Editorial
Ten pieces. One question each.
Written and signed.
Most roofing advice online is filler written by people who've never stood on a roof or read a building regulation. These guides are different. Each one answers a specific question a homeowner needs answered before spending money, every source is named, and every opinion is labelled as opinion. My name is on every page because I wrote every page.
— Giuseppe, owner of RoofersBook
Water coming in right now?
30-minute roof leak triage
Stop reading everything else. This piece walks you through the first thirty minutes: kill the circuit, catch the water, relieve a bulging ceiling safely, document everything for the insurer, call an emergency roofer with a script that gets you taken seriously, and phone your insurer within 24 hours so the notification clause doesn't void your claim.
6 min read · cites Work at Height Regulations 2005, Consumer Rights Act 2015, standard UK home insurance notification clauses
Forward this to someone you care about
Seven roofing scams UK homeowners fall for
Real court cases. Real sentences. A terminally ill man who paid £12,000 from medical retirement funds. A widow targeted the week after her husband died. 7,854 complaints to Citizens Advice in one year. Each of the seven patterns told as a story so you recognise it at the door — and the legal remedy if you've already been caught.
15 min read · cites National Trading Standards, Fraud Act 2006, Consumer Contracts Regs 2013, Financial Ombudsman Service
Already happened?
What to do if your roofer has ripped you off
Step-by-step recovery: document in the first 24 hours, stop the bleeding, write to the roofer citing the CRA 2015, open a Section 75 claim if you paid by credit card, file on Money Claim Online if they ignore you, report to Action Fraud if they've vanished. Every phone number and legal route in one page.
10 min read
Start here
Two guides that save more money than the other eight combined.
If you read nothing else on this site, read these two. One teaches you how to look at your own roof and answer half of what a roofer will ask before you pick up the phone. The other teaches you how to check the roofer before you let them near it.
Before you call anyone
Reading a roof from the ground
Eight visual checks from the pavement that take five minutes. Slipped tiles, ridge line dips, chimney flashing cracks, valley moss, fascia rot. Each one comes with a photo brief you can text straight to a roofer — most can give you a ballpark price from photos alone, no callout fee.
Before you sign anything
How to hire a roofer without getting done
The 90-second Companies House check. Insurance certificates that mean something vs the ones that don't. Which trade bodies run real audits and which are paid stickers. What a proper deposit looks like. What a proper quote includes. The nine walk-away signals that come in pairs. And the Consumer Rights Act escalation ladder if it goes wrong anyway.
The money question
What should this actually cost?
Roof quotes in the UK vary by three to five times for the same job. This guide tells you why — what's in the price, where the variance really comes from, and what a quote that's too low or too high looks like. Including the longevity maths that most comparison sites never show you.
What a roof repair should actually cost (UK, 2026)
14 min · every common job type priced · triangulated from NFRC members, merchant lists, RICS BCIS indices
Materials
What goes on the roof — and why it matters.
Two opinionated guides: one for pitched roofs (which tile, given your pitch, your weight budget, your planning environment, and your actual budget), one for flat roofs (why EPDM rubber is the right answer seven times out of ten, and the three situations where it isn't).
Pitched roofs
Slate, clay, or concrete: choosing a UK roof tile
The five constraints that decide your covering, in order of bossiness: pitch, weight, planning, lifespan, budget. With real minimum-pitch specs from Marley, Redland, Cupa, and Sandtoft.
Flat roofs
Flat roofs: why EPDM wins for most UK homes
Felt, EPDM, GRP, modified bitumen, TPO — each scored on lifespan, install sensitivity, walkability, and cost. The decision tree at the end tells you which one in about thirty seconds. Opinionated by design.
Compliance & claims
The regulatory bits that actually affect your bill.
Part L decides how much insulation your re-roof has to include (and what happens at conveyancing if you skip it). Your insurer decides what they owe you after a storm — and the first offer is almost never the right number. Both guides are written to save you money you didn't know you were leaving on the table.
Building Regulations
Part L and roofing, without the jargon
Current U-value targets (2026), the "25% renovation" trigger most homeowners don't know about, cold deck vs warm deck in thirty seconds, listed building exemptions, CompetentRoofer self-certification, and the conveyancing problem that hits when you sell.
Insurance claims
Insurance claim roofs: what your insurer actually owes you
The "sudden and unforeseen" test. Why you almost always want cash settlement over the panel contractor. What betterment and indemnity mean in practice. And the Financial Ombudsman escalation route the insurer hopes you don't know about.
A note on what these guides are not
They're not the last word. They're the first question.
Every guide on this site is research, not advice. It's written to give you enough understanding to ask the right questions and catch the wrong answers — not to replace a survey, a solicitor, or a conversation with an actual roofer who's looked at your actual roof.
If you've read enough and you're ready to talk to someone, the quote form takes five minutes and goes to roofers who cover your postcode and do the work you need. No fees, no pressure, no obligation.
If you spot a factual error in any guide — a wrong price, a changed regulation, a broken link — email corrections@roofersbook.com. I'd rather fix it than not know.