Frequently asked questions

Weather Proof Roofing and Building Services covers Chester, Wrexham, Queensferry, Flint, Warrington, Ellesmere Port, the Wirral, Manchester, Stockport, St Helens and the surrounding areas, across Cheshire, North Wales, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. If you are not sure whether you are in range, call 07718 155997 and ask.

Call or WhatsApp 07718 155997, or use the quote form on the contact page, which opens WhatsApp with your details already written out. Sending a photo of the problem is the fastest way to get a useful answer, because a lot can be told from a clear picture of a roof.

Yes. Weather Proof Roofing and Building Services carries a full insurance pack, including £200,000 of public liability cover. Every job is also guaranteed by the company, so if something is not right after we have left, we come back and put it right.

There are 17 of us. That is enough to strip and re-cover a roof properly and keep the job moving, rather than it being fitted in around other work over several weeks, while still being a company you can reach on one number.

Quotes are free and there is no obligation to go ahead. You get told what needs doing and what it will cost before any work starts.

Often yes, at least well enough to say whether it is a small repair or something bigger. A photo of the affected area plus one of the whole elevation is usually enough for an initial view, though anything serious still needs looking at properly.

Active leaks are treated as urgent, because water sitting in a ceiling does far more damage than the fault that let it in. Call 07718 155997 and you will be told honestly how soon someone can get to you.

Yes. If a roof has years left in it and only needs a repair, that is what you will be told. Selling someone a new roof they do not need is a short-term way to run a business.

Most of the work is domestic roofing and building, and commercial and landlord work is taken on too. Call with the details and you will get a straight answer on whether it is a job for us.

Jobs get photographed as they go, so you can see the parts of the work you cannot get to yourself. Every photograph on this website is from a job carried out by Weather Proof Roofing and Building Services.

On a standard semi-detached house a full re-roof is usually a few days on site once scaffolding is up, and longer on larger or more complicated roofs. Weather is the main thing that moves the date, because a stripped roof cannot be left open in heavy rain.

Yes. A full strip and re-cover cannot be done safely off ladders, and scaffolding is needed both for the people working and to stop material falling. The cost of it should be in your quote rather than added on later.

It usually comes down to what is already on the house and what the rest of the street has, because a roof that matches looks right and keeps the property saleable. Natural slate lasts longest and suits period property; concrete and clay tiles cost less and suit most modern housing.

Yes, roofs are replaced all year round. Work is planned around the forecast and the roof is never left open overnight, so a wet spell can push the finish date back a little.

Replacing a roof with a similar covering is normally treated as maintenance and does not need planning permission. It is different if the property is listed or in a conservation area, or if you are changing the roof shape or the material significantly, so check with the council first.

Call or send a photo on WhatsApp to 07718 155997 and we will tell you how soon we can get to you. Active leaks in wet weather are treated as urgent, because water sitting in a ceiling causes far more damage than the original fault.

A temporary cover can usually go on straight away to stop water getting in, but permanent work such as bedding mortar or dressing lead needs dry conditions to be done properly.

If the covering is sound and the problem is in one area, a repair is usually much better value. Once slates are slipping in several different places and the felt underneath has broken down, repeated repairs cost more over a few years than replacing the roof once.

Yes. Quoting for a roof leak without establishing where the water is actually getting in is guesswork, and it is how people end up paying for work that does not fix the problem.

That usually points to a fault that only lets water past at a certain angle or volume, such as a gap under a flashing, a hairline crack in a tile, or a valley that overtops when it fills. It is a real fault and it will get worse, even though the roof seems fine most of the time.

Yes. A disused stack still has to keep water out of the house, and it is still masonry sitting high above a garden or footpath. Capping it and keeping the pointing sound is far cheaper than dealing with damp or a collapse.

Flaunching is the sloped bed of mortar on top of the stack that holds the pots in place and sheds rainwater off the top. When it cracks, water runs straight down into the brickwork, which is why it is one of the first things to check on a damp chimney.

Taking a stack down below roof level and covering over is sometimes sensible on a chimney that is no longer used and badly decayed. It changes how the house looks and can affect ventilation to old flues, so it is worth talking through both options first.

Almost always water getting into the stack from above, through washed-out pointing, cracked flaunching or failed flashing, then tracking down inside the brickwork. Treating the wall inside does nothing while water is still getting in at the top.

Usually yes. Anything beyond a quick look needs a safe platform at the stack, and repointing or rebuilding certainly does. Occasionally a chimney can be reached from a tower or a roof ladder on a shallow pitch.

A dry ridge system fixes each ridge tile down mechanically with clips, screws and a ventilated roll, instead of bedding it in mortar. It cannot crack and wash out the way mortar does, it lets the roof breathe, and it is what most new roofs are built with now.

For durability, yes, which is why it is standard on new build. Mortar still has its place on period property and in conservation areas where the look matters, and a well-bedded ridge in good mortar will last a long time.

Bedded ridge mortar typically needs attention somewhere between ten and twenty years, depending on how exposed the roof is and how well it was mixed and pointed in the first place. Coastal and hilltop properties get through it faster.

It can be done, but on a run where the mortar is all the same age you tend to be back doing the next section before long. Doing the full run at once usually works out better value once access is paid for.

Dry verge units are interlocking caps that fit over the tile ends along the gable edge and screw down, replacing the mortar that used to seal that edge. They stop wind getting under the tiles and keep birds and rodents out.

Once a year is enough for most houses, and twice a year is worth it if you have trees overhanging the roof. The clear-out is best done in late autumn once the leaves are down.

Often yes. On a standard two-storey house guttering can usually be replaced from a tower or ladders where access allows. Higher or awkward elevations need a proper platform.

If the boards behind the gutter are rotten, yes. Fixing a new gutter to a soft fascia means the brackets have nothing solid to hold, and you end up paying twice when the run starts sagging again.

Usually the fall is wrong, so water sits in the run instead of moving to the downpipe, or the gutter is too small for the roof area feeding it. Both show up in heavy rain and neither is fixed by clearing.

Yes. It is worth doing on its own, and it costs a lot less than dealing with a damp wall after a winter of overflowing gutters.

Yes. Repointing, brickwork repairs and general building work can be booked on their own, they do not have to be part of a roofing job.

Driven rain gets through washed-out pointing and cracked render just as easily as it gets past a slipped tile, particularly on the side of the house facing the prevailing weather. It shows up as a damp patch that comes and goes with the wind direction.

Repointing means raking out the old failed mortar between the bricks to a decent depth and filling the joints with fresh mortar. Skimming a thin layer over failed pointing looks fine for a year and then falls off.

It is the sensible way to do it. Scaffolding is often the single biggest line on a quote, so getting the brickwork done while the access is already there saves paying for it twice.

We match as closely as the available material allows. Exact matches on old brick are not always possible, so colour and joint style are chosen to make repairs as unobtrusive as they can be.