Several tonnes of material come off a house during a re-roof. Some of it has value, some of it is waste, and a small amount needs handling carefully — and you should know which is which.
A complete re-roof takes several tonnes of material off a house — covering, battens, underlay, lead, mortar and decades of accumulated debris. Where all of it goes is worth understanding, partly because some of it has value that belongs to you, and partly because a small amount of it needs careful handling.
The roof is never opened all at once. It comes off in manageable sections, and each section is rebuilt or sheeted before the next is opened, so the building stays weathertight throughout. Anything open is covered at the end of the day and whenever weather requires it.
Material comes down via a chute into a skip, or is bagged and lowered. What does not happen — and if you see it, say so — is material being dropped off the scaffold.
The most commonly reclaimed roofing material, and on a Victorian Stretford property often worth reclaiming. Slates are sorted as they come off: sound ones stacked, delaminated or cracked ones discarded. Expect meaningful losses, and expect every survivor to need re-holing, because the new batten gauge will not match the old holes.
Whether they go back on your roof, or are sold on, is a conversation to have at quotation stage rather than on the day.
Good clay tiles from the inter-war period have reclaim value, particularly in matching patterns. As with slate, the survival rate governs whether it is worth the handling.
This is the one people do not think about. Lead has real scrap value, and a Victorian property with two or three chimney stacks, plus valleys and abutments, can yield a meaningful weight of it.
There is nothing improper about a contractor taking the old lead — it is common practice and often reflected in the quotation. What is not right is nobody mentioning it. Ask what happens to the lead. A straight answer is a good sign; evasion is not.
Rarely worth salvaging in a domestic re-roof. Old battens are undersized by modern standards, full of nail holes and often perished. They go as waste.
Most of this is inert construction waste. Crushed tile and slate can be recycled as aggregate, and reputable contractors use waste transfer facilities that separate what can be recovered. It is fair to ask where the waste is going.
That last item on the list deserves a mention of its own. A re-roof produces an extraordinary number of old nails, and they end up in the garden and the driveway. A magnetic sweep at the end of the job is standard practice — ask for it if it is not offered.
This deserves a proper answer rather than either alarm or a shrug, because a great deal of what is said about it is wrong.
HSE's guidance is direct: if a building was built or refurbished before 2000, assume asbestos may be present. The ban came in stages — blue and brown asbestos were prohibited during the 1980s, and white asbestos in 1999. The year 2000 is a deliberately cautious line rather than the date of the ban, because stock already held could still be installed after the prohibition took effect.
Given Stretford's late Victorian and inter-war housing, and the number of those properties that have been altered, extended or re-roofed since, that line covers essentially all of it.
On or around a domestic pitched roof, HSE identifies possibilities including asbestos cement roof tiles or slates, profiled asbestos cement sheeting, roofing felt, soffits and fascias in asbestos cement or asbestos insulating board, gutters and downpipes in asbestos cement, and asbestos cement flue pipes — which HSE notes are found in domestic boiler systems as well as commercial ones. Asbestos insulating board also turns up boxing in a flue or a chimney breast.
We are not going to tell you which of these is most likely, because that is not something we can state with authority. The point is that a competent contractor considers the possibility before starting rather than after.
This is the part most often misstated. The "duty to manage asbestos" under regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 does not apply to a private domestic home. As a homeowner you are not carrying out a work activity, and there is no legal requirement on you to commission an asbestos survey for your own house.
But that does not mean no law applies. COSHH applies, and regulation 5 binds the contractor regardless of the type of premises: before doing work liable to expose anyone to asbestos, they must have carried out a suitable and sufficient assessment of whether it is present — or, if there is doubt, presume that it is present and that it is not white asbestos alone, and work accordingly.
So the correct expectation is not that you produce a survey. It is that your contractor has established what is there before lifting the first tile.
Asbestos cement — sheets, slates, gutters, downpipes, flue pipes. Work on these is non-licensed, and not even notifiable, provided the material is handled carefully and removed without breaking up. It becomes notifiable non-licensed work where it will be substantially damaged or broken up, creating significant dust. So the claim that asbestos cement always needs a licensed contractor is not correct.
Asbestos insulating board — a different and higher-risk material. Here the position is the reverse: most AIB removal is licensed work, and only minor tasks fall outside that. The claim that AIB is fine because it is non-licensed is both wrong and dangerous.
It is not illegal for a householder to remove asbestos cement from their own home — the regulations bind employers and the self-employed at work, and an owner-occupier is not engaged in a work activity. You will see it stated as illegal; that is inaccurate.
What HSE actually advises is not to attempt repair or removal of asbestos materials without training in non-licensed asbestos work. That is a different statement and a better one to act on. Note also that the moment you pay someone to do it, they are working, and the full regime applies to them.
Asbestos waste cannot go in an ordinary skip. It has to be double-wrapped and labelled, carried in a sealed or lockable container, moved by a registered waste carrier and taken to a licensed disposal site. For small quantities, many local authorities accept asbestos at household waste sites — but the arrangements, quantity limits and booking requirements vary between councils, so check with yours rather than assuming.
Once everything is off, the roof structure is exposed — and this is the only opportunity anyone will have to look at it properly. Rafters, purlins, ridge board and wall plates are inspected, with particular attention to the rafter ends where they meet the wall plate, because that is where a long-failing gutter puts water.
Defective timber is replaced or spliced, at the rate agreed before work started. Ask to be shown what was found before it is covered again, and ask for photographs. They cost the contractor nothing and they are your only record of a part of your house you will not see again for decades.
We will tell you what is salvageable on your roof, what it is worth and how the rest is disposed of.
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You do — they are part of your building. In practice many contractors take salvageable material away as part of the deal, which is fine if it is agreed and reflected in the price. What matters is that it is discussed rather than assumed.
Yes. Lead has genuine scrap value and a re-roof on a Victorian property with several chimneys can yield a meaningful weight of it. Ask what happens to it. There is nothing wrong with a contractor keeping it if that is understood and priced in.
HSE's guidance is that if a building was built or refurbished before 2000, you should assume asbestos may be present. On a pitched roof the possibilities include asbestos cement slates or sheets, roofing felt, soffits and fascias, gutters and downpipes, and flue pipes. It should be established before work starts, not discovered mid-strip.
Not as a homeowner — there is no legal duty on you to commission one for your own house. The duty sits on the contractor: under regulation 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 they must have carried out a suitable and sufficient assessment, or presume asbestos is present and work accordingly.
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 Stretford, 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
