enough that it takes two people to handle on the slope, needs a proper working platform. A single small replacement low on a rear slope can sometimes be done from a tower. We say which at the survey, and if scaffold is needed it goes on the quote as its own line so you can see what it costs.

We build them from scratch, as part of a loft conversion, and our loft conversions page covers that work. Building a dormer from nothing is structural work — the roof is opened and trimmed, and a new floor, frame and insulation go in — so it needs a structural engineer's calculations and Building Regulations approval, with building control inspecting as it goes. Re-covering a flat top, re-cladding or re-leading cheeks, remaking the flashings and fitting or replacing the window are roofing jobs we also take on by themselves, with no conversion attached.

It is a roof window built to look like a Victorian cast-iron one: it sits almost flush with the slates instead of standing proud, the flashings are black rather than grey, and there is a glazing bar down the middle. Conservation officers across South London commonly ask for them on any slope visible from the street. They cost noticeably more than a standard window, so it is worth establishing whether you need one before you settle on a design.

A straightforward EPDM or GRP re-cover on a small dormer is one to two days, and GRP needs dry weather and a temperature that lets it cure, so we watch the forecast rather than start and hope. A dormer stripped back and re-roofed completely — top, cheeks, flashings and the window reset — runs three to five days. Scaffold going up and coming down adds time at either end of that.

Access moves it most: a rear slope that needs a tower rather than a ladder adds to the price. After that it is the size of the roof, from a terrace to a semi to a large detached house. The price covers hand scraping, the gutters and valleys cleared, and the treatment.

It depends what the roof is made of. On concrete tiles it does real harm over time, because it holds water against a face that is already going porous and frost then takes that face off a flake at a time. On clay it is much less serious. On natural slate it is close to cosmetic, since slate does not absorb water. What moss does on every roof is fill the gutters and valleys, and that is where water damage starts.

Usually indirectly. It washes off the slope and packs the gutters, hoppers and valleys, and water then runs over the back of a full gutter and down the wall, or backs up in a valley until it passes the lead. On a low-pitched roof it can also dam water above the tile lap long enough for it to creep past onto the underlay. If water is coming in now, that is a repair rather than a clean, and the cause is worth finding first.

No. A jet wash strips the cement-rich face off concrete tiles and leaves them rougher and more porous than before, so the moss returns quicker. It also drives water up under the head lap and onto the underlay, which on an older roof with perished felt is how a clean turns into a ceiling stain. Several tile makers exclude pressure-washing damage from their warranty. We scrape and brush by hand instead.

On a shaded slope, yes, eventually. The treatment usually buys three to five years, and an open sunny roof goes longer. Cutting back whatever overhangs the roof does more for it than any product, and keeping the gutters clear lets the bottom courses dry out between showers.

Roof biocides are applied dilute and to the roof only. The sensible precautions are to keep pets and children off the paths underneath until it has dried, and to divert or cover any water butt or pond that the downpipes feed. Every product carries its own safety data sheet with the exact figures on it. Ask which one we are using and you can read the sheet before anything is applied.

Yes. Clearing the gutters, hoppers and valleys is part of a roof clean, because that is where the moss has been ending up and it is the half of the job that actually prevents water damage. We do it after the roof rather than before, then flush it and watch it run. If the gutters themselves are cracked, sagging or pulling off the fascia, we show you and price that separately.

We would say no, and we do not sell it. A sprayed coating seals a tile that needs to dry out, bridges the laps so a single tile can no longer be lifted for a repair, and does nothing about the nails and the underlay, which are what actually end a tiled roof. Surveyors also treat a coated roof as suspicious on a homebuyer's report. If there is money spare after a clean, the gutters or a tired flashing is the better place for it.

Usually not. Most of this work is done from a ladder and a roof ladder, which spreads the load over the ridge so nobody stands on the tiles themselves. A rear slope with no ladder position, or a third-storey roof, normally needs a tower, and we say which at the survey rather than afterwards. A full scaffold is rare for a clean and would appear as its own line on the quote.

