Roof Repairs in Exeter

What Changes the Price of a Roof Repair

There is no price list on this page, because a repair is priced from what is wrong, and that cannot be judged from the pavement. What we can tell you is what moves the number.

How the roofer gets to it. Reaching a slipped slate from a ladder, putting up a tower, and scaffolding a whole elevation are three different jobs before anyone touches the roof. On the tall Victorian terraces of St Thomas and Newtown, the access can cost more than the repair. Ask every roofer what access their price assumes.

What has actually failed. A slate that has slid because its nail rusted through is a small job. A lead valley that has been letting water into the roof space through two winters is a strip-back, a dry-out and often new timber. They can look identical from inside the house.

How long it has been going on. This is the part you control. Water travels along rafters and shows up a long way from where it got in. Caught in the first month it stays a slate job. Left through a wet winter it becomes a timber job.

Whether the covering can be matched. Much of Exeter's older housing is roofed in natural slate that is no longer quarried in the same size or colour. A roofer who sources reclaimed slate to match is spending time you will see in the quote, and the cheap alternative is a patch that stays visible for years.

Whether the roof is the culprit. A surprising number of "roof leaks" in Exeter turn out to be a blocked hopper or a split gutter joint. Ruling that out costs very little, so do it first.

Our roof repair costs guide sets out researched 2026 UK ranges by job type if you want a sense of scale before you speak to anyone.

Why Two Quotes on the Same Roof Come Back So Different

Almost always the access, not the repair.

On a two-storey house a scaffold has to be designed, delivered, put up, hired for the length of the job and taken down. Against that, replacing a handful of slates is an hour's work. So the roofer who thinks they can reach it from a ladder will always look cheaper than the one who has priced a tower, and neither of them is necessarily wrong. What you want to know is which of them has looked properly.

It bites hardest on the close-packed streets. Across Heavitree, Newtown and Mount Pleasant, rear roofs are reached through the house or over a neighbour's yard, and the front elevation faces straight onto a pavement that needs a licence to scaffold. None of that is the roofer being awkward. It is a fact about the street.

If two things need doing, get them quoted together. Repointing a ridge and refixing three slates on one scaffold hire is much cheaper than paying for the access twice.

Common Repairs on Exeter Roofs

Slipped slates. The classic Exeter repair. The slate is usually fine; the iron nail that held it has rusted through, a condition roofers call nail sickness. One or two slipped slates can be refixed with a lead or copper tingle. When they start going in numbers across a slope, the nails are all the same age and roof replacement becomes the honest conversation.

Lead in hidden places. The Georgian and Regency houses around Southernhay, St Leonard's and Pennsylvania often have parapet walls with a lead gutter running behind them. When the lead splits, the water goes straight into the wall and can take a long time to appear inside.

Chimney flashing. Older stacks leak at the flashing long before the brick or stone fails. See chimney repairs.

Tiles ageing out on the estates. On the post-war semis of Wonford, Whipton and Beacon Heath, individual concrete tiles start to fail because the whole roof is old. Repair still works, but if it keeps happening, the roof is telling you something.

Wind damage on the estuary. From Countess Wear and Topsham down to Exmouth, wind lift takes slates and ridge tiles more often than anywhere inland. Fixings there need to be checked, not just the slates replaced.

When a Survey Is Worth Paying For

Water does not drip straight down. It runs along a rafter and drops off a long way from the entry point, which is why guessed repairs so often fail and the second visit costs as much as the first.

A survey, whether by ladder or by drone, costs a fraction of a repair. If it turns a guess into a diagnosis it has paid for itself the first time it stops you buying the wrong fix. Many roofers will credit the fee against the work if you go ahead with them, so ask.

You can skip it when a slate has visibly slipped and you can see the gap from the garden. That is not a diagnosis problem.

Storm Damage and Insurance

Roofing enquiries here roughly double from September to March. Exeter and the coast meet the Atlantic weather before the rest of the country does.

Buildings insurance normally covers storm damage and sudden accidental damage. It normally does not cover wear, age or lack of maintenance, and that distinction decides most claims. Note the date and the storm, photograph the damage from the ground if it is safe, and ask the roofer for a written report that links the damage to the weather. That report carries more weight with an insurer than your own account. If water is coming in now, see emergency roof repairs.

How It Works

Tell us what is wrong. We pass it to a roofing firm covering your area and they contact you to arrange a look and a quote. No work is done by us, and the firm that does it is not inspected or approved by us. There is no charge and no obligation, and outside working hours you will hear back the next working day.

Related Services

For a covering that is failing across whole slopes, see roof replacement. For garages and extensions, see flat roofing. For damp patches that turn out to be overflowing gutters, see guttering, fascias and soffits.

Areas We Cover

Repairs across the city centre, St Leonard's, Heavitree, St Thomas, Newtown, Pinhoe, Whipton, Wonford, Alphington, Topsham, Exminster, Exmouth, Newton Abbot and the towns and villages between. see all service areas