Metal Roofing in Godalming

A finished zinc extension roof in Godalming looks like a single clean sheet of metal running to the gutter, no visible fixings, no mastic at the abutment, and a room underneath that stays dry and quiet through a wet Surrey winter.

Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs, still answers the phone himself day, night or weekend, and the same family-run team also runs our emergency roofing services Godalming, so the person quoting your metal roof is the person who will be standing on it.

Call 07428 300474 for a free survey and a fixed written price.

Installing a metal roof in the UK usually works out somewhere in the region of a few hundred pounds per square metre once you include the substrate, the breather layer and the fabricated details, with standing seam zinc sitting at the upper end and box profile sheet at the lower end. The only honest number is one measured off your own roof, which is why the survey and the written price come first.

Metal Roofing Materials

The material decides the detailing, the fixing centres and how the roof behaves over the next fifty years. On Godalming properties we work in four families, and each one is chosen for the pitch, the exposure and the substrate underneath rather than for the look alone.

• Standing seam zinc: typically 0.7mm to 0.8mm coil, laid in bays over a fully supported deck, with 25mm double-lock or 38mm single-lock seams depending on pitch and exposure.
• Standing seam aluminium: 0.9mm coated coil, lighter per square metre than zinc, useful where the existing rafters have no capacity to spare.
• Box profile steel sheet: pre-finished sheet in 32/1000 or 34/1000 profiles, fixed through the crown into purlins with sealing washers, commonly used on garages, workshops and outbuildings.
• Metal tile sheet: pressed profile sheet that reads as a tiled roof from ground level, used where a pitched roof needs weight taken off it.

Zinc and aluminium move with temperature, roughly 1mm per metre run across a normal British year, so bay lengths, clip type and the ratio of fixed to sliding clips are set out before anything is cut. Get that wrong and the roof oil-cans or splits a seam. Get it right and it simply sits there.

Ventilation sits alongside the metal itself. A cold deck under zinc without a properly sized ventilated void is the most common cause of underside corrosion, so we design the build-up to BS 5250 and, where the void cannot be made to work, specify a warm construction instead.

Accreditations and Manufacturer Approvals

We hold no trade body membership and claim no approved-installer badge, and we would rather say so plainly than dress it up. What stands behind the work is 36 years on Surrey roofs, full Public Liability Insurance, and a 25-year written workmanship guarantee handed over before the team leaves the site. That guarantee covers repairs and details, not only whole roofs.

The standards we work to are the practical measure of the job. Fixings and wind uplift are calculated to BS 5534. Profiled sheet roofing follows the code of practice published by BSI as BS 5427:2016+A1:2017. Flat and low-pitch metal decks are set out to BS 6229, rainwater sizing to BS EN 12056, and any leadwork in the same detail follows Lead Sheet Association guidance.

Whether you need metal roofing in Godalming or metal roofing services Guildford, we cover the whole area with the same team and the same written guarantee.

Standing Seam Roofing Systems in Godalming

Standing seam is the system most people mean when they ask about a zinc or aluminium roof: continuous panels running from ridge to eaves, joined by an upstanding folded seam that carries no fixings through the weathering plane. The sequence on site is the same every time, and it is worth knowing in order.

Deck, Membrane and Clip Layout

The existing covering comes off and the deck is checked, replaced or overlaid, usually in 18mm WBP plywood on a ventilated batten void. A separation layer goes down, then the clip lines are set out at centres taken from the uplift calculation, tighter at the perimeter and corners than in the field of the roof. Panels are then folded, either in the workshop or on site, and clipped in sequence.

Seams, Welts and Perimeter Details

Seams are closed with a seaming machine, single-lock above 7 degrees and double-lock below. Eaves get a welted drip into the gutter, verges get a folded upstand and capping, and abutments get a soaker and cover flashing rather than mastic. The details are the roof. The flat area between them rarely fails.

Low Pitches and Extension Roofs

Many Godalming jobs are rear extensions, dormers and bay canopies at 3 to 10 degrees. At those pitches the transverse joints, the seam type and the fall itself have to be handled properly, and on anything under 3 degrees we will say honestly that a membrane flat roof is the better answer.

Rainwater Goods and Roof Accessories

A metal roof sheds water fast, and a gutter sized for a tiled pitch will overshoot. Outlets, gutter cross-section and downpipe diameter are calculated to BS EN 12056 against the roof area draining into them, then fitted as one piece of work with the roof rather than left to somebody else.

• Seamless aluminium gutter, rolled on site to the exact run, with no joints to open up along the length
• Half-round and moulded ogee profiles where a period elevation needs the right shadow line
• Zinc or aluminium copings, fascias and soffit closers folded to match the roof panels
• Snow guards on steeper metal pitches above doorways, paths and parking
• Ventilation terminals, soil pipe collars and rooflight kerbs formed in the same metal and dressed in, not sealed over

Riverside and low-lying properties near the Wey and the towpath running through to Farncombe give drainage a harder time, with leaf load and standing damp around eaves, so on those roofs we oversize outlets and use larger downpipes as standard. Whether you need metal roofing in Godalming or a new roof replacement in Godalming, we cover the whole area.

Projects and Case Studies for Godalming Homes

The town gives us two broad kinds of job, and they run differently from the first hour on site.

Victorian and Edwardian Houses on the South Side

Between the bypass and Holloway Hill the character assessment records Victorian and Edwardian detached and semi-detached houses, and on these the metal work is usually a rear extension in standing seam, a zinc bay roof, or new flashings and valleys where slate meets a later addition. Access is tight, scaffold is designed around narrow side returns, and old lime-bedded abutments need cutting out and repointing rather than sealing.

Post-War Estate Housing and Garages

Godalming expanded heavily between 1950 and 1980 with estates at Binscombe, South Hill, Farncombe Hill and Twycross, Bargate Wood and Aarons Hill. Those roofs bring shallow-pitch canopies, integral garages and asbestos-cement sheet outbuildings. Asbestos-cement is assessed and the compliant route advised under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, and the licensed removal itself is not something we carry out.

Work Near the Centre and the Church

Around the green space by the River Wey and the Grade I listed church, roofs are visible from parkland and public paths, so panel direction, seam spacing and the colour of the metal all get agreed on paper first. Where a re-roof triggers the 25% rule under Approved Document L, we set out the insulation upgrade in the quote instead of raising it halfway through.

Domestic and Commercial Installations

On houses the work is mostly zinc and aluminium standing seam over extensions, dormers, porches and bay roofs, plus metal tile sheet where a tired pitched roof needs its load reduced. On commercial and agricultural buildings it is box profile sheet on purlins, sheet-over-sheet overlay where the existing structure allows it, translucent rooflight panels replaced on the same module, and gutter linings.

Both types follow the same four steps: call and speak to a real person at any hour, a free survey with a drone view where it helps, an honest fixed price in writing with no obligation, then the work done and the site left tidy with the guarantee handed over. If a repair will do rather than a full covering, we say so.

If you are looking for a metal roofer close to home in Godalming, our own roofers are working across the Wey Valley most days and can usually get to you quickly. Whether you need metal roofing in Godalming or metal roofing in Woking, we cover the whole area, and the work is done by our own team rather than passed to a subcontractor.

Common Questions About Metal Roofing in Godalming