Access, more than anything. A rear elevation that needs a scaffold adds to the price on its own, and the scaffold is shown as a separate line on the quote. After that it is length: new uPVC guttering is priced by the metre, supplied and fitted, and one elevation of a typical terrace is around 8 metres.

Clearing first, almost always. If the gutter overflows only in heavy rain and is dry otherwise, it is blocked, and a clear costs a fraction of a replacement. Replacement is the honest answer when the plastic has gone chalky and cracked, when the profile is obsolete and no union fits, or when the fascia behind it has rotted and there is nothing solid to fix a bracket to.

Once a year for most South London houses, in late autumn once the leaves are down. Twice a year if you have a plane, sycamore or lime overhanging the roof, or if the roof has moss on it, because moss slides into the gutter every time it rains. A gutter that fills within months of being cleared usually has the wrong fall as well as debris in it.

For a gutter clear or a single joint on a two-storey house, no — that is a ladder job. For a whole run, a new fascia, or anything at third-storey height, yes, a tower or a scaffold. It is not only a safety matter: a gutter has to be hung to a consistent fall of a few millimetres per metre, and that cannot be judged accurately from a ladder that gets moved every two metres.

Where the timber underneath is sound and dry, yes, and it is cheaper. Where it is soft, capping over seals damp timber behind plastic and screws your new gutter brackets into rot. We will tell you honestly which you have — usually by probing the board at the survey — and we will not quote capping over wet timber.

No, and often you should not. Cast iron rusts from the inside where debris sits, so a run that looks finished is frequently only pitted, and de-rusting, patching and repainting it gives another twenty years or so. In a conservation area or on a listed building the original profile may be the only thing permitted, and your council is the only body that can confirm that.

Not necessarily, and it is worth ruling out the cheap causes first. A blocked or missing gully at the bottom of the downpipe, a cracked downpipe socket, a failed rendered sill, a leaking overflow pipe and a slipped slate above the eaves all produce the same stain. We check the whole path from roof edge to drain before quoting new guttering.

Sometimes. Brush and mesh guards do keep leaves out under a broadleaf tree, which is where they earn their keep. Under conifers, or on a roof shedding moss, the debris is fine enough to sit on top of the guard and mat, and you end up clearing the guard instead of the gutter. They also make a proper clear-out slower. We will fit them if you want them and say when we think they will not help.

They will if solid board is fitted over the existing eaves vents, and this is a common problem after a cheap fascia job. A cold pitched roof needs the equivalent of a continuous 10 mm opening along both eaves, more on a shallow pitch. Vented soffit board or over-fascia vents restore it, cost very little, and go in while the boards are off.

Not for the survey that comes before a quote. That one is free, there is no call-out fee for pricing work, and you keep the photographs whether or not you book anything. A written condition report is a different job — one you commission on its own for a purchase, a letting or a budget — and it carries a fee because of the time it takes to inspect properly and write up.

A larger or more complicated roof costs more to report on than a normal terraced or semi-detached house, and a converted house or small block is priced per building. Beyond that, what moves the fee is access, how much of the roof can genuinely be reached, and how detailed the report needs to be — a photo set with a summary costs less than a schedule of every element with costed remedial work against each one.

A RICS home survey is a whole-house report and the roof is one section of it. The surveyor inspects from the ground, from a window and from the loft hatch, usually with binoculars, and does not put a ladder up or walk the roof. It is a sound report within that scope, and the scope stops at the gutter. A roofing inspection goes up and looks at the covering, the fixings, the flashings and the valleys at arm's length, which is the only way anyone can tell you whether the roof has five years left or twenty-five.

It means the surveyor could see enough to be concerned and not enough to be specific — usually slipped or delaminating slates, a valley they could not see into, or a chimney they could not get near. It is a standard sentence, not a verdict. An inspection turns it into a list: what has failed, what has not, what putting it right would cost and whether any of it is urgent. On a purchase that figure is often worth negotiating with, and occasionally it is worth walking away from.

