What is a Tin hat?
A “Tin hat” is the scaffolder’s name for a temporary roof structure.
It is part of the scaffolding that protects the whole roof when exposed to many weather conditions that your house could face when having a loft conversion done. By laying long corrugated aluminium sheets down across the whole area of the roof it protects the house from all potential problems like rain and snow. It’s made of Aluminium so it’s light and easy to carry around but i still cant imagine this being an easy job for a team of scaffolder’s. The picture above shows just how high the scaffolding has to be built up before the tin hat can be laid.
The costs for a tin hat would usually be around £800 to £1000 extra on top of the standard price of scaffolding which will already be included in your quotation/estimate (This price based on a semi detached house @ 5.5m wide)
For bigger jobs that are having major construction works done on or for jobs that the main roof will be open for a considerably long time on is definitely worth paying the extra for. Even if it is just for the peice of mind.
On a detached house the cost could be as much as £2,500 to £3,500 extra. Only because all four of the scoffolding sides will have to be extended up and reinforced over the entire roof area which is a very big job.
Winter would also be a wise time to pay the extra for a tin hat. Please speak to at least two professionals for advise on this before Deciding to pay for this option.
The majority of fitters/builders who build lofts will always prefer to use a Tin hat. Not only does it speed the job up, it also makes their life so much easier instead of trying to guess the next days weather conditions. At night they also know they wont be receiving a dreaded phone call from you at four in the morning saying there’s water coming through the ceilings because they didn’t waterproof the roof properly.
When a tin hat isn’t being used, tarpaulin is the standard product that is. It is perfect for smaller lofts or for doing lofts in the Spring/Summer months. Normally the builder will be able to use tarpaulin to protect against showers and within a 10 minute down fall have the whole roof watertight.
If any water damage are made to the inside of your house as the work is being done the builder should offer to put right any damages made, in the worst cases it should also be covered by their public liability insurance. Do check all this with your company/builder before the work commences and its too late…