Roofers insurance in Manchester

Manchester roofing splits between three jobs that barely resemble one another. There are the endless Victorian and Edwardian terraced streets on Welsh slate, with shared valleys and party walls and no gap between one roof and the next. There are the converted mills and warehouses, where a single roof can cover an acre and every square metre of it sits over a fitted-out floor. And there are the industrial estates, where the work is single-ply and built-up felt, plant on the roof and fragile rooflights underfoot.

The claim that ends up costing is almost never the fall. It is water reaching a fitted-out floor, or fire on a mill roof. A hundred-year-old internal box gutter behind a parapet, opened up on a wet week in a city that genuinely does rain, will do more damage in one night than the whole contract was worth.

Apex is a Bristol-based commercial broker. We arrange roofing cover shaped to what is under the roof, not just what is on it, placed by a named broker who will present the risk to insurers who actually write the trade.

Key covers for roofers

• Public liability — injury or damage from your work, including water into a fitted-out floor beneath a mill or warehouse roof, and materials reaching a busy pavement in the city centre — often £5m–£10m.
• Employers’ liability — legally required for employed staff and labour-only sub-contractors, which covers most crews.
• Tools and equipment — theft of access equipment, welding and hot-air kit, gas bottles and power tools from site, scaffold or van.
• Contract works — your work in progress against storm, water and vandalism before hand-over. On a large single-ply re-cover that stays open for weeks, this is not an optional extra.
• Hot works — torch-on, bitumen and hot-air work on flat and mill roofs, subject to permit and fire-watch conditions that insurers enforce strictly on commercial buildings.
• Professional indemnity — where you are specifying build-ups, insulation values or falls, which is increasingly common on commercial re-covers.
• Personal accident — optional cover if injury stops you working.

Manchester roofs, Manchester risks

The city’s building stock is dense, largely Victorian and industrial in origin, and much of it has been converted to a use its roof was never designed for. That is where the roofing risk sits.

• Terraced streets on slate. Byelaw terraces run in continuous rows with shared valleys and abutting party walls. Nail fatigue and slipped slate on a hundred-year-old covering means the true scope is often bigger than the quote, and a neighbour’s roof is always within reach of your ladder.
• Converted mills and warehouses. Large roof areas, internal box and parapet gutters, and floors below that have been fitted out at real expense as flats, offices or studios. The value under the roof, not the roof, sets the size of the claim.
• Industrial estates and sheds. Profiled sheet, single-ply and built-up felt over occupied units, with roof-mounted plant, fragile rooflights and corroded decking. Fragile surfaces are where roofing falls actually happen.
• Working over the public highway. City-centre and inner-suburb work means scaffold, hoists and pedestrian protection on streets that are never quiet, with licences and highway conditions attached.

Rain, gutters and what sits underneath

A genuinely wet climate. Manchester’s reputation for rain is not unearned, and it changes the risk arithmetic on every open roof. Programmes run longer, temporary coverings are load-tested more often, and the chance that weather arrives while a roof is stripped is simply higher than it is in the east.

Internal and box gutters. Mills, warehouses and parapeted terraces take water away inside the building envelope. When those fail or block during works, the water does not run down an outside wall — it lands on a floor someone is paying rent for. Establishing whether the defect pre-dated your visit is often the whole argument.

Occupied buildings below. Converted flats, offices and studios mean the building carries on being used while you work. That drives the public liability limit, the evidence of cover a managing agent will demand, and the likelihood of a business interruption element attached to any water claim.

Compliance considerations for roofers

Work at Height Regulations 2005 duties — edge protection, roof ladders and crawling boards, and a written method for every job that leaves the ground.

Fragile-surface duties — rooflights, cement sheet and corroded profiled decking are where most roofing falls actually happen, and underwriters ask how you deal with them.

Hot-works permit and fire-watch conditions imposed by insurers wherever torch-on felt, bitumen boilers or heat guns are used. The fire watch after you pack up is the condition most often broken.

CDM 2015 duties on larger contracts — you may hold principal contractor duties on a re-roof that involves more than one trade.

Scheme membership evidence — NFRC, CompetentRoofer or equivalent, where you hold it, along with your Building Regulations notification route for re-covering work.

What can go wrong

An internal box gutter on a converted mill is disturbed during works and overflows into an office floor below — public liability, and a large one once fit-out and interruption are counted.

Torch-on or hot-air work on a mill or warehouse roof ignites old bitumen or timber in a deck — a hot-works claim, decided on the permit and the fire watch.

A roofer falls through a corroded rooflight on an industrial re-cover — employers’ liability, with RIDDOR reporting and an HSE investigation.

Slates or tools drop from a scaffold onto a busy pavement — public liability, and a severe claim where there is footfall.

A single-ply roof is left partly complete when a front comes through — contract works, subject to how the roof was secured overnight.

Hot-air welders, gas bottles and access equipment stolen from a compound or a van — tools cover, subject to the security conditions.

Frequently asked questions

Most of my work is commercial flat roofing. Is that priced differently to domestic?

It is assessed differently. Hot works, the size of a single roof area, whether the building stays occupied, and the value of the fit-out beneath all matter more than the square metres. A commercial roofer with good permit discipline and a clear method statement usually gets a better reception than the trade code alone suggests.

What happens when a gutter that was already blocked floods a floor during my works?

It becomes an argument about causation, and the file decides it. Photographs of the gutter before you started, a note of what you reported to the client, and a record of what you did to keep the roof watertight overnight are worth more than any policy wording when that claim arrives.

Do I need cover for the fit-out underneath the roof?

Not directly — the building owner insures that. But your public liability is what responds if you damage it, so on converted mills, offices and city-centre flats the limit needs to reflect what is under the roof rather than the value of your contract.

Are fragile rooflights really that big a deal?

Yes. Falls through fragile surfaces are one of the main causes of serious roofing injuries, and it is the first thing an underwriter and an HSE inspector will ask about on industrial work. Covers, staging and a clear rule about never walking a sheet roof unprotected are what a good submission is built on.

Do I need employers’ liability for self-employed roofers?

In almost all cases yes. Labour-only sub-contractors working under your control are treated as employees for compulsory insurance. Only genuinely independent firms working to their own methods sit outside it.

Why do mainstream insurers decline roofers?

Because working at height and hot works together produce severe claims, and many insurers avoid the trade rather than underwrite it. It is a market-access problem, which is what a specialist broker is for.

Related

• Roofers insurance
• Public liability insurance explained
• Employers’ liability insurance explained
• Underinsurance check
• Areas we cover