The questions people actually ask

A straightforward pitched roof of around 150 m² is typically three to six working days on site once the scaffold is up. Add insulation and it becomes six to ten. Add structural repair, dormers, complex valleys or a PV interface and it can reach fifteen. The contract names a start date and a handover date, and if weather moves them we tell you the same day rather than at the end of the week.

It depends entirely on what the work touches, and the honest answer is that nobody can tell you nationally. If you are replacing like with like and nothing structural, energy-related or protected is affected, often not. If the structure, the form, the volume, the energy performance, seismic compliance or a heritage or landscape designation is involved, then usually yes. In Italy this is decided by your comune and region; in Austria by your Bundesland; in Slovenia by how the intervention is classified under GZ-1. We establish it during the survey and tell you before you commit to anything.

Only if we find something the survey could not see, and only with your written approval first. The most common case by far is decayed timber under the covering. When that happens you get the photograph, the metre rate agreed in the contract, and the total before anyone cuts anything. We price timber repair per metre in every contract precisely so this cannot become an open-ended bill.

Almost always, yes. The roof is opened and closed in sections so the building is weathertight every evening, and interior access is only needed where we are working inside the loft. It is noisy, there is a scaffold outside your windows, and there will be dust in the loft — but you will not need to move out. Flat roof works over a habitable room are the usual exception, and we tell you in advance if yours is one.

Repair when the covering has real service life left and the failure is localised — a slipped tile, a failed flashing, one bad valley. Replace when you are repairing the same roof repeatedly, when the battens or membrane have failed generally, or when you are about to spend money on a repair that will be demolished within five years anyway. Our survey report gives you a realistic remaining service life and prices both routes, so you can see the actual trade-off rather than being steered toward the bigger job.

On published guides, a full replacement runs roughly €80–150/m² in Slovenia, €120–200/m² in Italy and €100–160/m² in Austria, before insulation. On a 150 m² reference roof that is about €12,000–22,500, €18,000–30,000 and €15,000–24,000 respectively. Adding insulation pushes the Italian figure toward a €36,000 midpoint and the Austrian premium case toward €45,000. These are benchmark bands compiled from national cost guides, not quotations — the scope behind them varies enormously, which is exactly why we publish three fixed packages instead.

Because they are rarely for the same work. One quote includes strip-out, disposal, new battens, a breather membrane, calculated fastening and all sheet-metal work; another quotes tiles laid onto whatever is already there. Both say "new roof". The difference shows up in year eight. Compare specifications line by line, and if a quote does not name the membrane, the batten size, the fastening pattern and the flashing material, it is not a specification.

Yes, a fixed fee — and we credit it in full against your project if you go ahead with us. A free survey is a sales visit whose cost is inside the quotation anyway. Charging for it means the survey gets the two or three hours it needs and is done properly, and it produces a written report you can take to another contractor if you would rather.

A deposit on signature against the confirmed dates and the materials order, a stage payment when the roof is stripped and the structure has been made good, and the balance on documented handover. We do not ask for the full amount up front and you should be wary of anyone who does. Financing options are available in each market.

It depends on how the work is classified, and the answer surprises people. Replacing a covering with the same materials, swapping damaged tiles and renewing waterproofing all count as ordinary maintenance, which on a single dwelling is not deductible — it is deductible only on the common parts of a condominio. The relief applies when the roof forms part of a wider extraordinary maintenance or renovation, because the higher category absorbs the lower. Where it does apply, 2026 gives 50% on a main residence and 36% otherwise, over ten instalments, capped at €96,000 of spend per unit, with a further total ceiling for higher incomes. That classification is a technical exercise the roofer has to get right. We produce the technical pack; your accountant or tax adviser files it. We do not give tax advice and you should not take any from a roofing company.

There is no correct national answer, and anyone who gives you one without a calculation is guessing. The right layer depends on your rafter depth, the covering going back on, the climate at your address and the requirement legally in force there — which in Austria can differ across a provincial border because each Bundesland adopts the OIB directives in its own version. We calculate the build-up against the applicable requirement and show you the calculation.

Badly detailed insulation absolutely can — and it is one of the most common ways a well-intentioned energy upgrade damages a building. Warm moist air reaching a cold surface inside the construction condenses there, and if the vapour control layer is interrupted at every cable and pipe, that is where it happens. We run an interstitial condensation assessment before issuing the specification, and the airtightness detailing is priced as a real line item rather than assumed.

Yes, and sometimes it is the right call — if the covering has fifteen years left, opening the roof to insulate would be waste. But between-rafter insulation leaves a thermal bridge at every rafter, costs you headroom, and makes a continuous vapour control layer very difficult around every existing penetration. If the covering is being replaced anyway, above-rafter is the better construction by a wide margin and the marginal cost is much lower than doing it as a separate project later.

Solar-ready is the roof side of the interface: the structural capacity check, the mounting grid fitted while the roof is open, waterproofed penetrations, the cable route, fire and access provision, and a setting-out drawing. It contains no panels. Solar is the array itself — modules, inverter, DC and AC works, metering and grid application — which in Italy runs around €9,000–10,000 for a typical 4 kW residential system before incentives on published figures. We quote them separately, always, so you can see what each actually costs.

With most roofers, fitting an array afterwards means someone lifting your covering and drilling through your waterproofing — and yes, that routinely ends the roof guarantee, or at least ends any useful argument about who caused a leak. On a RoofPruf Solar-Ready Roof, we install the brackets and flash the penetrations ourselves as part of the roof, and you get written confirmation that a compliant array on those fixings leaves the roof warranty intact. Where we install both roof and array, there is one warranty boundary and one party responsible.

