Felt Roofing Cambridge

Felt roofing

Particularly popular for flat roof projects, felt roofing is a practical and neat solution. It’s also lightweight, relatively simple to install and cost-effective too, so it’s definitely something to consider. Another benefit of felt roofing is that it can be easily adapted to fit a variety of different roof types, so if you have a uniquely shaped home, a felt roof might be something to consider.

The team here at Roofing Cambridge has plenty of experience installing felt roofs, and can do it quickly and accurately, causing your family or your business minimal disruption.

Felt roof repairs & maintenance

While felt roofing tends to be fairly inexpensive and simple to install, it can also be quite prone to weather damage and may require fairly regular maintenance to ensure it looks its best. If you have a felt roof that has become damaged or just needs some TLC, the Roofing Cambridge team can offer a convenient felt roofing maintenance service to ensure it’s always looking its best. Remember: we offer a 5-year warranty on all repairs, so you get complete peace of mind when you choose us.

For more information about felt roofing installation or felt roofing repairs, all you have to do is give us a call. We are based in Cambridge and work across the city and the surrounding villages.

Modern felt is not the felt you remember

Old felt roofs were often a single thin layer nailed to a shed, or built up in layers stuck down with hot bitumen from a boiler. Modern felt roofing is a system of reinforced bitumen membranes, usually two or three layers bonded to the deck. A base layer goes down first and a heavier cap sheet finishes the roof, with a mineral-chip surface that shields the bitumen from sunlight.

Most systems are laid torch-on: the underside of each roll is softened with a gas torch and bonded as it unrolls. Where a naked flame would be a fire risk, such as against timber fascias or under eaves, we switch to self-adhesive or cold-applied membranes and follow safe hot-works practice throughout.

Where is felt still the right choice?

Felt has lost ground to EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass on house extensions, but it still earns its place:

• Garages, sheds and outbuildings – where the lowest upfront cost matters most.
• Porches, bay roofs and canopies – small roofs with lots of edges, where torch-on felt dresses neatly into upstands.
• Like-for-like re-covers – when the rest of the roof is felt and a matching repair is the sensible fix.
• Tight budgets – felt costs roughly £50–£80 per m² to lay, against £80–£100 for EPDM.

Plenty of garages on Cambridge’s post-war estates, from Arbury to King’s Hedges, still have their first roofs. Some are corrugated cement sheet rather than felt, and the HSE warns that cement roofing on buildings from before 2000 can contain asbestos, so we check before anything is cut or lifted.

How long does a felt roof last in Cambridge?

Checkatrade puts a properly installed and maintained felt roof at 15–20 years. In Cambridge, heat is a bigger enemy than rain. East Anglia is the UK’s driest region, yet our summers are hard on bitumen: the Botanic Garden recorded 38.7 °C in July 2019, then the UK’s highest temperature, and in summer 2025 East Anglia was the warmest and sunniest district in the country. Sun and heat dry out the bitumen until it cracks, crazes and blisters, and around 40 frosty nights a year open those cracks a little further.

Water ponding on a roof without enough fall, bald patches where the chippings have worn off, and regular foot traffic all shorten a felt roof’s life. Our guide to how long a flat roof lasts covers the warning signs.

Felt, EPDM or GRP: an honest comparison

We fit all three, so there is no reason for us to push one. Here is how they compare:

	Torch-on felt	EPDM rubber	GRP fibreglass
Typical cost of covering, per m²	£50–£80	£80–£100	£95–£120
Typical lifespan	15–20 years	30–50 years	25–30 years
Strengths	Cheapest upfront; neat on small, detailed roofs	One seamless sheet; copes with heat and movement	Very hard-wearing; good for foot traffic and complex shapes
Weak spots	Ages in heat; blisters; shortest life	Can be punctured	Can crack in very cold weather, as it is less flexible

Prices and lifespans are from Checkatrade’s 2025/26 flat roof guides. Spread over its life, EPDM usually works out cheaper per year than felt on a house extension, while felt still makes sense on a garage or shed when the budget is tight. Read more on our EPDM rubber roofing and GRP fibreglass roofing pages, or see every option on our flat roofing page.

Patch repair or full re-felt?

A patch repair makes sense when the damage is local, such as a split, a lifted edge or a failed upstand, and the deck underneath is dry and firm. Re-felting is better when the felt is blistered or cracked all over, leaks keep appearing in new places, the deck feels spongy, or the roof is past 15 years old.

On a full re-felt we strip the old covering, replace any rotten boards, then lay the new system with proper upstands, drip trims and outlets. Locally, 3C Building Control lists replacement roofs as work needing approval even where only the felt is new, and once more than half the roof is renewed, the insulation needs upgrading to current standards as well.

Re-felting under tiles is a different job

“Roofing felt” also means the underlay beneath the tiles or slates of a pitched roof. On older houses it is a black bitumen sheet; modern roofs use breathable membranes. When that underlay perishes, usually tearing at the eaves or sagging between rafters, rain blown under the tiles reaches the loft.

Fixing it means lifting the tiles or slates, replacing the underlay and battens, and relaying the covering, which is in effect re-roofing that slope. Checkatrade puts re-felting a whole pitched roof at £2,300–£7,300, averaging about £4,800. It is a job for our pitched roofs team rather than a flat roof repair, and if the tiles are tired too, it is often the moment for a full replacement.