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Alex Shepherd Roofing
Roofing service

Roof repairs across East Lancashire and Craven

Most roofs we're called out to don't need replacing. They need a few slates, some proper flashing, or the cement somebody smeared on ten years ago taking off and doing correctly.

That's worth saying plainly, because the fear that stops people ringing a roofer is being told they need a new roof. Sometimes that's the answer. More often it isn't.

Covering
East Lancashire & Craven
Quotes
Free, no pressure
Ring or text
07840 031508

What we repair

  • Slipped, cracked and missing slates or tiles
  • Leaks around chimneys, valleys and abutments where the flashing has failed
  • Storm damage, including ridge tiles lifted or blown off
  • Cracked or hollow ridge and hip bedding
  • Rotten or failed timber at the eaves
  • Cement fillets that have cracked and are letting water in behind them
  • Flat roof splits, blisters and failed upstands
  • Slipped or leaking lead flashing

How to tell you've got a problem

A leak rarely appears above the place it's getting in. Water runs along rafters and battens before it drops, so a stain in the middle of the bedroom ceiling can come from a slate ten feet away.

Signs worth acting on:

  • A damp patch or stain on an upstairs ceiling, especially after driving rain rather than steady rain
  • Slates or fragments of slate in the garden or gutter
  • Daylight visible through the roof from inside the loft
  • Sagging or dipping in the roof line seen from the street
  • Blown or missing pointing on the ridge
  • Damp on the chimney breast, which usually means flashing rather than the roof itself

If a leak only shows up when rain is driving from one particular direction, that's a useful clue. It normally points at a detail, a flashing or an abutment, rather than at the covering.

Repair or replace?

The honest test on a slate roof is the nails. If we lift a few slates and the nails come away as rust, the roof is telling you it's near the end whatever the slate looks like. If the nails are sound and the battens are firm, repair it and leave it alone.

The other thing worth weighing is scaffold. If you're paying for access twice in three years, the sums start to favour doing the job once.

We lift slates and show you rather than asking you to take our word for it.

How we work

We get up and look properly rather than guessing from the ground, and we photograph what we find so you can see your own roof. Then you get a written quote setting out what needs doing. If we think part of it can wait, we'll say so and price it separately.

Common questions

The things people ask us

Yes, and usually we should. Patching a sound roof is normal work. Repairs stop making sense when you're paying for scaffold repeatedly in the same few years, or when the battens underneath have gone across the whole roof.

On a slate roof, usually, because reclaimed slate is available and weathers in. On older stone slate it's harder, and we'll tell you honestly if a patch is going to be visible before you commit.

A properly done repair on a sound roof lasts as long as the roof around it. A repair on a roof that's at the end of its life buys you time. We'll tell you which of the two we think you've got.

Yes, and it's often the more useful clue. An intermittent leak that follows the wind points at a specific detail, which is usually cheaper to fix than a general covering failure.

Reviews

What people said about the work

Read the reviews, then ring us and see if we match up.

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