Partly, and we will tell you which parts. From a ladder at eaves level, from inside the roof space and from a neighbouring vantage point, most of a normal two-storey roof can be read reliably. A third storey, a butterfly roof behind a parapet or a mansion-block roof usually needs a tower, a scaffold or a lift to be inspected properly. Where that is the case we say so and price it, rather than writing a report on a roof we have only squinted at from the pavement.

A drone earns its place on roofs nobody can safely reach — high parapet gutters, church and block roofs, awkward valleys — and the photographs are genuinely useful. What it cannot do is lift a slate, press a deck or feel whether a tile is still held by its nail, and those are the checks that separate a roof with a problem from a roof at the end of its life. Anyone flying commercially in the UK needs a CAA operator ID and the right flyer credentials, so ask to see them from whoever offers you one. Where a drone is the right tool for your roof, we will say so at the survey.

An hour or two on site for a typical house, longer where there is a lot of roof or a run of parapets and valleys to work through. A written report normally follows within two to three working days, and faster where you are up against an exchange date. The free pre-quote survey is quicker: we generally talk you through the findings on the day and send the written quote shortly after.

No, and it is the right question to ask every roofer who climbs onto your roof. Most of what we survey needs a repair. The honest test is how much of a slope has failed rather than how old the covering is: scattered slipped slates over sound battens is a repair, while nail fatigue and perished felt across a whole slope is not. We hand over the photographs the judgement rests on, so you can weigh it yourself or take it to somebody else.

Every couple of years suits a house in normal condition, plus a look after any storm that has taken tiles off roofs in the street. Anything with a valley or a parapet gutter is worth checking each autumn, because a blocked one holds water above your ceiling instead of shedding it off the edge. Flat roofs want an annual look once they are past ten years old, which is when felt turns brittle and laps start to open.

Often not, on a house. As the rules stand, permitted development allows a single-storey rear extension up to 3 m deep on a terrace or semi and 4 m on a detached house, no more than 4 m high, with the eaves no higher than 3 m within 2 m of a boundary and materials similar in appearance to the house. Outside a conservation area, the prior-approval route stretches the depth to 6 m and 8 m, with the neighbours consulted. Flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted development rights, a listed building needs listed building consent, and a leaseholder normally needs the freeholder's written consent as well. Check with your council or the Planning Portal before relying on any of it.

A side extension can be, within limits. As the rules stand, it must be single storey, no more than 4 m high and no wider than half the original house. In a conservation area side extensions lose permitted development altogether, and an Article 4 direction can take away more. A wrap-around is judged against the side and the rear limits at once, which makes it the shape most likely to need a planning application. A lawful development certificate from the council confirms in writing whether a design is permitted development. Check with your council or the Planning Portal before relying on any of it.

Yes. They are separate. Planning decides whether you may build; Building Regulations decide how it is built — structure, foundations, drainage, insulation and fire safety. An extension needs Building Regulations approval even when it needed no planning application. Building control inspects the work at stages and issues a completion certificate at the end, which a buyer's solicitor will ask for when you sell.

On a terrace or semi, very probably. Under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, as it stands, notice is served one month ahead to build a new wall on the boundary line, two months ahead for work to the party wall itself, such as cutting in a steel, and one month ahead to dig within 3 m of a neighbour's building to below their foundations, or within 6 m in some cases. The neighbour can consent in writing, or a surveyor settles an award. Serve it early: the notice periods are minimums, and a disagreement that goes to surveyors takes longer.

Permission from the water company to build over a public sewer or, as the rules stand, within 3 m of one. In South London that means Thames Water. It comes up often behind terraces, where a shared sewer can run under the back gardens, and it can change where the foundations go. Find out whether there is a sewer under the planned extension before the design is fixed, not when the trench is open.

Because much of South London sits on London clay, which shrinks as it dries and swells as it wets, so the top of the ground moves with the seasons. Trees make it worse by drawing water out of the clay, and a neighbour's tree counts as much as your own. Foundations have to go down below the ground that moves with the seasons. Building control sets the depth once the trench is dug and inspected, so ask how any quote deals with a trench that has to go deeper than planned.

