We Took the Roof Off Completely

In the middle of October, two of our buildings in Seixal spent a few days without a roof. The tiles were stacked along the ridge, the old timber grid stood open to the sky, and from up there you could see the whole terrace running down towards the river.

This is what that work actually involves, and what it costs.

Rua Cândido dos Reis, Seixal — eight homes across the two buildings.

The street

B027 and B028 sit side by side on Rua Cândido dos Reis, a few minutes' walk from the Seixal waterfront and the boat to Lisbon. Four homes in each. The façades are the ones you see above: old, well-proportioned, each with its own front door onto the street.

Buildings like these are the reason we work in Greater Lisbon rather than only in Lisbon. They are solid, they sit in real neighbourhoods, and what they need is attention rather than reinvention.

What we found

Both roofs had been repaired more than once before we bought them. Patching is the cheap answer in the moment, and we understand why it happens — a leak appears, someone fixes that leak, everyone moves on.

The trouble is that a patch tells you nothing about the wood underneath it. Once the tiles came off, the picture was clear. The tiles themselves were mostly fine. The decking below had taken water over years, and the flues and edge details had been built up in layers by different hands at different times.

Left: the open timber grid, seen from below. Right: the old tiles, stacked and ready to come down.

What we did

We replaced the whole thing rather than the failed parts.

• New decking across the entire roof area of both buildings, not just the sections that had given way.
• A breathable underlay laid over it, so any water that gets past a tile runs out instead of sitting on the wood.
• New flues, rebuilt properly rather than patched around.
• New edge details where the roof meets the party walls — the junctions where leaks usually start.

The roof open across both buildings, October 2026.

The numbers

The roof work across the two buildings comes to around 35.000 €, of which we have paid roughly half so far. Seixal parish council approved 5.000 € towards the licensing side. Common areas are next: the steps, the mailboxes and the intercom.

We publish figures like these because they are the useful part. A roof is not a feature you can photograph for a listing, and no tenant will ever walk in and admire it. Someone moving in next year will look up and see a ceiling, and that will be the end of their interest in the subject — which is exactly the result we were paying for.

Why do it this way

A patched roof passes the eye test and fails quietly, usually in the worst week of February. A replaced roof costs more on the day and then asks nothing of anyone for decades. When you hold buildings for the long term rather than trading them, the second option is simply cheaper.

It is also the difference between a home that feels looked after and one that feels managed at arm's length. We would rather our tenants never had to think about the roof at all.

What is the repair in your own building that keeps getting patched instead of fixed?

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