Old house new roof

[Deutschman]

Thinking of buying an old house that needs a new roof. House is traditionally constructed (lath and plaster ceilings etc) and roof definitely needs doing: several leaks which have been patched up, old tiles and some rotten timbers.

House is 2500 sq feet and detached. Has anyone done similar and can give a sense of the cost, especially including things like replacing roof timbers, possible new ceilings etc? I am willing to do work but I need to decide whether to proceed with the house or not.

Thank you!

It will be a big and expensive project, plus you will need an ecological survey to see if there are any bats roosting before any work can commence.

My house was 1847, 2640 sq feet, original 'queen' sized slates, many could be saved apparently. I was given a rough quote of £30K and warned the scaffolding would also be £££.

I had a very unpleasant developer buyer whose surveyor said the basic loft repairs alone were in the region of £17K.

Good luck!

30k not including scaffolding? Ouch. Was that a straightforward re-roof or did it include things like replacing roof timbers?

Having one done next month, large ish but maybe not as big as yours, full roof replacement in spanish slate plus a flat section, soffits replaced, all the gutters and down pipes £37k.

We didn’t pick the cheapest quote but we didn’t get a quote under £30k.

Roof alone is about £22k but scaff/rubbish/other bits add up.

Really helpful thanks

If you change the tiles from clay to concrete, they weigh more so it’s possible you’ll need to reinforce the roof frame if you are not completely replacing it.

30k would be much guesstimate too. That is if you can even find anyone who wants the work.

The old house we bought has had concrete tiles as a replacement and there's a noticeable bow on one side of the roof. The tiles look awful and so wrong for the house but we can't afford to replace them. I'd assumed about £30k to reroof but seems I might have been on the low side 😣

I didn't get any further researching it Deutschman, my husband had just died and I had a terrible leak from the platform roof (over the boiler controls!) after Storm Dennis February 2020. I only had enough money to have the leak fixed.

I didn't have the £30K+ and had to sell. It's a criminal offence to allow a listed building to fall into disrepair and no grants or help available. I had a railway station, with two platform roofs, and two large slate house roofs.

If you can fund it, I would pay for a new roof, it gives you such peace of mind, especially if we get the bad storms again like last winter. Get a roofer who understands heritage buildings, I had several cowboys round as I'm rural and not much choice. They'd repaired the chimney using concrete instead of lime plaster, doesn't work on sandstone.

This is really helpful. As a pp says I’m nervous about even finding someone willing to do the work.

That’s not entirely true a square metre of concrete interlocking tiles is about 55-60kg , the same area of clay rosemary tiles is about 60-65 kg. This all depends on overlap and pitch. But there’s very little in it.

I had my roof replaced earlier this year at the cost of £20k which included £1k of scaffolding. It's a large 1920's double fronted semi with a similar sized footprint to what you are looking at. We had all timbers replaced, like for like tiles, 2 chimneys repointed, new gutters, a side porch retiled and 4 flat roofs above bay windows replaced for that. Our quotes ranged from £19k to £33k. We did get a quote for concrete tiles which were £4-£5k less but we really didn't like the look of them. If you are in the NE our roofer was excellent.

We had ours done this year. It's listed, 3 story, double fronted. We had 3 quotes in over £70k and one in at £36k, which including skip hire, scaffolding including tin roof, all new rafters, restoration of an old beam, insulation, plasterboard, skylights, plastering.

We're very pleased we persevered and got a 4th quote!

@Almosthere phew! What part of the country are you?

We bought a 1930's, detached, derelict property and replaced the roof 18mths ago. Live in South East. The floor area downstairs is 120m square- but the roof has hips and arches up and down, so you will be buying far more tiles than floor size- unless its flat obviously.

We had hand-made clay tiles from Poland- very similar look to previous tiles. We had several rotting beams or those affected by wood worm that needed replacing. New barge boards and fasias. The roof and beams alone was about 25K.

The additional costs included scaffolding, down pipes and guttering, skips, barn paint, new ceilings and adding boards so we have loft space now.

Has the property been empty for 2yrs of more? If so, please look into the empty homes scheme. It has saved us ££££ on VAT. Our local council had an empty house officer, who looked around, noted all the obvious things needing updating and also checked their records in term of occupation of the house. he then issued us a certificate, which we then give a copy of to trades/suppliers. If a house is empty 2-10yrs, then you only pay 5% VAT on labour and materials to get it back into livable state. Empty for 10yrs- you pay 0% VAT!

www.no-use-empty.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/property-tax-and-vat/reduced-vat-schemes/

20 grand plus scaff costs currently for a complete reslate of a 1920s bungalow hipped roof using existing slates, reclaimed slates to replace any broken ones, new modern 'felting' (main roof timbers are fine and needed no replacements, thank goodness, bar the odd beam end on the overhang) plus a pitched roof built from scratch to replace a flat one on a single storey extension (also slated with reclaimed slate), fitting into existing pitch. Plus 4 Veluxes, two of which electric, all new gutters, downpipes, and fascias, including new plastic fascias covering a gable. And a skip. In the NW. A really good roofer too, used before on another roof.
Tip re Brazillian slate, I am told it is brittle and cracks easily. I think our slates are probably Welsh ones. 100 yr old, pretty thick, and with a sort of roughly shaped rounded edge rather than a crisp sharp one.

We're south west. @Deutschman

Best of luck!