Roofers in Walberton

1.1 Slate: when the fixing gives way

A natural slate hangs from a nail or hook through a hole near its top, and it is usually the fixing, not the stone, that gives out first. The nail corrodes, the slate slips, and water finds the gap. A tingle (a thin metal strap that grips the slate above) can hold one replacement slate without a new nail hole, which suits an isolated slip. Slates slipping right across a slope tell a different story: the fixings are failing everywhere, and the right answer is re-slating, not another patch. Our slate roofing page sets out both routes.

1.2 Clay: nibs, cracks and the age question

Clay tiles usually hang by small projections on their backs, called nibs, hooked over the battens, and many are nailed as well. Clay lasts, yet a tile can crack, flake at the surface or lose its nib. Marley cites 60 years as the minimum expected life of a roof tile, though the Building Conservation Directory says that figure is a poor guide to the age of historic peg-tile roofs. So age alone tells us little, and we judge each roof by its condition.

On a repair we keep every sound tile and match replacements for size, colour and texture. At the ridge and verge, Marley says, mortar cannot be relied on alone since the 2014 revision of BS 5534, so bedded tiles also take a mechanical fixing. Our pitched roofing page lists the coverings and how they are fixed.

Gutters matter on a steep gable too. Rain runs off a steep slope fast, and a sagging, undersized or blocked gutter sends the overflow down the wall, where it can be mistaken for a roof leak. We check the gutters on every survey, and the photographs show whether the water is coming from the roof or from the run beside it.

3.1 Matching, consent and the church

Re-laying the same covering falls outside planning control in the usual case, so a matching job rarely needs permission. A change of covering can alter how the building looks, and that is no longer like for like, so ask Arun's planning team first. On a listed building, a repair in materials that differ from the originals needs listed building consent. A church in use by an exempt denomination follows that denomination's own approval process instead, and in the Church of England that means a faculty. Roof windows and dormers raise separate questions, covered in our roof planning permission guide.

3.2 Re-roofing and the Building Regulations

Planning permission and Building Regulations are different regimes. The Planning Portal says a re-roof needs no building control application while less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof are affected. Beyond either limit, or if the new covering is 15 per cent heavier or more, building control approval is required, and where the work is notifiable we make the notification. Wildlife law protects bats and nesting birds, so we search an old roof for either before it is stripped.

The parish also takes in most of the settlement called Fontwell. Arun can say quickly whether a Fontwell address falls in a conservation area, and listing, wildlife law and the Building Regulations apply in the same way everywhere in the parish. A first conversation with us costs nothing, and the survey tells you which of these questions is live for your house.