Roofing companies in Leeds
What to check before you hire a roofing company in Leeds, what the warning signs are, and what any firm should be able to show you in writing. Written by roofers, including the questions we would rather you asked us.
How to choose a roofing company in Leeds
There are a lot of roofing companies in Leeds, and from the outside most of them look the same: a van, a website and a five star average. The difference only shows up years later, in whether the ridge is still straight and whether the fascia is sound behind the plastic. This page is what we would tell a friend to check before signing anything, including if they were not going to use us.
Leeds adds two things that catch people out. The first is the back-to-backs. Around 19,500 of them survive, mostly in Harehills, Beeston Hill, Holbeck and Armley, and each pair shares one roof over the party wall. A firm that quotes to re-roof your half without mentioning the neighbour has either not looked properly or is planning to leave you a joint that leaks. The second is conservation areas. Leeds has around eighty, including Headingley, Chapel Allerton, Roundhay, Armley, Horsforth and Farsley, and the stone outer villages sit inside them, so materials are not a free choice.
The other thing worth knowing is that the council is part way through a major re-roofing programme across its own stock, which runs to more than fifty thousand homes, around two thirds of them built before 1964. If you own an ex-council house on one of those estates, your roof is the same age as the ones being replaced, and that is usually the honest answer to why it has started failing now.
If you use this list and pick someone else, that is a good outcome. A badly done roof costs more to put right than it did to fit.
Eight things to check before you sign
Ask every firm the same questions and the differences between them stop being a matter of who had the better website.
- A written, itemised quote, not a figure on a card. Scaffold, strip, timber allowance, battens, membrane, the named covering, ridge fixings, leadwork and waste should each be a line
- How the ridge will be fixed. If the answer is bedded in mortar, that has not met BS 5534 since 2014
- Scaffold included. Roofing a house off ladders breaches the Work at Height Regulations and means corners are being cut elsewhere too
- Who notifies Building Control. Re-covering most of a roof is notifiable, and you want the completion certificate when you sell
- Public liability and employers' liability cover, with the certificate shown rather than mentioned
- The guarantee in writing: how long, what it covers, and whether it is insurance backed
- Trade body membership with a number you can check, such as NFRC, or a Competent Person Scheme registration
- Whether they have worked on your type of house, which in Leeds often means a back-to-back or a stone house in a conservation area
Six things that should stop you
None of these are proof of a bad firm on their own. Two together is enough to walk away.
A deposit of half the price up front
A materials deposit on a large job is reasonable. Half the money before anyone arrives is not.
A quote that is far below the others
Somebody pays for that gap, and it is usually you, later, when the ridge needs re-bedding or the timber turns out to be rotten.
No mention of Building Regulations
Either they do not know that a re-roof is notifiable, or they are not planning to tell anyone.
Cap-over fascias sold as replacement
Nailing plastic over rotten timber hides the rot and it carries on spreading into the rafter feet.
Pressure to decide today
A roof is a fifteen to eighty year decision. Any firm worth using will still be there next week.
Cold callers after a storm
Vans appear on the estates after every gale offering to handle your insurance claim. Choose your own roofer and keep the claim in your own name.
