Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Andover

Andover sits 22.2 road miles west of Basingstoke, beside the A303 at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain. Its roofs fall into three groups: the 1960s overspill estates, newer neighbourhoods such as Saxon Fields, Augusta Park and Picket Twenty, and older buildings in the conservation area. We photograph each roof before we price it.

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1930s semi-detached houses with hipped clay tile roofs and bay windows on a suburban road

Roofs we see in Andover

  • Brick chimney stack with clay pots

    Overspill estates from the 1960s on

    Andover was planned as a London overspill town. A 1961 plan aimed for about 47,000 people and 9,000 new homes by 1982, and the population reached about 51,000 by 1981. Houses built in that rush share their age, so a fault found on one roof is often waiting on the next. Ridge mortar, tired felt and worn fascias are the usual early signs.

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

    Saxon Fields, Augusta Park and Picket Twenty

    Later estates such as these have extended the town well past its old edges. The roofs are younger, so we look at details more than coverings: flashings where a porch or bay meets the wall, valley trays, dry-fix ridges and verges, and the roof windows added to loft rooms. Small gaps at those joints show up as damp patches long before a tile fails.

  • 1930s semi-detached houses with hipped clay tile roofs and bay windows on a suburban road

    Town centre and conservation area

    The Andover conservation area covers about 16.7 hectares and holds 67 listed buildings, five of them Grade II*, including the Church of St Mary, the Guildhall, the Star and Garter Hotel and the Angel Inn. Roofs on older buildings of this kind are more varied, and can include clay tile, slate, lead gutters behind parapets and brick chimneys. Repairs here are slow, careful and matched to what is already there.

22.2 road miles west of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Andover

Test Valley Borough Council is the planning authority and building control body for Andover, and its website is at testvalley.gov.uk. The town's conservation area contains 67 listed buildings, five of them Grade II*, including the Church of St Mary, the Guildhall on the High Street, the Star and Garter Hotel and the Angel Inn. If your building is listed or stands inside the conservation area, a like-for-like repair is normally straightforward, but a change of material or appearance may need consent. Talk to the council's conservation officer before anything is ordered.

Outside the conservation area, the question on most roofs is building control, not planning. Stripping and re-covering a whole slope may need a building control application, which we handle for you. An older roof can shelter protected bats or nesting birds, which may mean a survey or careful timing before work. Thinking of a roof window in a loft room? The skylight planning permission explainer covers what applies, and listed buildings and conservation areas are treated more strictly.

What we find on Andover roofs

Andover's housing is easy to date by its faults. The overspill estates show age at the ridges, verges and eaves, the newer neighbourhoods show it at the joints, and the town centre carries older lead and brick. Its position on the edge of open country and along a river valley affects every slope.

Chapter 1: Why do tiles keep lifting at the edges of our Andover roof?

What we find

Andover sits on open country at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, and a house on the edge of town gets the wind with little to break it. On a tiled roof the stress concentrates at the edges: the verge (the edge of the roof at a gable end), the eaves and the ridge. Tiles there are held by a nail or clip into the battens (the timber laths running across the rafters), and over the years the nails loosen, the clips tire and the mortar under the verge tiles crumbles.

You may notice a tile sitting proud of its neighbours, tiles slipped a little down the slope, or fragments on the path after a gale. In the loft, look for daylight at the gable end and for batten ends split where the nails go in. A single slipped tile lets wind-driven rain in, and the wet batten behind it begins to rot.

What we fix

We start with a close look at the exposed edges, from the ladder and from inside the loft, and photograph every fault so you can see it for yourself. Loose or cracked tiles are replaced with matching ones, and every tile on the verge and eaves courses is fixed mechanically, with a clip or a nail and not mortar alone. BS 5534 expects ridge, hip and verge components to be fixed mechanically, so a dry verge system is often the tidy answer at a gable end.

Where a batten has rotted, we cut it out and splice in treated timber before the tiles go back. If the survey shows the slope is sound and only the edges are tired, that is a repair, and we quote it as one. Re-fixing a ridge dry on a semi-detached house is typically priced across the UK between £900 and £1,600 before scaffold; a fixed quote is only given once we have surveyed. Our ridge, verge and dry-fix page covers the systems we use.

