Roofers near you

Replacing a roof covering is notifiable building work in England and Wales. GOV.UK names replacing windows, doors or roof coverings among the projects needing building regulations approval, and there are two ways to get it: apply to a building control body, meaning your council's building control department or a registered private approver, or use a contractor registered with a competent person scheme who certifies the work themselves.

GOV.UK's list of authorised schemes names CompetentRoofer, operated by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors Limited, and NAPIT for replacement of roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs including necessary connected work. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government authorises the schemes, and members must show they meet the minimum technical competence requirements for the work they self-certify.

Insulation is the requirement homeowners miss. The Planning Portal states that where loft insulation is installed as part of a roof renovation project in which more than 25 per cent of the roof is being renewed, the level of insulation should meet the standards required by the Approved Documents, and that where such an upgrade is not technically or functionally feasible the element should be upgraded to the best standard achievable within a simple payback of no greater than 15 years. Approved Document L covers energy performance in England; Approved Document A covers loadings and the construction of the structural elements, including roofs.

Britain's older housing stock carries planning controls with no equivalent in most markets. National planning practice guidance is blunt about listed buildings: any works to demolish any part of a listed building, or to alter or extend it in a way that affects its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, require listed building consent. Swapping natural slate for concrete tiles is exactly that kind of alteration, and the guidance warns that even minor works have the potential to cause substantial harm depending on the nature of their impact on the asset and its setting.

Conservation areas work differently. The Planning Portal's position is that work to the roof of a house which does not materially affect its external appearance will usually not require planning permission, but a council can withdraw that freedom with an Article 4 direction, after which changing the roofing material needs an application. Ask the local planning authority before materials are ordered, not after the scaffold goes up.

Not every wet patch under a roof is a leak. Government guidance on damp separates penetrating damp, which is water getting into the building from outside due to defects in the walls, roofs, windows or floors, from condensation, which occurs when moisture generated inside the home cools and condenses onto colder parts. A loft that is wet on the underside of the felt on a cold morning with no rain overnight usually has a ventilation problem rather than a roofing one.

Blocking the eaves is a common own goal. Insulation pushed hard into the eaves stops the airflow that keeps a cold loft dry, and the Planning Portal's loft insulation guidance specifically warns that care should be taken not to block any ventilation at the edges. A roofer quoting to insulate as part of a re-roof should be able to say how the loft will still breathe afterwards.

Access is a real and visible part of a roofing job. HSE guidance on roof work says work must be organised and planned so it is carried out safely, that scaffolding is required on sloping roofs to prevent falls with edge protection fitted at the eaves and, on terraced properties, to the front and rear edges, and that all roofs should be presumed fragile until a competent person confirms otherwise.

Regulation 6 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 sets the order of decisions: employers must ensure work is not carried out at height where it is reasonably practicable to carry it out safely otherwise than at height, must then take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury so far as is reasonably practicable, and only then minimise the distance and consequences of a fall. HSE summarises it as avoid, prevent, minimise.

For the scaffold itself, HSE expects either a generally recognised standard configuration such as NASC TG20 or a design by a competent person proven by calculation, erection only by competent scaffolders, and inspection following installation and before first use and at an interval of no more than every seven days after that. Ask who is supplying the scaffold and who holds the inspection record.

Where a competent person scheme member does the work, the certificate is your proof the job was notified and compliant. GOV.UK is direct about why that matters: without approval you will not have the certificates of compliance you may need when you want to sell your home. File whatever the scheme issues with the deeds, together with the quotation, the specification and any structural advice you were given.

TrustMark is the government-endorsed quality scheme for work in and around the home, backed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade, and registered businesses commit to its standards and its complaints process. A guarantee is only worth whatever stands behind it, so ask in writing who honours it if the firm stops trading.