Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Mortimer

Mortimer, in the parish of Stratfield Mortimer just across the county line in Berkshire, is 11.1 road miles north of Basingstoke. Its roofs range from Victorian slate and clay to later housing set among woodland and brooks. We photograph your own roof, show you the fault, and put a fixed quote in writing.

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A Hampshire village cottage of flint and brick with a steep clay plain tile roof

Roofs we see in Mortimer

  • Clay tiled pitched roof gable on a red-brick house

    Victorian slate and clay

    St Mary's Church in Stratfield Mortimer is a Grade II listed Victorian Gothic building, built in 1869 by Richard Armstrong. Houses and cottages of that period are typically roofed in slate or plain clay tile, with lead in the valleys and around chimneys. These roofs last a very long time when the fixings and lead are looked after, and they develop leaks mostly at the joints.

  • Slipped and cracked clay roof tiles

    Woodland-shaded roofs

    Starvale Woods, Wokefield Common and Holden Firs lie around the village, so many houses sit under tall trees. Shade keeps a roof damp, moss thrives on the slopes that never see the sun, and needles, leaves and seed litter work into valleys and gutters. The tiles are rarely the problem; the drainage around them usually is.

  • A thatched cottage in a Test Valley village with a brick chimney

    Later houses and extensions

    Along The Street, West End Road and Victoria Road, newer houses and rear extensions sit among the older ones. They bring concrete tile roofs, mortar-bedded ridges, timber fascias and flat-roofed additions, each with its own routine faults. A flat extension roof or an aged ridge needs a different repair from a slate valley, and we price each from photographs of the roof itself.

11.1 road miles north of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Mortimer

Mortimer lies in Berkshire, so West Berkshire Council is the planning authority and the council's building control team handles applications, not Basingstoke and Deane. Its website at westberks.gov.uk lets you check conservation areas and listed buildings by address. One listed building here is St Mary's Church, Grade II, and a house close to it deserves a check before any change to materials is planned.

For a normal house, replacing like with like rarely raises planning questions. Stripping and re-covering a large part of a roof can need building control sign-off, and we arrange it, either with the council team or with a private approver. Anything involving a listed building or a conservation area calls for care: read our conservation area notes and speak to the conservation officer before you swap slate for tile. For roof windows, this planning guide covers the rules.

What we find on Mortimer roofs

Roofs around here come in a mixture of ages, and the surroundings affect them as much as the construction does. Tall woodland, running water and a slate-and-clay inheritance from the Victorian period each produce a typical set of faults.

Chapter 1: Why are slates sliding out of our Victorian roof in Mortimer?

What we find

A slate is held by two nails near its upper edge, and the slate above laps over them. On Victorian roofs those nails were iron, and iron rusts. When the shank corrodes through, the slate has nothing holding it except friction, and a gust or a settling of the batten lets it slide a few centimetres. The gap it leaves is a direct route for rain. You may see a slate sitting low in its course, a sliver of lighter batten showing through, or fragments in the gutter.

Nail failure tends to spread across a slope at about the same rate, so one slipped slate is often a warning for others. Other causes are delamination, where the slate splits into layers along its grain, and frost, which gets into those layers. Inside the loft, check the felt or boards for wet patches and pale daylight pinpoints that line up with a slipped slate above.

What we fix

One slipped slate can be repaired in place with a copper or stainless clip, called a tingle, hooked under the course above and bent over the lower edge. We use this method to avoid disturbing neighbouring slates. Where nails have rusted across a whole slope, a strip and relay with new fixings is the lasting answer, re-using sound slates and replacing the cracked ones with matching stock.

Reported UK prices for a single slate repair run at £100 to £250 for labour plus £5 to £25 for the slate, and tower or scaffold access adds a further £300 to £800 to the bill. Natural slate re-roofing is reported at £120 to £180 per square metre. Our slate roofing page explains how repair and relay compare, and why we repair wherever the slates beneath are sound. A neighbour with a similar roof may have been told something different, so the photographs matter.

Chapter 2: Where is the leak coming from at the valley between two roofs on our Mortimer house?

What we find

A valley is the V-shaped channel where two roof slopes meet, and it carries the water from both. On Victorian houses that gather several roofs under one house, the valley is often lined with lead laid in a gutter between the slates or tiles. Lead is durable but it expands and contracts with every hot day and cold night, and eventually it cracks along the fold lines. Debris can also pile up in the channel and hold water against the edge of the lead, where it creeps sideways under the slates.

Inside, the stain is typically in a ceiling or a wall at the point where two roof planes meet, and it grows after prolonged rain. Outside, look down the channel for a split or a pinhole, for mortar or moss packing the edges, and for tiles on each side that have cut ends sitting loose. In woodland surroundings, leaf litter makes valley trouble more likely.