Because that line is a roofing detail and it often gets treated as a building one. The new roof covering has to turn up the old wall and be lapped by a lead flashing let into a mortar joint above it, and on a cavity wall a cavity tray stops water in the cavity running into the new room. A first-floor window sill just above the new roof leaves no height to do that properly, and mastic ends up standing in for lead. The answer is to design the roof level around the detail before the walls go up.

Flat is the commoner choice on a single-storey extension, because it keeps the height down and suits roof lights. EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass over a warm roof is the usual build. A pitched roof in slate or tile can suit the house better and sheds water faster, but it needs height against the back wall to reach the pitch the covering demands, and that height can run into the first-floor windows or, under permitted development as the rules stand, the 3 m eaves limit within 2 m of a boundary.

Size is the obvious one; the ground is the one people forget. Foundations on clay near trees go deeper, a sewer under the garden brings a build-over agreement and sometimes a change of design, and a wide opening needs a bigger steel than a narrow one. A mid-terrace with no side access means every barrow of spoil goes out through the house. Then the roof — its type and how much glazing it carries — and the work around the build: drawings, calculations, applications and any party wall surveyor. Our survey and written fixed quote are free.

Somebody has to, and it is worth settling who before you sign anything. Drawings for planning and Building Regulations are usually produced by an architect or an architectural technician, and every steel needs a structural engineer's calculation, as do foundations on difficult ground. Some builders arrange all of it and some expect you to bring it. Ask us, or anyone else, which applies to your job and whether the fees are in the price.

Measure from the top of a ceiling joist to the underside of the ridge, in the middle of the loft. The finished room will be lower than that, because the new floor is deeper than the joists there now and the roof insulation takes height from the top. If it is tight, the options are raising the roof, which needs planning permission, or lowering the ceilings of the rooms below. A survey settles it, and ours is free.

Often not on a house in England. As the rules stand, permitted development allows up to 40 cubic metres of extra roof space on a terraced house and 50 on a semi-detached or detached house, counting earlier roof additions, provided, among other conditions, that nothing projects beyond the plane of the front slope where it faces a highway, nothing rises above the existing roof and the materials look similar. It does not apply to flats or maisonettes, a conservation area removes it for roof enlargements, and a mansard usually needs planning permission. Check your house with the council or the Planning Portal, which have the final word.

Yes, always, and separately from planning. Building control checks the new floor structure and steels against a structural engineer's calculations, the fire escape route down the stairs, the stair headroom and the insulation. They inspect at stages and issue a completion certificate at the end. Keep that certificate, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it when you sell.

On a terrace or a semi, usually yes. Cutting steels into a party wall is work under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and as the Act stands the neighbour must be given two months' notice. They can consent in writing, or a surveyor settles an award setting out how the work is done. On a detached house there is normally no party wall to cut into. Ask whoever quotes you who serves the notice.

Not under permitted development if the front slope faces a highway: a dormer projects beyond the plane of that slope, so it needs a planning application, and in a conservation area the council will look at it closely. Roof windows set into the front slope are the usual alternative, because they change the roofline far less than a dormer does. The council has the final word on what your street will accept.

Because the dormer is where a loft conversion leaks. The room inside rarely fails. The flat top, the cheeks, the lead where the dormer meets the old slope and the flashings round the roof windows are all roofing details, and on a leaking dormer it is nearly always one of those that has gone. Harrington is a roofing firm first, so those details are our own trade.

Where the dormer goes, the old covering comes off, and the slates or tiles around it are cut in to meet the new work. The rest of the roof stays as it is. If it is near the end of its life, the scaffold is already up, so it is worth asking for re-covering to be priced as a separate line. Ask too how the house is kept dry while the roof is open.

