The question is usually put as a choice between two things. On Macclesfield's older slated property there are three, and the middle one is frequently the right answer.
Almost every article on this subject presents two options. Patch it, or replace it. On the older slated housing that makes up so much of Macclesfield, that framing misses the option that most often turns out to be right — and it is the reason people sometimes spend on a full new covering when they did not need to.
Fix the specific defect. A split chimney flashing, a silted valley, slates taken off by a branch. Right where the problem is local and has an identifiable cause, and the rest of the roof is sound.
Take the covering off, renew everything underneath — battens, underlay, fixings, lead, ventilation, insulation — inspect and repair the structure, and put the original slates back, buying in material to cover losses. The roof is fully renewed. The building looks exactly as it did.
The same work, but with new slate or tile. Right where the existing covering is genuinely finished, or where you want to change what is on the roof.
Because a slate roof is several systems with very different lifespans, and the one you can see lasts longest. Good Welsh slate — which is what a great deal of Macclesfield's silk-era housing was built with — outlives the nails holding it on by a wide margin, and outlives bitumen underlay by a wider one.
So the commonest failure on these roofs is not the slate. It is nail fatigue: every fixing on the roof going at once, because they all went in at the same time and have sat in the same conditions ever since. The symptom is slates slipping in different places over several years with no storm to blame.
When that is what has happened, buying a new covering means throwing away a perfectly serviceable one. Option two renews everything that has actually failed and keeps the part that has not.
| What you are seeing | Usually the answer |
|---|---|
| One defect, identifiable cause, roof otherwise sound | Repair |
| Storm damage to a roof with life left | Repair — and check the insurance position |
| Chimney flashing or valley failure only | Repair |
| Slates slipping in several places, no cause, but slates ring sound | Strip and relay |
| Underlay perished, covering still in good condition | Strip and relay |
| Battens failing, slates sound | Strip and relay |
| Widespread delamination, flaking, soft slates | Full replacement |
| Covering is concrete tile at the end of its life | Full replacement |
| You want to change the covering | Full replacement — check the planning position |
| Timbers wet and softening | Strip and rebuild, whichever covering |
It is worth being straight about this, because relaying is sometimes sold as a saving and it is not always one.
Against a full roof of new Welsh slate, relaying frequently comes out ahead. Against a cheaper new covering — Spanish slate, or fibre cement — it may not. The point is to have both priced rather than assume either way.
Macclesfield has two Article 4(2) directions: High Street, confirmed in 1985, and Christ Church, confirmed in 1990. Cheshire East states that owners in those areas will find it necessary to apply for planning permission for most external alterations.
Relaying the original slates sits entirely outside that. The external appearance is unchanged, so there is nothing to apply for — a like-for-like renewal does not materially affect external appearance and under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is not development at all. Changing to a new covering, particularly a visibly different one, is where the application comes in, and with it weeks of programme.
Cheshire East Council can confirm whether a specific address falls inside either area.
Whichever option you land on, the calculation that resolves "should I just repair it again?" is not one repair against a re-roof. It is every repair you will make between now and the replacement, plus the replacement, against replacing now.
Where repairs are occasional and the roof is otherwise sound, repair wins comfortably. Where you are calling someone out twice a year, it stopped winning some time ago.
Repairs trigger no regulatory duty. A strip and rebuild — options two and three alike — renews a thermal element and engages regulation 23 of the Building Regulations 2010, which requires thermal performance to be improved where technically and economically feasible: 0.16 W/(m²K) for a roof in an existing dwelling under Approved Document L Volume 1.
On a silk-era property with a habitable garret, that insulation goes at rafter level rather than on a loft floor, and it is a substantial improvement on a house that has probably never had any. It is a real benefit, it attaches only to the replacement options, and it is worth weighing alongside the money.
We will tell you which of them your roof is actually a candidate for, and why.
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Strip the roof completely, renew the battens, underlay, fixings, lead, ventilation and insulation — and relay your existing slates rather than buying a new covering. The roof is fully renewed; the visible surface stays as it was.
It can be, particularly against new Welsh slate, but it is not automatic. You save the material for whatever proportion survives; you pay in labour for sorting, grading, re-holing and double handling, and you buy in material to make up the losses.
Someone has to handle them. Sound slate rings when tapped; slate that has taken on water thuds. Widespread delamination, flaking edges or slates going soft mean the covering is finished. If most of the roof rings sound, relaying is worth pricing.
It can help the case for relaying. Macclesfield's High Street and Christ Church Article 4(2) directions mean, in Cheshire East's own words, that owners in those areas will find it necessary to apply for planning permission for most external alterations. Relaying the original slates changes nothing externally, so the question does not arise.
Apex Roofing covers Cheshire and the surrounding area for complete roof replacement, new slate and tiled roofs and re-roofing.
Apex Roofing Cheshire · 105 Fence House, Fence Avenue, Macclesfield SK10 1LM
Tell us about the property and the roof in Macclesfield, and we will come back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07377 461095 · WhatsApp +44 7465 861265 · Email apexroofing14@gmail.com
