Professional new roofs and re-roofing across Chester, the Wirral and Deeside — new slate roofs, new tiled roofs, complete re-roofing and roof replacement, surveyed properly and quoted in writing.
Roofline Solutions provides professional new roof installations in Chester for homeowners and property owners replacing an ageing roof, re-roofing an existing property, or installing a completely new slate or tiled roofing system.
A new roof is one of the largest improvements you can make to a property, so it matters that the work is properly assessed and the roofing system chosen to suit the building rather than to suit whatever is easiest to lay. Whether you have an ageing tiled roof, an older slate roof, or a new roof forms part of a wider renovation, we will look at the property and talk the options through before anything is quoted.
Slate and tile kept together as one service, so you can weigh both without needing two contractors or two conversations.
Removing an existing roof covering and installing a completely renewed roofing system — new underlay, new battens, new covering, renewed lead at the junctions, ventilation and insulation. Every roof is different, so the work required is assessed before the project begins.
A re-roof becomes worth considering when problems are appearing across several areas rather than in one place. Instead of repeatedly addressing individual tiles, slates or sections, renewing the complete covering deals with the whole roof as one project.
Tiled roofing suits a great many pitched residential roofs and comes in a wide range of profiles and finishes. We install complete new tiled roofs and replace ageing tiled coverings as part of a re-roof.
Slate gives a distinctive finish that works particularly well on the older property around Chester, the Wirral and Deeside. We install new slate roofs and replace older slate roofing where extensive renewal is needed.
This is the most common decision when replacing a pitched roof, and the honest answer is that neither is better in the abstract. Both give an attractive, durable finish. What decides it is the building.
Because both are part of the same service here, we can price the options side by side rather than steering you towards whichever one we happen to fit.
Not every roofing problem needs a new roof, and we would rather say so. Many isolated issues are dealt with perfectly well by a repair. Replacement becomes worth considering when problems are becoming widespread, or an ageing roof needs attention across several different areas.
Reasons homeowners get in touch about a new roof include:
The first step is always to assess the existing roof.
There is a reasonably objective way to tell these apart, and it is worth knowing before you get quotations.
Ask why the last failure happened. If there is a clear answer — a gale, a blocked valley, a chimney flashing that was never properly formed, a gutter that has been overflowing onto one area for years — that is a local problem with a local solution, and a repair fixes it.
If the honest answer is “it just went”, and it has happened in more than one unrelated place, that is different. The components present across the whole roof — the fixings, the battens, the underlay — are all the same age and reach the end of their working lives together. When one of those goes it goes everywhere, and no repair addresses it, because the problem is not in the place that failed but in the places that have not failed yet.
Older tiled roofs eventually develop problems across larger areas. Individual broken tiles can be replaced at first, but once deterioration is widespread the arithmetic changes — particularly because the original tile range is usually long out of production, so replacements are either salvaged or an obvious near-match.
A complete tiled re-roof gives the property an entirely renewed covering and deals with the underlay, battens, lead and ventilation at the same time. Those are the parts that actually failed, and they cannot be renewed without taking the tiles off.
Older slate roofs reach a similar point, though usually for a different reason. Good slate is extremely durable — what fails first is almost always the nails holding it on. Every nail went in at the same time and has sat in the same conditions since, so they corrode together. The symptom is slates slipping in ones and twos, in unrelated places, with no storm to explain them.
That matters commercially, because it means a failing slate roof often has a perfectly sound covering on it. Stripping the roof, renewing the battens, underlay, fixings and lead, and relaying the original slates is a genuine third option between patching and buying a whole new covering. It is worth having priced alongside a new roof rather than assumed either way.
A new roof often forms a major part of renovating an older property, and a renovation is usually the right moment to do it. Everything that follows — plaster, decoration, flooring, electrics — is vulnerable to water from above, and roofing is the trade most affected by weather, so putting the roof early in the programme removes the largest single risk to the rest of the project.
There is a second reason. A scaffold erected for the roof can also serve chimney work, rendering, pointing, upper-floor windows, and the fascias, soffits and guttering. Erecting a scaffold twice on the same house is one of the most common avoidable costs in domestic renovation.
Extensions can need pitched or flat roofing depending on the design. For pitched extensions, slate or tile can be chosen to complement the main property — though the extension roof frequently sits at a shallower pitch than the main roof, which can mean a different covering or a different approach. We check that before specifying rather than after.
This page is mainly about pitched slate and tiled roofs, but flat roofing is part of the wider service. That is useful where a project covers more than one roof type at once:
It means the different areas of a property can be considered as one project rather than split between trades.
