Re-Roofing and Solar Panels Together in Leicestershire — One Team, One Scaffold

Why doing both at once beats doing them separately

Here's the maths that convinces most people. Scaffolding a typical Leicestershire semi costs several hundred pounds — more for a detached house or anywhere with tricky access. Do the roof this year and solar next year and you pay for that scaffold twice. Do them together and one scaffold serves both trades, which typically saves £500–£1,000+ depending on the property. The bigger saving is the one nobody prices up front. If you put solar on a tired roof and that roof fails in five years, every panel has to come off, the roof gets replaced, and the panels go back on — with you paying for the removal, the refit, the recommissioning and, yes, another scaffold. It's the call no homeowner wants to make five years after their install. There's also a technical bonus: a re-roof is the ideal moment to fit in-roof (integrated) panels, which sit within the roofline instead of on top of it. That option is far simpler and cheaper when the tiles are already coming off. One project, one team, one short spell of disruption instead of two separate rounds of it.

One in-house team for the roof and the solar — no subcontractors

A lot of solar companies will tell you they can "sort the roof too". What that usually means is a subcontracted roofing firm they've never met turning up in a different van. We do it differently: the people stripping your tiles, felting and battening, laying the new roof and fitting the panels are all our own employed team, working to one plan, under one project lead. That matters for more than convenience. When one company owns the whole roof — weatherproofing and solar — there's no gap in responsibility. If anything ever needs attention, you come to one firm and it's our job to put it right, full stop. No roofer blaming the solar installer's fixings, no solar firm blaming the roofer's felt. Energy Concerns is family-run, led by owner Todd Stephens from our base in LE9, and we're MCS certified, RECC members, NAPIT registered and TrustMark approved. The MCS part isn't just a badge on the van: it's what makes your installation eligible for Smart Export Guarantee payments, and it's your assurance the solar side is designed, installed and signed off to national standards.

Every project starts with a drone roof survey

Before we quote anything, we fly a drone over your roof. It sounds like a gimmick; it isn't. Drone photography lets us inspect ridge lines, tile condition, flashings, valleys and chimneys in close-up detail without ladders, without walking on fragile tiles, and without putting scaffold up just to have a look. We get accurate measurements for both the re-roof and the panel layout from the same set of images, and it's simply part of how we survey — not a bolt-on. The survey keeps us honest in both directions. Sometimes it shows a roof genuinely at the end of its life — slipped or delaminating tiles, crumbling mortar, degraded felt — and re-roofing before solar is clearly the right call. Just as often it shows a roof with plenty of years left in it, in which case we'll tell you to keep your money and go straight to a standard on-roof solar install. We'd rather lose a re-roof than sell you one you don't need. For flat roofs, the survey also covers what matters there: usable area, wind exposure and what the deck can carry, so a ballasted or A-frame system can be designed properly from the start.

In-roof, on-roof or solar tiles — an honest comparison

If you're re-roofing anyway, in-roof (integrated) solar is usually the star of the show. The panels sit in GSE-type trays within the roofline, replacing the tiles over that area rather than sitting above them. The finish is flush and clean, there are no brackets penetrating your brand-new tiles, and because the panels form part of the roof covering itself, it's the neatest solar you can buy at sensible money. The honest trade-off: with less airflow behind them, in-roof panels run slightly warmer and yield typically a few per cent less than the same panels mounted on-roof. For most homes, the cleaner look and the untouched new roof are worth those few per cent. On-roof remains the right answer when the roof isn't being replaced, and for flat roofs we use ballasted or A-frame mounting at around 10–15 degrees — ballasted systems need no roof penetrations at all, with wind load and weight checked in the survey. And solar roof tiles, the Tesla Solar Roof style? Clever products, but expensive per kWp compared with in-roof panels and still limited in UK availability. We'll always compare fairly — but on value, in-roof panels win in almost every case we see.

