Roofing in Downton

Old clay, and what is under it. A good share of Downton predates 1919, and much of that was built before 1900. The traditional covering through the village is plain tile in clay, with natural slate on the Victorian work and concrete tile on the post-war houses.

Stone slate is not a Wiltshire covering and you will not find it here. On the oldest roofs there is no membrane at all: handmade plain tiles hung on riven battens over lime torching, with no sarking board behind. Those roofs fail through nail sickness, where the covering is still perfectly sound and every fixing holding it has rusted away. Half a dozen slipped tiles in one winter is the usual first sign.

On an old roof a leak rarely enters above the stain. Water runs along a batten or down a rafter and comes through several feet away, which is why we look from the loft first and why patching the visible spot so often fails.

Strip and re-cover. When the nails have gone, the batten ends have softened and the torching is falling into the loft, patching stops being worth paying for. The covering comes off, sound tiles are sorted and set aside for re-use, soft rafter feet are cut out, and the new roof goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens. In a conservation area the tile that goes back on matters, so we price a re-cover in matched clay rather than assuming you want the cheapest concrete option. Where the roof is not visually sensitive we convert ridge and verge to a dry fix system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects. Where it is, ridge tiles can be re-bedded in a lime rich mortar that suits the building instead.

Old houses in Downton have grown in stages, and every stage added another junction. Chimney flashings, soakers, secret valleys and the abutments where a later range meets an older one go back in code rated lead cut so it can move without splitting. Rear extensions, garages and porches come in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and the deck gets looked at before anything else.

Cast iron gutters and downpipes on the older properties can usually be repaired and re-hung rather than ripped off. Rotten fascia and soffit almost always follow a gutter that has been running over for years, and clearing moss, algae and debris out of the run is ordinary maintenance. There is thatch in Downton and we are not thatchers: we will do the tiled roof and the leadwork alongside it and leave the thatch to somebody who does nothing else. Insulation, eaves ventilation and condensation are far cheaper to sort with the covering off, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof should reach.

A Downton roof has no rate per square metre, because the roofs here differ too much from one street to the next.

The age of the house. A good share of Downton was built before 1900. Those roofs often carry handmade clay tile or slate on thin, uneven battens, with no membrane at all and ridges bedded in lime. A post-war semi usually has concrete interlocking tile on sawn battens and a bitumen felt that has gone brittle at the eaves. Each needs a different strip and a different specification.

Scaffold and platform. A terraced cottage on the street needs the scaffold planned around the neighbours and sometimes the footway, and the platform may stand for weeks. The work at height rules are why it is a priced line. Many bungalows can be done from a tower.

Chimneys and valleys. Old stacks carry stepped lead flashings and soakers, each priced on its own, and a stack shared along a terrace needs your neighbour on board.

What turns up. Cut rafters, a sagging purlin or a soft wall plate only show once the coverings are off.

Ask any other roofer whether the battens and membrane are being renewed or covered over, what lead is going on the chimney, and whether the scaffold is in the price.

Most repairs in Downton need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.