Re-thatching cost and estimates

[James_hants]

Hi all,

We bought a cob/brick thatched house back in 2019 and had the ridge rethatched just after we bought it. The roof itself now needs doing and we got a price from the same thatcher which has come out a lot higher than expected, to say the least! I was expecting something around £30k or so tops and it's come in at £50K.

The house is quite a long, thin house, one room wide and the outside dimensions are around 19.5m x 5.5m with around 5m from the bottom of thatch to the ridge. 2 chimneys, one 'eyebrow' above the window on the back. I've not discussed the cost with my thatcher yet, but just wanted to get a feel if people here think it's reasonable for the size of house and probably materials have gone up a lot in recent times. The house is located in Hampshire.

The thatcher also wants a lot of the money up front to buy materials which I hadn't really considered. Is this normal practice and would you expect any protection for this money from a thatcher largely working on his own or with an a helper? i.e not a big company. I'd be looking at around £30-35K in advance. I've no reason to think my thatcher is anything less than straight up, but not having been through this before wanted to check if this is normal practice.

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jim.

 

[stuart45]

It doesn't surprise me that it's 50K. Mine's about 10metres long with 2 rounded porches and 2 eyebrows and would have been around 30K, but my mate's a thatcher and I helped him, so it was a lot cheaper. I did give him 4K upfront for materials though. A bundle of water reed is around £6 now.

 

[TudorCottage]

Thread 'Let The Fun Begin'
https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/threads/let-the-fun-begin.18313/

Take a look at this thread I posted when ours was rethatched in December 2023 for comparison.
That was £34k. We paid our Thatcher 50% after 2 weeks and the remaining 50% on completion.

With prices that seem to be on a constant upward trend these days, I would say that price seems ok by comparison.

Have you tried other Thatchers for a comparison? Not easy in a diminishing trade.

 

[Cubist]

A few (four) years back we replaced the ridge of this old place which was approaching end of life. As always I insisted on getting three written quotations to get both a complete statement of all works together with any conditions or requirements the contractor may desire from us. Besides this vitally important data the quotation process also allows me to satisfy a couple of hidden objectives insofar that I like to look the other fellow directly in the eye to help me discern if he/she may be trying to pull the wool over my eyes and also so that I can get a good look at the transport he/she used to get here.

I ended up up opting for the middle quotation of £3500 as I had discounted the lowest £3000 because that chap couldn't meet my gaze and dismissed the more expensive £10,000 quote because that guy arrived in a brand new top of the range Range Rover.

For our money, Tom the thatcher, stripped and replaced the ridge, installed new netting, swept and re-shaped the main reed thatch and disposed of all the rubbish. All done by himself alone in three days and using ladders only - no need for weeks of scaffold hire for that guy. If I have anything to do with it he will be back in about 10 years time to do the full roof which he says will not need to be fully stripped as it will just need a top finishing coat over any small sections that may need particular attention - heavy rainwater run-off from around chimneys and the like can cause greater erosion in restricted areas.