Roofers in Bramber

1.1 Reading a flint junction

Field flints are round and uneven, so the joints around them are deeper and less regular than the neat lines in brick. At each junction we check three things: whether the lead still sits tight in its joint, whether the pointing around it has crumbled, and whether someone has run a bead of sealant along the top to hide a gap. Sealant only covers the problem for a season. It splits as the lead warms and cools, and water follows the split. A repair that lasts means lifting the old lead, raking the joint clean and fixing new lead back into it with wedges and fresh mortar, then photographing the finished line so you can see what was done.

1.2 Which lead, and where

Lead is sold in numbered codes, which are simply thicknesses. For ordinary flashing work code 4 has become the usual pick, and thin code 3 is advised for soakers alone. A soaker is a folded piece of lead slipped beneath each course of tiles at a wall junction, so the tiles shed water onto it. Our lead roofing page explains codes, dressing and lifespan in more depth.

On a cottage the chimney stack is often the tallest part of the roof, standing in the open with nothing to shelter it. We look at the pointing on the brick or flint, at the flaunching, the sloped mortar collar that holds the pot in place and carries rain away from it, and at the lead tray where the stack leaves the roof. A stack with failing pointing and a loose pot can drop debris onto the slope below, so we deal with it before the flashing. Our chimney repairs page covers what can be done, from repointing up to rebuilding the stack.

3.1 How long a covering lasts

Marley reports that the Building Research Establishment set a minimum life expectancy of 60 years for clay tiles, and concrete tiles are often put at 30 to 60 years. Treat those as typical bands, never promises: how exposed the roof is, who laid it and how it was looked after all shift the figure. A roof close to the end of that band can still be patched, though each patch spends money a re-roof would have used.

3.2 Building Regulations and what moves the price

The Planning Portal says building control is normally not required for repairs or re-covering that touch less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. Go past either limit, or fit a covering whose weight rises by 15 per cent or more, and approval is needed, with a thermal upgrade under Part L possible too. When the work is notifiable, we file the notification. The total moves with scaffold, access, the covering chosen and how sound the timbers underneath prove to be, and a flat-roofed porch or garage is surveyed separately from the main slope. A re-roof is standard-rated for VAT, so make sure every quote you weigh up states whether VAT and scaffolding are included. Our roof replacement page covers a full re-roof from strip to finish, including how the old tiles come down and how the new battens go on.