What we fix

We clear the channel, lift the adjoining slates or tiles and inspect the lead. A single crack can sometimes be repaired with a lead welded patch, but where the sheet has split in several places, the honest fix is a new lead lining with the correct overlap and fixings. The edges are dressed so that water runs down the middle and away from the joints. Any chimney that stands beside the valley gets its flashing checked at the same visit.

Reported UK prices for chimney leadwork range from £350 to £920, which gives a rough sense of what lead costs at all. Your fixed quote follows the survey. Our guide to lead roofing and leadwork explains how a lined valley is built, and our emergency roof repairs page is there if water is already coming in.

Chapter 3: Our roof near Starvale Woods is always green and the gutters fill with needles. What can we do?

What we find

A house standing near woodland never gets a full day of sun on its roof. The slopes that face north, or that lie under pines and oaks, stay wet well after the rest of the road has dried. Moss spreads over wet tile surfaces, then catches needles, leaves and seed pods, which rot into a layer of compost. That layer sits against the tiles and the lead, and it holds moisture there for weeks.

The gutters suffer most. Needles are fine enough to pass through gutter outlets, then pack into the downpipe and block it. Water backs up, spills over the front of the gutter and runs down the fascia and the wall. If you see streaks down the brickwork below the gutter, or hear water running behind it, the blockage may be higher up than you think. Moss in the valleys can also push the tiles apart and cause leaks.

What we fix

We start with a hand clean: scraping the moss and compost off the roof, clearing the valleys and sweeping the gutters. A biocide treatment follows, which slows regrowth for a while, and we avoid pressure washing on tiles that are already worn. If trees overhang the roof, we suggest trimming them back, because the roof will not stay clean next to a tree that drops debris every week.

Hand removal with biocide is reported at £748 for a small roof, £863 for an average one and £978 for a big roof under heavy cover. A gutter guard can help with leaf litter but does little against fine needles, so see our view on whether gutter guards are worth it. Our roof cleaning page covers the method.

Chapter 4: Why is there condensation on the felt and timbers in our Mortimer loft?

What we find

The Lockram Brook runs through the middle of the parish, and low ground near running water holds more moisture in the air. That does not cause condensation by itself, but it adds to it. The real cause is warm, damp air from the house rising into a cold loft and meeting the underside of the roof covering. If the air cannot escape, the water condenses on the felt, the rafters and the nail points, and drips back onto the insulation.

Signs are beads of water on the underside of the felt, dark spotting on the timbers, damp insulation and a musty smell when you open the hatch. Ventilation at the eaves is often blocked, either by insulation pushed hard against the soffit or by a sagging felt that has closed the gap. Extensions and loft conversions can interrupt airflow too, and the roof above a bathroom is a regular trouble spot.

What we fix

We start by working out where the moisture comes from, then restore a clear route for the air. That may mean eaves ventilators in the soffit, a breathable underlay in place of old bitumen felt, or ridge vents. Insulation is pulled back so that a gap is left at the eaves. Bathroom and kitchen extractors that vent into the loft are redirected outside, because no amount of roof ventilation copes with that.

A loft in this state seldom needs a new roof; it needs the airflow put right. Our guides to soffit ventilation and sagging roof felt explain the options. Where the underlay has to be replaced across a large part of the roof, the work may be notifiable to building control, and we handle that.

Mortimer roofing questions

Tall trees and woodland surround Mortimer. How do they affect a roof?

Trees drop leaves, needles and twigs onto gutters and valleys, and shade slows drying so moss and algae grow. Blocked gutters then overflow behind the fascia and into the eaves. Overhanging branches can also scuff tiles in wind. We photograph the gutters and valleys on a survey, and moss can be cleared gently, without a pressure washer that would strip tile surfaces. Cutting back branches is worth considering.

Do houses near St Mary's Church have extra roofing restrictions?

The Grade II listing applies to the church building, not to every house nearby. What matters for a neighbouring house is whether it is listed itself or lies in a conservation area, which West Berkshire's planning team can confirm by address. Like-for-like repair is normally simple in either case, and we give you a photographic record to share with the council.

Do you cover Mortimer Common as well as the main village?

Yes. The three main roads, The Street, West End Road and Victoria Road, and the lanes off them are all within our area, along with the houses near the station. You pay nothing for the survey, and the photographs we take of your roof go with a fixed written figure.

We back onto woodland and have bats in the roof. Can work still go ahead?

Often it can. Roosting bats and nesting birds are covered by wildlife law, so we look for signs of them first. A roof may need a survey or work timed around the season, and we will tell you if that applies after the survey. Where roosts are present, the repair is planned around them, not over them.

Can a roof window go into a Victorian slate roof in Mortimer?

In most cases, yes, though slate needs more careful flashing than tile, and the window should sit between the rafters without cutting them. Our guide to a roof window in a slate roof covers the method, and the choice of style is simpler once you know whether the house is listed.

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