Use it as a to-do list in the fortnight before the scaffold arrives. Each section ends in something you can do now: a call to make, a space to clear or a question to put to your roofer.
A lot of the difficulty with roof work comes from surprises. A neighbour who finds a scaffold outside their window with no warning is cross for the whole job. A loft full of boxes slows everything down on day one. A dog shut in a back room barks through the strip. None of these is the roofer's fault, and none of them is hard to head off if somebody thinks about it early.
The roof itself is the roofer's business, and the survey, the materials and the method are settled before you start. What belongs to you is the building around it: the street, the neighbours, the contents of the loft and the household's routine. Some of that is law. A scaffold standing on the pavement requires Kent County Council's licence, a shared chimney stack can raise a party wall question, and nests or bats change what may be done and when.
The sections below follow the order in which things come up, starting with the people who will notice the work and ending with what a normal day on site looks like. Work through them in the fortnight before the start date and the first morning should go quietly.
Tell the neighbours before the scaffold goes up
A scaffold changes how a street looks and, for a while, how it works. It may narrow the pavement, shade a window or sit beside someone's front door. A short note through the doors a week or two ahead, with the start date and the expected length of the job, prevents most of the friction that follows. Add a phone number they can ring if something worries them.
It is worth calling on anyone whose home touches yours, because a roof meets the neighbour's roof at the party wall, and noise and dust travel through both. A neighbour who has been told knows what to expect. One who has not been told can make the job awkward.
What the note should say:
- when the scaffold arrives and when it leaves
- the days when the work will be loudest, such as the strip
- where the skip will stand and for how long
- who to ring about a problem, and a name for them to ask for
Neighbours also like to know the work has an end, so give a finish date and say if weather may move it. If the scaffold will sit on the pavement outside several houses, mention that too. People with prams, mobility scooters or deliveries on the way need to plan for a narrower route.
Neighbours who rent or run a business from the building are easy to overlook. A shop beneath a flat roof, or a landlord next door whose tenant never sees the post, is worth a personal call as well as a note.
The scaffold licence and the skip permit
Under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, any scaffold that obstructs the highway must have a licence, and across our patch Kent County Council grants it. Kent County Council's guidance has the scaffolders submit it on your behalf. Ask your roofer to confirm that it is in, and the date it was lodged, because the whole programme hangs on it.
The figures that govern the timing and cost:
- Scaffold notice: apply 5 working days ahead of the start.
- Scaffold fee: £52 per week in 2026 to 2027, charged by Kent County Council.
- Skip permit fee: £45 per week in 2026 to 2027.
- Skip notice: 5 working days ahead of delivery.
- Skip size: no more than 5 metres long or 2 metres wide, and a skip placed on the pavement itself needs separate permission from the council and must leave a 1.5 metre walkway.
Kent County Council also sets conditions for the scaffold itself. These include a 1.2 metre minimum gap to the carriageway, uprights painted white for at least 2.5 metres from pavement level, and night lighting for any scaffold standing in or within 45 cm of the carriageway.
These permits are the roofer's to arrange, but the dates only work if you have settled yours. A start date that moves without notice moves the licence too. For a question before anything is lodged, ring the highways line on 03000 41 81 81.
Party walls, shared stacks and written consent
Roof work usually stays on your side of the boundary. It stops doing so when the job touches a wall or structure you share, such as a chimney breast on a party wall. Party wall questions go to a party wall surveyor, not to building control and not to the roofer.
Section 2(2)(g) of the 1996 Party Wall etc. Act covers cutting away the flue, the jamb or the breast where it projects from a party wall, but only after notice has been served. Section 3 sets a minimum of two months between that notice and the start of the work.
The rules around consent are worth knowing:
- Written consent from the adjoining owners and occupiers can stand in for the formal route, under section 3(3)(a).
- A neighbour who stays silent has not agreed, according to GOV.UK, so a lack of reply is never consent.
- Where you and the neighbour cannot agree, GOV.UK's party wall guidance says a surveyor must then be appointed to handle the dispute.
- Dover District Council notes that an adjoining owner may agree to the works starting sooner than two months.
Settle any early start in writing and never with a nod over the fence. A signed note takes a minute and prevents an argument later.
Our answer on party wall notices for roof work goes into who serves what, and when. Raise the question at the survey so the programme leaves room for the notice period.
Clearing the loft and the rooms underneath
A roof strip or a repair from inside needs access, and the less you leave to be moved, the better the first day goes. Roofers can shift stored belongings, but they are not removal men, and anything fragile or valuable is safer with you.
Before the start date, go through the house in this order:
- Clear the loft hatch and the landing beneath it, so that people and materials can pass.
- Move boxes, luggage and furniture away from the eaves and from under valleys, where a leak or a falling piece is most likely to land.
- Take pictures, mirrors and ornaments off the walls and shelves on the top floor, because vibration shakes things loose.
- Cover or remove anything on the top floor that dust would spoil, such as beds, clothes and electronics.
- Tell the roofer where the stopcock and the consumer unit are, in case a pipe or cable is found.
A strip lets dust fall through the ceilings below. Dust sheets over the top-floor furniture and a shut bedroom door help, and so does emptying the wardrobes against the outside walls.
If the loft holds old insulation, boarding or sheeting from before 2000, tell the roofer before the work starts. The HSE tells owners to treat any property built or refurbished before 2000 as possibly containing asbestos, and it describes asbestos cement roofs as always fragile. Do not disturb any such material yourself.
Pets, children, parking and the working day
Roof work is loud and the loudest part is often the strip, when old battens and slates come off and go down to the skip. A dog or cat that normally sleeps through the day can become distressed, and a pet that bolts through an open door while materials are carried in is at risk. Plan where the animals will be, such as a friend's house, a kennel or a room as far from the work as possible, and tell the roofer if a cat roams the roof or the garden.
Children need the same thinking. A garden under a roof is a site for the duration, and the area below the scaffold is out of bounds. Keep the garden door shut and the play area clear until the scaffold is struck.
Parking is the other practical question:
- Leave space for the skip and for the delivery of materials.
- Keep your own car clear of the front of the house, where slates and debris can fall.
- Ask neighbours with a drive next to yours to move vehicles on the delivery day.
- If a skip is going on the road, the permit above names the position.
If birds are nesting under the eaves, or you have seen bats near the roof, say so before the survey. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (section 1) makes an occupied nest, or one still being built, an offence to damage intentionally. The law gives bat roosts full protection, and GOV.UK's bat guidance counts roof repairs and replacements among the jobs that may disturb a roost. Our answers on roof work and nesting birds and on bats in the roof cover what to do.
What each day looks like, and what you are told
Roof work follows a rhythm, and knowing it helps you plan around the household. The first day belongs to the scaffold and the protection. Materials arrive and are stacked, the skip goes into place, and the roofer checks the loft and ceilings below.
After that, a roof strip runs slope by slope. The old covering comes off one section at a time, and each section is made weathertight before the roofer leaves, so a surprise shower does not find an open roof. Battens and underlay follow, then the covering, then the ridge, the verges and the lead at valleys, chimneys and abutments.
You should be told what happens each day, and a good roofer will tell you without being asked. Expect:
- a plain account each morning of the slope or detail that day's work covers
- a call if the weather changes the plan, with a revised day
- a word if the timbers show anything the survey could not see
- a tidy site each evening, with waste sorted into the skip
When the work ends, the scaffold comes down, the drive and gutters are cleared of what the job dropped, and the skip is collected. Expect photos of the finished roof, since the survey began with photos of your own roof.
Our roofing across Thanet and East Kent runs this way, and one written total price covers the job from survey to the last tidy.
