Roofers in Barming

A lot of new housing has gone up in Barming in recent years, near Maidstone Hospital and along Hermitage Lane. Most new homes come with a structural warranty, often for 10 years, and the developer is usually responsible for putting right defects reported in the first two years. Roof problems on new homes are often small but annoying: a slipped or cracked tile, loose ridge tiles, a leak around a roof light or soil pipe, or gutters that overflow because the falls are wrong. Report them to the developer, with photos, before you pay a roofer.

Once the warranty period is over, it's worth having the roof looked at after any big storm, and the gutters cleared each autumn. Many newer homes have dry ridge and dry verge systems from new. These don't need repointing, but clips can work loose, so ask a roofer to check them if a tile looks out of line.

Older homes in the village and closer to the town are more likely to have mortar-bedded ridges and verges that need rebedding, chimneys with worn flashing, and flat-roofed garages and extensions whose felt is past its best. Older felt roofs often start to leak after 15 to 20 years.

Further out, the parish is rural and runs down to the Medway, with bigger plots, outbuildings and more trees. Barns, garages and stores often have older roofs of their own, and if a building has a corrugated roof that may be asbestos cement, don't drill, cut or pressure wash it. Ask the roofer how they would test and handle it.

Scaffolding is often the biggest single cost in a roofing quote, so ask whether it's included and how long it will be up. Ask the roofer to send photos of the problem from the roof, and check what guarantee comes with the work. Reviews on Trade Pilot come from real, invoiced jobs, so you can see which roofers have finished similar work for other homeowners.