Areas · Millfield and New England
Roofers in Millfield and New England
Terraced roofing is its own discipline, and in these railway terraces the hard parts are usually the boundaries rather than the roof itself.
A terrace roof is not a small version of a semi roof
Millfield and New England are Victorian and Edwardian, and the housing is tied to the Great Northern Railway that brought work to this part of the city. The street pattern still reads that way: long runs of terraces, built quickly and built together.
What makes these roofs a different job is not the roof area. It is everything around it. Your covering runs to a boundary you share, your rainwater may be handled by a gutter serving two houses, and your scaffold may have nowhere to stand. None of that applies in Bretton or Hampton.
The three things that make these roofs different
Natural slate
Slate commonly outlasts the nails holding it, so the classic failure is slipping rather than the slate breaking down. A roof shedding slates every winter is telling you the fixings have reached the end rather than the covering. See tiling and slating. This is natural slate, not the Collyweston stone slate of the western villages, which is a specialist trade covered in our Collyweston guide.
Valley gutters and shared rainwater
Rainwater on some terrace forms is handled by a valley or parapet gutter running between properties rather than an eaves gutter at the front. These are the highest consequence part of the roof: hard to see, easy to block, and when one fails it puts water into two houses at once. Our roof leaks guide explains why the damp patch is rarely underneath the defect.
Party walls and shared stacks
Your roof stops at a boundary and so does your roofer's authority to work. Chimney stacks are frequently shared, straddling the party wall, which makes chimney repairs a conversation with your neighbour as well as a roofer. Work at or into a party wall can bring the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 into play, which is a legal question rather than a roofing one.
Access, scaffold and what they do to the price
| Your situation | What it does to the job | What to ask the roofer |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-terrace, no rear access | Scaffold, materials and waste come through the house or over the roof | Whether internal protection and waste removal are in the price |
| Rear access down a shared alley | Workable but slower, and it may need a neighbour's agreement | Whether they priced walk-in or vehicle access |
| End terrace | Usually the easiest, with a gable to scaffold against | Whether the gable verge is included, since the end takes the weather |
| Shared valley or parapet gutter | Doing your half properly may mean working past your boundary | Where the quoted work stops if the neighbour does nothing |
Our guide range for a terraced re-roof is £5,500 to £9,500 including VAT, with natural slate at the top or above. See roofing costs and new roof cost.
Your neighbour's roof is your damp problem
Water does not respect a title deed. A slipped slate near the party wall, a blocked shared gutter or a stack that has lost its flaunching puts water into the roof space next door as readily as its own. That is why the most useful thing you can do before commissioning terraced work is talk to the people either side.
- The scaffold is the biggest fixed cost, and sharing it spreads it
- A shared valley gets done properly in one go rather than halfway
- Slate from a single batch across both roofs matches
- A shared stack gets repaired once, with flashings that meet
How to have that conversation
Keep it practical. You are getting the roof looked at, here is when, and if they want a price at the same time the access is already paid for.
Get separate written quotes so each owner contracts for their own property.
Owners, landlords and tenants
A part of the city with a good deal of rented terraced housing, which changes who you need to speak to.
If you own and live there
You carry the consequences of delay, but you can also act quickly. Get the roof inspected on your terms rather than after a ceiling comes down.
If you are a landlord
A repairing obligation for the structure and exterior of a let property is a legal duty, and where a property is licensed as a house in multiple occupation the condition of the building can form part of the licence conditions. Problems also escalate faster, because a tenant reports the damp patch rather than the missing slate.
If the house next door is let
The person over the fence may not be the decision maker. Find out early who the owner or managing agent is, because a shared gutter or stack needs a decision from whoever owns it.
Two conservation areas, and getting quotes that compare
This part of the city contains two of Peterborough's eight designated conservation areas, both products of the railway history that built the terraces: the Former Great Northern Railway Cottages, and Queens Road.
Inside either boundary, the material you put back may be specified rather than chosen. Read the conservation areas guide, and use the checking method on our Werrington page, which works the same way citywide.
Whatever the answer, ask every firm to quote the same scope: name the covering, say how the roof is dealt with at both boundaries, and confirm what happens if the neighbouring roof is worse than yours. Older slate roofs are also the most likely to lose material in a gale, and our storm damage guide covers the first hour. When you want prices, compare quotes from firms that do terraced work.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and most people do, with the new work finished properly at the boundary. The caveat is the shared elements: a valley gutter or a stack on the party wall is where a one-sided job gets awkward.
Too variable to put an honest figure on, but treat it as one of the biggest variables in a terraced quote. Ask what route materials and waste will take, and who is responsible for damage on the way through.
Whoever owns the defective element, which is exactly what is not obvious near a boundary. It could be your slate, their slate, a shared gutter or a stack serving both houses. Get it diagnosed before it gets attributed.
Identify the owner or managing agent and put the problem to them in writing, with photographs and dates. A repairing obligation for the structure and exterior of a let property is a legal duty. If correspondence gets nowhere, that becomes a legal question rather than a roofing one.
It is cheaper per square metre, but on a terrace it changes the appearance of a run of houses built as a set, the loading on the structure, and how your roof meets the one next door. Inside either conservation area here it may not be an option.
Usually, but ask rather than assume, because these roofs have had a century of alterations, chimney removals and previous repairs. A proper quote says what happens if rot is found once the covering is off, with a rate for putting it right.
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