The VAT position, explained straight

This is where we see combined roof-and-solar quotes go wrong — sometimes innocently, sometimes not. The rules in 2026 are:

• The solar and battery installation is zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027 — you pay 0% VAT on that element, including in-roof panels, the inverter and any battery.
• General re-roofing work is standard-rated at 20% VAT. Replacing tiles, felt, battens and flashings on an existing home is not covered by the zero rate, even when it happens in the same project as solar.

So a combined project isn't all VAT-free, and any quote that pretends otherwise should worry you — if it's ever picked apart, it's the homeowner who's left with the problem. Our quotes itemise the two elements clearly: the roofing work with 20% VAT shown, the solar and battery element at 0%. You see exactly what you're paying and why. The zero rate is still a genuinely big saving on the solar side — worth over a thousand pounds on a typical 4kW system compared with paying 20% — and it has an end date. If solar is on your list at all, doing it before 31 March 2027 locks that saving in.

How a combined project runs, start to finish

Every job is a bit different, but the shape is consistent:

• Drone survey and design. We assess the roof, measure up, and design the re-roof and the array together — tile choice, panel layout, inverter and battery position.
• One itemised quote. Roofing element and solar element priced separately (that VAT split again), with the shared scaffold priced once.
• Scaffold up. Day one. It stays up for the whole project and comes down once.
• Strip and re-roof. Old tiles off, timbers inspected while everything is exposed, new membrane, battens and tiles on.
• Panels fitted as the roof goes on. With in-roof systems the trays are built into the new covering — exactly why doing both together works so well.
• Electrical work and commissioning. Inverter, battery if you've chosen one, DNO notification, MCS certificate and a handover pack with the paperwork you need to register for Smart Export Guarantee payments.

Most combined projects are measured in days, not months. The exact schedule depends on roof size, complexity and Leicestershire weather, and we'll give you a realistic timeline before anything is booked — not a guess to win the job.

Who a combined roof-and-solar project suits

The classic candidate is a Leicestershire home with a roof from the 1960s, 70s or 80s that's on borrowed time — concrete tiles going porous, felt gone brittle, the odd slipped tile after every storm. If a solar surveyor has ever told you "the roof needs doing first", this page is for you: rather than juggling a roofer and a solar firm, one team handles the lot. It also suits:

• Anyone planning to stay put. A new roof plus solar is a decades-long package — new covering, long panel warranties, and no scaffolding bills lurking in your future.
• Older properties around Leicester — Victorian terraces and 1930s semis where the original coverings are simply at the end of their life.
• Homes with flat-roof sections, where a ballasted or A-frame array at 10–15 degrees can use space a pitched-roof-only installer would ignore.
• Anyone who wants in-roof solar for the flush look — it's dramatically easier and cheaper to fit while the roof is already off.

If your roof is genuinely sound, we'll say so and quote a straightforward on-roof install instead. The combined project is for roofs that need it — not a package we push on everyone.

What solar actually returns in Leicestershire

Local numbers, honestly stated. In the East Midlands a well-sited system yields around 950–1,050 kWh per kWp per year, so a 4kW array on a south-ish facing Leicestershire roof produces roughly 3,800–4,200 kWh annually — more than many households use in a year. A 4kW installation currently costs around £6,000–£8,000, and at today's electricity prices typical payback works out at roughly 6–9 years, with the panels producing for decades after that. Two things sharpen those numbers. First, using more of your own generation — running the dishwasher and washing machine in daylight, or adding a battery to store the surplus for the evening — shortens payback meaningfully. Second, everything you don't use can be exported and paid for under the Smart Export Guarantee, which requires an MCS-certified installation. Ours are, so you qualify. What we won't do is present sunniest-day figures as if they were averages, or quote payback on tariffs nobody is actually on. When we survey your roof we model your specific orientation, pitch and shading — including the small in-roof yield adjustment if you go integrated — and give you a forecast we're happy to stand behind.