Can you stay in the house during a re-roof?

A re-roof is a loud job. Stripping slate or tile means scraping, dropping and barrowing from first thing, and the new covering goes on with a steady knocking that carries through the whole house. Scaffold poles ring when they are moved. The loudest part is usually the first day or two, while the old covering comes off.

If anyone at home works from the house, takes calls or sleeps in the day, say so at survey. We cannot make the job quiet, but we can plan around a nap, an exam or an important meeting where the work allows. Pets and small children are better in a room away from the loft hatch and the garden.

The sequence is described in our page on a Stroud roof replacement, step by step. This page is about how it feels from the sofa.

Working hours are usually daylight hours on weekdays, with a start early enough to make use of the light. Ask what time the crew will arrive, and whether Saturday work is planned.

Old roofs are dusty. When the covering is lifted, years of dust, soot, old insulation and fragments drop between the rafters, and some of it finds its way down. Where the roof has no underlay, or old felt that crumbles, more falls through.

Clear the loft before we start. Take down boxes, suitcases and anything stored there, or cover them with dust sheets. Pull clothes and bedding out of top-floor cupboards if they sit under a hatch or the ceiling. Fit dust sheets over furniture on the landing and in bedrooms directly below the roof. Ceilings can shake loose a fine dust, and a sheet over the bed keeps it clean.

Close loft hatches, keep doors shut, and stay out of any room we are working above. Waste is taken away at the end, but fine dust left in the loft is yours to vacuum.

Cooking and washing carry on as normal, but steam rising into an open roof can drip on tarpaulin, so keep extractor use sensible during the strip.

A re-roof is done in sections so that no slope is left open when the crew goes home. Where a slope cannot be finished in the day, it is covered with sheeting and weighted or battened down. New underlay and battens also give some protection once they are on, though they are not a final covering. Our page on what happens if it rains during a re-roof goes into this in more detail.

If you notice a drip, tell the foreman straight away and set a bowl beneath it. Water that gets in is usually a few drops by a sheet edge or a rafter, and it can be dealt with quickly. Do not climb into the loft in the dark to look, because boards may be loose and the ceiling below is only plasterboard.

A drip in the middle of a job is one reason leaks and storm damage are prioritised on our books, and why we make a leaking roof safe before anything else.

If the weather turns, the crew will tell you what has been done to protect the house, and you should be able to see the sheeting from a bedroom window or the garden.

Ask for a mobile number on site, so any problem at night can be passed on without delay.

Scaffold changes how a house can be reached. A frame of poles up to the eaves gives a route to bedroom windows that was not there before. Lock upper windows, including small ones you rarely open, and do not leave a ladder or tools lying around your own garden.

Tell your buildings insurer that scaffold will be up, and ask whether they need anything from you. Policies differ, and we cannot say what yours requires. Keep ground-floor doors and side gates locked, and bring in valuables from the garden, as you would for a long absence.

Access can shape your day. Scaffold usually sits across a path, a side passage or a drive, so check how you will get in and out, and where you will park. In Stroud's terraces and steep lanes, where there is no rear path, the front door may be your only route, and the scaffold needs to leave room for it.

Neighbours will notice too. A short note through nearby doors, saying when the scaffold goes up and roughly how long the work lasts, avoids complaints and makes it easier if skips or vans are parked on the street.

A few households do best leaving for the worst of it: a newborn, a person who is ill and needs daytime rest, a home worker who cannot work through noise, or a house where the only room under the roof is a bedroom with no other space to retreat to. A stay with family for two or three days can be easier than a fortnight of strain.

If the work is on one slope only, living in the house is easier still, which our answer on replacing one side of a roof explains. Whatever you decide, we talk the plan through at survey, take photographs of your roof, and follow with a written quote for the whole job. Our written workmanship guarantee runs for ten years. Questions about timing or access are welcome by phone on 01453 933613 or by WhatsApp, and the main roof replacement page has the rest.