Spray Foam Removal in West Sussex, East Sussex and Surrey

Spray foam in a loft is one of the few things that can stop a house being sold or remortgaged. We remove it by hand across West Sussex, East Sussex and Surrey, stripping the timbers back so the roof can be seen and inspected properly again. We are one of the few roofing companies in the area that take this work on.

Why spray foam causes trouble

Spray foam is applied straight onto the underside of the roof, over the rafters and often over the felt as well. It expands and sets hard, and that is exactly where the problems start. A pitched roof needs air moving through it to carry moisture away. Once foam fills that space, the moisture has nowhere to go and sits against the timber.

The second problem is that nobody can see the roof any more. Foam hides the rafters, the battens and the felt, so the condition of the timber underneath is anybody's guess. Rot can be well advanced before there is any sign of it in the room below.

The mortgage and survey problem

This is the reason most people ring us. Lenders take a dim view of spray foam, and a surveyor who cannot inspect the roof structure will say so in the report. Some lenders decline outright, some want the foam removed before they will lend, and equity release providers are stricter again. It is decided case by case, so it is worth asking your lender or broker what they will accept before you commit to anything.

What is consistent is that a roof nobody can inspect is a roof nobody wants to lend against. Getting the foam off and the timbers visible again is what puts a sale or a remortgage back on track.

How we take it off

There is no quick way to do this and anyone who tells you otherwise is not doing it properly. It is hand work, and the aim is clean timber with the roof left sound.

• We look at the roof first and tell you what type of foam it is, because open cell and closed cell behave very differently and closed cell is far harder to shift.
• The loft is sheeted and protected before anything is disturbed, since this is a dirty job and the debris gets everywhere.
• The foam is cut and scraped off the rafters, battens and felt by hand, working across the roof rather than tearing at it, so the timber underneath is not damaged in the process.
• Waste is bagged and taken away. Spray foam is bulky and there is usually a great deal more of it than people expect.
• Every rafter is checked once it is exposed, and we tell you honestly what we find, including anything that needs replacing.

What usually needs doing afterwards

Removing the foam is rarely the whole job. In most cases the felt underneath has been damaged by the foam or has already perished with age, and once the timbers are exposed it becomes obvious what else the roof needs. That can mean re-felting, or on an older roof a full re-cover.

The loft then needs insulating the way it should have been in the first place, at joist level, with the ventilation paths at the eaves left clear so air can move through the roof again. We will quote for whatever the roof actually needs, and we will tell you if the answer is less than you were expecting.

Getting a price

No two of these jobs are alike, because it depends on the type of foam, how thickly it was applied and the state of the roof underneath. We will come and look, tell you what you are dealing with, and give you a free quote with no obligation.