Bats and their roosts are protected, so work cannot simply carry on around them. If you have seen droppings in the loft or bats leaving the roof at dusk, say so at the start, because an ecologist's survey may be needed before the roof is opened. It is far easier to arrange before a job than halfway through one.

Permitted development does not apply to flats or maisonettes, so a loft conversion over a flat needs planning permission as well as Building Regulations approval. If you are a leaseholder you will normally need the freeholder's written consent, known as a licence for alterations, and it is worth checking whether your lease includes the roof space at all.

The shape first. A roof-light conversion changes the roof least, a rear dormer adds a framed box and a flat roof, a hip-to-gable adds a new wall, and a mansard rebuilds a whole slope. After that, how much steel the engineer's design needs, where the stair can go, the party wall process on a terrace or semi, scaffold access and how far the finish goes. The survey is free and the quote is a fixed price in writing.

Outside in, top down. Roof, gutters and downpipes first so the house stops taking in water, then structural work such as openings and beams, then wiring, pipework and heating while the walls and floors are open, then plastering, with joinery, floors and decorating last. Plastering before the roof is sound, or decorating before the services are in, is how the same work ends up being paid for twice.

If the wall is load-bearing, yes. As the rules stand, removing a load-bearing wall needs a structural engineer's calculation for the beam, temporary support while it goes in, and Building Regulations approval, with building control inspecting the work and issuing a completion certificate. A wall that carries floor joists, a wall above or part of the roof is load-bearing, and some thin-looking walls are. If the steel bears into a party wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies as well.

Usually, but it is structural work. As the rules stand, removing a chimney breast needs a structural engineer's calculation, temporary support and building control approval, and whatever sits above it — the breast upstairs and the stack on the roof — has to be supported or taken down properly. In a terrace the breast is often in the party wall, which means two months' written notice to your neighbour under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Their flues may share the stack, so they have to be left working.

Solid brick walls are usually best in lime plaster, which lets the wall breathe and dry out. Gypsum on a solid wall tends to hold moisture against the brick, soften and blow. Gypsum is fine on plasterboard, on stud partitions and on masonry that stays dry. Whichever is used, a wall that is still getting wet from outside will fail again, so the source of the water comes first.

Because the water is still getting in. On a period house the source is often above the patch: an overflowing gutter, a cracked downpipe joint, a failed flashing where a back addition meets the main wall, or a chimney capped with no vent. Plaster over that and the symptom returns. Fix the source, let the wall dry out, then replaster — in lime on a solid wall. Those faults are roofing work, which is Harrington's own trade.

As the rules stand, new circuits and a new consumer unit are notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations, done by a registered electrician or notified to building control. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer only. Whoever quotes your refurbishment, ask who will do those parts, check the registrations, and make sure the certificates are issued for your address at the end.

If it was built or altered before 2000, possibly. A Victorian house modernised before then may have picked some up: textured ceiling coatings, old floor tiles and their adhesive, boxing round pipes, insulating board near an old boiler. Left intact and undisturbed, asbestos is safe. It should be tested before it is disturbed, which on a refurbishment means before the strip-out starts.

Normally the freeholder's written consent, known as a licence for alterations, before any work starts — and read the lease, because some forbid structural alterations outright. Building Regulations approval still applies to structural work. As the rules stand, householder permitted development does not apply to flats or maisonettes, so changes to the outside usually need planning permission as well. The council has the final word.

Some households do and some move out, and it is worth deciding before the price is agreed, because it changes how the job is ordered. The deciding questions are how much of the house is opened up at once, whether there is still somewhere to cook and wash, how long water and power will be off, and who lives there. Ask at the survey which weeks would be the hardest if you stay.

How much structural work the house needs, its size and condition, whether the roof needs work, lime or gypsum plaster, and the finishes you choose. Access matters too: most roof work on a house needs a scaffold, and doing the roof while one is already up saves putting it up twice. Ask how anything found once the walls are open would be priced, before you agree. The survey is free and the quote is a fixed price in writing.

