The short answer
Repointing ridge tiles is enough when the bed underneath is firm, the tiles do not move and only the pointed face has weathered. If the tiles rock, the bed is hollow or crumbling, or nothing but mortar holds them, repointing only hides the fault and a rebed is needed. MyBuilder's guide, updated August 2026, puts repointing at £200 to £400.
What repointing does and does not do
Repointing means raking out the loose, weathered mortar at the ends of each ridge tile and filling the joint again with fresh material. It restores the face, keeps rain out of the end of the bed and brings back a clean line along the crown of the roof. What it cannot do is change anything behind that face.
That is the entire question. If the bed behind the pointing is solid, a new face can give it years more. If the bed has shrunk, crumbled or let go of the tile, the new pointing is stuck to nothing, and it will crack again, often within a season or two.
The work is cheap to do and cheap to get wrong, because a neat new face can make a failing ridge look healthy for a few months.
It helps to think of the pointing as a coat of paint on a wall. A fresh coat is worth having on sound plaster and worthless on plaster that is blowing off the brick.
Signs that repointing is enough
Repointing is a reasonable repair when several things are true together. The tiles are level and do not shift when tested. The joints show thin cracks or surface wear, but the mortar behind them is firm when scraped. There are no missing sections and no daylight under any tile. There is also no brown staining on the ceiling below or damp in the roof space.
We check by gentle testing and by looking at what comes out of the joint. Hard grey mortar that stays in one piece is a good sign. Sandy, powdery material that falls out in crumbs is not. Our page on why ridge mortar cracks explains the causes behind those crumbs.
Plenty of ridges pass this test after twenty or so winters, particularly sheltered ones, so a repoint is often the right answer, and it should not be oversold in either direction.
Signs that you need a rebed
A tile that rocks under light pressure, a gap running along its length, mortar missing from the middle of the joint or tiles that have slipped out of line all point beyond repointing. So do stains on the ceiling below and damp timber near the ridge in the roof space.
There is the fixing question too. BS 5534:2014 looks for a clip, bracket or screw as well as the bed under ridge and hip tiles, so a ridge that has only ever had mortar needs a fixing added, and that means lifting the tiles. A full rebed with fixings, or a dry-fix ridge, is the proper repair in that case.
See ridge tile fallen off for what to do when a tile has already gone. A gap like that is the clearest signal that the neighbouring tiles deserve a closer look.
Costs and what the difference means
MyBuilder's roof guide, updated in August 2026, puts a repoint at £200 to £400 and a re-bed or tile swap at £300 to £600. These are typical ranges across the UK, and your own figure comes only after a survey. The gap between the two is small enough that the cheaper job is false economy if it has to be redone within a couple of winters.
Our ridge repair cost guide sets out what moves the price: length, access, the state of the timbers and whether scaffold is needed. With any quote, find out if VAT and scaffold are included, because either one moves the total.
One more factor is how many times the ridge has already been repointed. A face that has been patched over several years can be thick, layered and poorly attached, and a further coat only adds to the load. In that case clearing back to the original bed, or relaying the ridge, gives a better result than another skim.
How a repoint is done properly
The work starts with raking out. All loose and crumbling material comes out of the joint to a useful depth, and the faces of the tiles are brushed clean of dust, moss and old crumbs. Fresh mortar goes in firmly, is pressed into the gap rather than smeared over it, and is struck off so water sheds instead of sitting in a hollow.
The mortar should suit what is already there. A hard cement mix pushed into soft old lime bedding can crack the surrounding material, and a colour that clashes with the tiles looks like a patch for years afterwards. Keeping the mix close to the original gives the best chance of a repair that blends and lasts.
Repointing also needs dry weather. Mortar that is rained on before it sets washes out in streaks, and frost damages it as well, so the booking follows the forecast rather than the calendar.
Other ridge types, and noise
Repointing makes sense only on a bedded ridge. On a roof that already has a dry-fix system, there is no mortar to point, and the repair is replacing clips or a damaged strip. If you have a dry ridge on slate, our page on dry ridge on slate roofs covers the fitting. A rattle or whistle at the gable is a separate matter, and dry verge noise explains the usual causes.
Our approach is to price the smallest job that cures the fault. Any repair we carry out comes with a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. Start from the ridge and verge page, or ring 01793 626096 and send a few photos on WhatsApp.