This is the most consequential question in roofing, and the industry answers it badly from both directions — firms that sell a new roof to every caller, and patch merchants happy to bill you annually for the same repair. The honest framework is simpler than either: local faults get repairs; systemic faults get replacements. The skill is telling which you have.
Local faults — repair, and repair promptly
A storm takes a dozen tiles. A valley wears through. Flashing lifts at the chimney. These are events, not trends — the roof around them is doing its job. Repairing them properly (our repair services) restores the roof completely, and doing it promptly is what protects the rest: most systemic damage starts as a local fault left open.
Systemic faults — stop patching
The signs the roof is failing as a system: new slips or cracked tiles appearing every season, in different places; underfelt that's brittle and torn wherever you look in the loft; fallen slates with intact nail holes (nail sickness); tile surfaces spalling across whole slopes. Each patch buys months, and each visit costs real money. The repair-subscription trap is spending a re-roof's deposit, one call-out at a time, on a roof that was always going to be replaced.
The arithmetic worth doing
Add three numbers: what you've spent on this roof in five years, what the current repair costs, and an honest estimate of the next five years' patches. Set the total against a re-roofing quotation — remembering a re-roof restarts a 40–80 year clock, while patches don't extend the underlying deadline at all. Sometimes the answer is still "repair" (a sound roof with one bad valley; a house you're leaving within years). The point is deciding with numbers rather than hope.
What we'll tell you
When we inspect, you get a verdict either way: this is a repair, and here's the price — or this covering is done, here's why (with photographs), and here's what replacement involves. A roofer who has never told you a repair is enough isn't diagnosing; he's selling. Start with photos via the contact page.