Garage roofing is an area where we have direct customer feedback. One Google reviewer, Peter Aspinall, wrote:
Worth noting on the regulations side: a roof over unheated space — a detached or unheated garage, an outbuilding, a carport — does not trigger the thermal upgrade duty that applies to a roof over heated rooms. That is one of the reasons a garage roof is a different job from a house roof.
Most people assume a new roof needs planning permission. Usually it does not, and the reason is stronger than permitted development. Under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 — which applies in England and Wales alike — work that does not materially affect the external appearance of a building is not development at all. A like-for-like re-roof therefore falls outside the planning system rather than relying on rights granted by the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
A change of covering is a different question, because it may materially affect external appearance. That is where conservation area status starts to matter: even with no Article 4 direction in force, inside a conservation area the “not materially affecting external appearance” test is applied a good deal more tightly, so swapping slate for a visibly different tile can need permission on its own merits. Cheshire West and Chester Council can confirm the position for a specific address at no cost.
Chester has a number of conservation areas, and the Chester Canal conservation area runs along the Shropshire Union Canal through the city. Cheshire West and Chester's published Article 4 register lists directions at Garden Quarter, Newry Park and King Street, all of which control changes of use to houses in multiple occupation rather than roofing work.
If the building is listed, listed building consent is a separate requirement from planning permission and it does cover roof coverings. That should be resolved before the work is priced rather than after.
Building regulations are separate from planning, and they are the part that catches people out. Replacing a roof covering renews a thermal element, and where more than 50% of that element's surface area is renewed — or the work forms part of a major renovation — regulation 23 of the Building Regulations 2010 requires the whole element to be brought up to current thermal standards, so far as that is technically, functionally and economically feasible. A patch repair is not a re-roof and does not trigger it, and neither does a roof over unheated space such as a detached garage, an outbuilding or a carport.
For a roof in an existing dwelling, Approved Document L Volume 1 gives a U-value of 0.16 W/(m²K) for the renovated element. On an ordinary cold loft that is reached by topping up the insulation at ceiling level rather than insulating the roof slope; where the roof space is a habitable room, the insulation has to go at rafter level instead, which is a bigger job and should be priced as one.
The work is signed off in one of two ways: a notification to building control — either Cheshire West and Chester Council's own service or a Registered Building Control Approver — or self-certification by a roofer registered under a competent person scheme, such as NAPIT or CompetentRoofer, now run by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors as the NFRC Competent Person Scheme. Whichever route is used, you should receive a compliance certificate at the end — keep it, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it.
One point for customers on the Welsh side of the area. Deeside and Flint are in Flintshire, and Wales has its own Approved Document L with its own figures — they are not the same as England's. If your property is in Wales, see our Flint and Deeside pages, which set out the Welsh position rather than the English one.
Most new-roof projects touch more than the tiles. Having it all under one contractor means one scaffold, one programme and one point of responsibility.
“Excellent service from Buddy and the team in installing a new garage roof in a really professional manner. Was kept updated at all stages and given good advice as to our options. Would highly recommend”
Peter Aspinall“Brilliant company. Did a really good job worked hard, looks really good up to my expected standards which are high. Can highly recommend them.”
Cheshire Porcelain“Very professional efficient team great communication. Would definitely recommend made the process quick and easy…”
Harry Morgan“The men were genuine and trustworthy. Turned up every time when they said they would, and phoned ahead. Very respectful and did an amazing job.”
Freda Markham“A great team that really looked after us and have continued to support us. I wouldn't hesitate to use roofline again or recommend them to family and friends.”
Samantha MerrickTen guides on what a new roof involves, what drives the cost and how to read a quotation. Browse the advice centre →
Why the shape of a roof moves the figure further than its area does.
Read Guide →What “complete” should mean, and how a full strip compares with an overlay.
Read Guide →The standards behind a tiled roof — and two things you can check yourself.
Read Guide →The arithmetic: units per square metre, headlap, and how slate is graded.
Read Guide →Decided by the period of the house rather than by preference.
Read Guide →The evidence a failing roof leaves in four places, and how to read each.
Read Guide →What the money actually buys, and the trap that keeps people patching.
Read Guide →From first call to finished — lead times, not just the days on site.
Read Guide →The decisions you will be asked to make, and when they arrive.
Read Guide →An honest answer, including the figure we will not give you.
Read Guide →Roofline Solutions installs new slate and tiled roofs and carries out complete re-roofing across Chester, the Wirral, Deeside and the surrounding areas.
2 Manley View
Elton
Chester
CH2 4QF
Telephone: 07464 259566
WhatsApp: 0044 7464 259566
Email: Evensbuddy@yahoo.com
Tell us about the property and the roof, and we will come back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07464 259566 · WhatsApp 0044 7464 259566 · Email Evensbuddy@yahoo.com