Access moves the price more than the size of the wall does. The front elevation of a two-storey terrace normally needs a scaffold, and the scaffold is a cost on top of the pointing itself. Lime mortar on a soft period wall is at the dearer end.

Usually just some of it. Mortar weathers fastest where the rain hits hardest — the top few courses, under the sills, the exposed gable, the chimney stack. The sheltered side of a house is often sound after a century. A roofer or bricklayer who quotes a whole house without pointing at the specific failed areas is selling you square metres.

Width and movement decide it. Hairline up to about 1 mm is decorating. Up to 5 mm is normally a rake-out and repoint. Above about 5 mm, or a stepped diagonal crack that runs through bricks rather than around them, or any crack you can see has widened since you noticed it, needs a structural engineer before anyone points it. Filling a live crack hides the evidence and it comes back.

Almost certainly it was pointed in a hard sand-and-cement mix on soft brick. Cement is less permeable than a London stock, so water that gets into the wall can no longer escape through the joint and leaves through the brick face instead. One frost and the face pops off. Putting it right means cutting out the cement, replacing the worst bricks and repointing in something softer.

Because the plaster was never the problem. Blown plaster with a tide mark and white salt bloom is water arriving from somewhere — a blocked gutter, a cracked downpipe, ground built up over the damp-proof course, a failed flashing. Skimming over it buries the symptom for about a year. Find the source, fix it, let the wall dry, then make good.

Usually. Yellow London stocks are widely available reclaimed, and most Victorian and Edwardian facings can be matched closely enough that the repair disappears within a season of weathering. Some interwar and 1960s bricks are no longer made and the honest answer is a near match, which we will show you before we bed anything in.

Small jobs are exactly what this work is — two metres of pointing, a loose coping, a cracked step. The efficient way to buy them is to group several into one visit, because the travel and the set-up cost the same whether we do one thing or six. Send us the whole list and we will price the lot, then tell you which parts are worth doing now.

Repairing a wall as it stands normally needs nothing. Rebuilding it higher can — as the rules stand, one metre is the permitted-development limit where it fronts a road used by vehicles, two metres elsewhere. If the wall sits on the boundary line and is shared, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies and your neighbour needs written notice before work starts. The Act puts that duty on you as the owner, though a party wall surveyor can serve the notice on your behalf.

Yes, and it usually saves money — it is the same firm and largely the same crew. If a scaffold is going up for a roof, the stack pointing, the parapet and the render around it should be done while it is there. The access is the expensive part.

The starting point is how much wall there is and how many coats it needs. Access and condition move the price far more than the paint does: badly flaking masonry that needs stripping and stabilising can add a great deal on its own.

Eight to twelve years on a sound, properly prepared wall, and rather less on a south or west elevation that takes the weather. Where it fails inside five years the cause is almost always preparation — a coat put over chalking paint, or over a wall that was still wet from a leak nobody had traced.

Three usual causes. Water getting in from somewhere else — a blocked gutter, a split hopper, failed lead over a bay — and pushing the paint off from behind. Or a new coat applied over old paint that had gone chalky, so it never bonded to anything solid. Or an impermeable plastic coating on a solid brick wall that needs to dry through its face. The pattern usually tells you which: a stripe means a leak, a whole elevation means the paint.

Pebbledash paints perfectly well, but budget for it: the texture uses far more paint and takes noticeably longer to work into properly. Bare brick is a different question. Painting it is close to permanent — stripping it later is expensive and often damages the face of the brick — and it commits you to repainting every eight years or so. On sound London stock we would usually talk you out of it.

Realistically April to October. Masonry and exterior woodwork want the surface above about 5°C and rising, dry, and with enough daylight left to touch dry before the temperature drops. A coat put on late in an autumn afternoon is still soft when the dew falls and it will show permanently. We would rather move a date than paint into bad weather.

Normally no — repainting an ordinary house is not development. Two exceptions matter here. A listed building needs listed building consent, including for a change of colour. And some conservation areas carry an Article 4 direction that removes the usual freedom, which is common enough in Southwark, Lambeth and Wandsworth to be worth one phone call to the borough before you start. If you own a flat, check the lease as well: external decoration is usually the freeholder's.