Usually, but it has to be checked rather than assumed — and the panel weight is often not the governing case. Wind uplift on a raised array and the combination of array plus snow load frequently matter more. We run the load case against your actual rafter dimensions, spacing and span, together with the snow and wind actions at your location. Where the structure needs strengthening, we tell you before you buy panels rather than after.

No. The recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive pushes new buildings toward solar readiness across the EU, and its general transposition deadline passed on 29 May 2026 — but national implementation is uneven, and Italy in particular has not yet transposed it, so nothing has changed there operationally. The directive does not oblige any existing house to install PV. What it does mean is that a roof you build today will very likely outlive the decision — which is the argument for preparing it, not a legal requirement to fit panels.

We do not publish an attendance window. We have not measured one, and a figure invented for a website is worse than no answer at all — which is also why there is no round-the-clock number: a line nobody picks up at three in the morning is worse than no line. Mark the enquiry urgent in the form, or write to hello@roofpruf.com with photographs and what is happening, and we come back with what we can do and when. If water is coming in now, do what is safe from inside and stay off the roof.

Three questions, and ask them early: what evidence does the policy require, in what form, and whose evidence will it be treated as — your own, or somebody with a particular qualification? The answers vary between policies and they decide what is worth doing and in what order, including whether anything should be left undisturbed until it has been looked at. Keep your own notes and ordinary photographs from a safe position while you wait. We are not loss adjusters and we do not act for you, so we will not tell you how your policy will respond; asking your insurer directly is faster and more reliable than asking a roofer to guess.

Move what you can out of the way, put a container under the drip, and if water is anywhere near light fittings or a consumer unit, turn that circuit off. Do not go into the loft in the dark or onto the roof in wind or rain — most serious roof injuries happen to homeowners investigating, not to roofers working. Photograph everything, including the ceiling stain, for your insurer. Then get in touch — the enquiry form marked urgent, or hello@roofpruf.com.

Clay tile roofs commonly reach 50 years and beyond, concrete tile 40 to 60, standing-seam metal 50 or more, and bitumen shingle 25 to 35. Manufacturers back these with long product guarantees — 33 years on ceramic tile, 30-year system guarantees, 40 years on some aluminium products. But the covering is rarely what fails first. Battens, membrane, flashings and fixings determine whether you reach those numbers, which is why we specify and photograph them rather than talking only about the tile.

From condition, not age. We look at the state of the covering itself, whether the battens and membrane are intact, how the flashings and abutments have weathered, whether the ventilation path is working, moisture readings at the points where water collects, and any structural deflection. A forty-year-old roof that was built well and ventilated properly can have fifteen years left; a fifteen-year-old roof with a failed membrane and no ventilation may not have five.

Titanium zinc, aluminium, copper and coated steel differ in service life, cost and how they weather. The important rule is compatibility: copper runoff onto aluminium will destroy it, so the rainwater system has to be specified as one compatible set rather than assembled from whatever is cheapest per metre. Sizing matters as much as material — gutters and downpipes should be sized from the catchment area and the design rainfall for your location, not copied from what was there before.

If you are in an alpine or pre-alpine location and snow can release onto an entrance, a path, a car or a neighbour, then yes — treat it as a safety system rather than an accessory. They are sized from the local snow load and the friction of the covering, positioned by calculation, and fixed into the structure rather than into the batten. Smooth coverings such as metal and glazed tile shed snow far more readily than textured ones, so the covering choice changes the answer.

A properly built warm-roof build-up with a quality membrane and correct falls should give 25 to 30 years or more. Flat roofs get their bad reputation from cold-roof constructions, nominal falls that leave water standing, and detailing at upstands and outlets that was cut to win the job. The membrane is rarely the problem. The junctions are.

Yes. Water that cannot drain accelerates the degradation of everything it touches — membrane surface, laps, sealants and upstand terminations — and adds load the deck may not have been designed for. Where the deck cannot be re-laid, we build the falls into tapered insulation set out from the outlet positions. A "nominal fall" that ponds is not a fall.

If the structure supports the saturated load, yes — and a saturated extensive build-up is far heavier than the dry figure people quote. It needs a root-resistant membrane, a properly designed drainage and retention layer, and accessible outlets that will actually be maintained. We check the structural case first and are straightforward when the answer is no.

We are, for the work we did, under our ten-year workmanship guarantee — one contract, one documented boundary of responsibility. Where we installed both the roof and a solar array, that single boundary covers both, so you are never in the position of a roofer and a solar company pointing at each other. Manufacturer product guarantees sit behind ours and we hold those relationships so you do not have to.

Two to three hours on site for a typical house, including the drone flight and the loft inspection. The written report follows once any structural or permit check it depends on is finished, and the three package quotations follow the report. We confirm both dates in writing after the survey rather than publish a window we have not measured.

Whoever does it works to one written specification, and the contract names the party answerable for it before anything starts. In Austria the roofing trade is regulated: the law requires a trade authorisation and a named responsible person behind the work, so ask to see that authorisation before you appoint anybody, us included. What we never do is broker a job to whoever happens to be free that week.

Yes. The workmanship guarantee and the full documentation dossier transfer to the new owner. It is worth more than it sounds: a buyer’s surveyor looking at a roof with photographic evidence of every hidden layer, the fastening record and the thermal calculation has nothing to write a retention against.