Not dry, no. Lead was only prohibited in paint for domestic use in the UK in 1992, and most older joinery has some of it under the later coats. Dry sanding or a hot gun run too hot puts lead into the dust and the air. The work is done with chemical stripper, a low-temperature hot-air gun, wet abrading and everything sheeted up and cleared away.

Yes — rooms, ceilings, skirting, architrave, door frames and small plaster repairs. New plaster needs to be properly dry first, four to six weeks over new blockwork, and the first coat must be a mist coat of thinned emulsion so it soaks in and keys. Full-strength paint straight onto fresh plaster sits on the surface and peels off in sheets later.

Ask for that in writing whoever you use, because it is the commonest reason two quotes for the same house are not comparable. Ours names the product, says how many coats, and says whether we are supplying it or you are. A three-coat quote and a two-coat quote for the same wall should not look the same, and they usually do until you read them.

Often, and it is the cheapest time to do it. Scaffold costs the same regardless of which trade is using it, so fascias, soffits, rainwater goods and high exterior woodwork cost far less when the access is already up for a re-roof or a chimney. It is worth raising at the roof survey.

What moves the price most is how much moss and lichen there is, not the size of the area. Small jobs are priced as a visit rather than by the metre. On a block-paved drive the price covers re-sanding as well as the clean.

It can, and nearly all the damage people show us was done by the wrong nozzle. A spinning turbo jet cuts lines into sandstone, old concrete flags and soft brick almost instantly, and those lines are permanent. Done properly — a rotary head at a fixed height for the open areas, a fan nozzle by hand at the edges, pressure matched to the surface — it does not. Where a surface should not be lanced at all, we say so before we quote.

Yes, and it is in the price rather than an optional extra. Washing empties the joints, and the kiln-dried sand in those joints is what stops the blocks rocking, chipping and creeping under a car. The sand goes in dry and gets topped up, because sand brushed into damp joints bridges at the top and leaves the joint hollow underneath. If a quote you are comparing does not mention re-sanding, ask what it will cost.

A typical patio is half a day. A London drive is half a day to a full one, depending on how much moss is in the joints. You can walk on it as soon as we have finished. Give freshly re-sanded block paving a day or so before furniture and bins go back, so the sand beds down rather than getting dragged out again.

Eventually, yes. Algae needs only shade and damp, and a north-facing patio under a tree has both, so a wash on its own might stay clean for a year. A wash followed by a biocide treatment holds noticeably longer, because the treatment kills what is left in the surface instead of just rinsing the growth off the top. Cutting back whatever is shading the area does more than either.

Black spots are lichen and they come off with a biocide left to work, not with pressure — expect them to keep fading for a week or two after treatment. Oil on a drive usually lifts with a degreaser and hot water, though a stain that has soaked in for years may only ever fade. Rust and old cement smear need acid-based products, which we will not put on limestone or polished stone because they etch the surface. We tell you which marks we expect to shift before we start.

We work from an outside tap, and some machines also need a socket. If there is no outside tap, say so when you call — it changes how the job is priced and occasionally whether we can do it at all. We do not run hoses through the house. During a drought, a hosepipe ban stops a householder washing their own patio with a hose; a firm doing it as part of its business is normally outside that restriction, but every notice is worded differently, so we check what the water company has actually published rather than assume.

Not at full pressure. Painted render, external wall insulation and lime-mortared Victorian brickwork all break up under a lance, and asbestos cement — still on plenty of old garages and sheds around here — must never be pressure washed, because that releases fibres. Those surfaces want low pressure and a treatment, or nothing. Timber decking is washed at low pressure along the grain; across it, the soft grain tears out and leaves a furry finish.

Usually, yes — it is the same firm and largely the same crew. If we are already coming to quote a roof it costs nothing to have the patio, the path and the drive priced at the same time, and it saves a second set-up.