Chapter 2: What is causing damp above the porch or bay window of our Andover estate house?

What we find

Look at many estate houses in Andover, from the overspill years or from the newer neighbourhoods around Augusta Park, and the main tiled roof is only part of the story. Where the front door or bay window has its own small flat or low-pitched roof, that is where leaks often begin. The joint where it meets the brick wall is sealed with a flashing (a strip of lead or other metal turned into the wall and over the roof covering), and that joint moves with the weather.

Inside, the sign is a stain on the hall ceiling by the front door or a damp patch in the corner of the front room. Outside, you may see a gap where sealant has shrunk, a strip lifting off the brickwork, or water ponding on the porch roof after rain. The leak is often small, which is why it goes unnoticed until the plaster blows.

What we fix

We open up the abutment, the line where the porch roof meets the wall, and check the deck beneath it. If the boards are sound, we re-dress the flashing, cut a fresh groove into the mortar course and fix new lead into it. Sealant is a finishing detail, never the whole repair. Where the covering itself has failed, we re-cover the porch in EPDM, a single sheet of synthetic rubber, or in GRP, a glass-fibre and resin layer that is laid in place and sets rigid.

A small porch or bay roof is a short job compared with a re-roof, and it protects the plaster and decoration inside. A square metre of EPDM is typically quoted across the UK at £80 to £120 and GRP at £100 to £160, and the survey comes before any fixed quote. Our flat roofing page explains how each membrane is laid.

Chapter 3: How do you repair lead and chimneys on an older building near Andover town centre?

What we find

The older buildings in and around the conservation area were built when roofs were drained by lead and brick. Behind a parapet wall, water runs along a lead-lined gutter to a downpipe. Where two slopes meet at a valley, lead lines the trough. Tall brick chimney stacks stand over both, with lead flashings round their bases. Lead lasts a very long time, but it creeps downhill, cracks at fatigue points and is sometimes patched with bitumen that only hides the fault.

Brick and mortar wear from the top down. Chimney pots loosen, the mortar between the courses erodes and the stack may lean slightly. Signs indoors include damp on the chimney breast, brown streaks on the wall below a gutter, or water that appears only after long rain. On a listed building or one in the conservation area, these faults matter twice, because the fabric is part of what the council protects.

What we fix

We repair like for like. Failed lead is cut out and replaced with new rolled lead of the right thickness for the job, dressed into the existing laps and rolls, with proper falls so water drains instead of lying. Chimney stacks are repointed in a mortar matched to the brick, or rebuilt course by course where the brick has gone, and pots are bedded and flaunched (the sloped mortar top that sheds water off the stack). Typical UK prices run from £450 to £1,200 for chimney repointing and from £350 to £920 for chimney leadwork; a fixed quote is only given once we have surveyed.

On a listed building, or one inside the conservation area, we photograph what is there and advise you to speak to the conservation officer before any change of materials. Our lead roofing and leadwork and chimney repairs pages set out each job in more detail.

Chapter 4: Why does moss keep returning on roofs near the River Anton in Andover?

What we find

Andover grew up along the River Anton, a major tributary of the Test, and a valley floor can hold damp air after rain and on still mornings. A roof in that setting, particularly a north-facing slope or one shaded by trees, dries slowly, and moss and algae move in. Moss looks harmless, but its roots grip the tile surface, it holds water against the tile like a sponge, and in a hard frost that trapped water expands and flakes the face off concrete and clay.

It also spreads downhill. Loose moss washes into the gutters and blocks the outlets, and a blocked gutter overflows behind the fascia and into the wall. Warning signs are green or black patches on the north slope, a carpet of moss along the lower courses, and overflow stains on the brickwork under the gutter line.

What we fix

We remove moss by hand, with scrapers and soft brushes, then apply a biocide wash that keeps working on the growth over the following weeks. We avoid high-pressure jetting, which can strip the surface and push water up under the laps. Gutters and downpipes are cleared in the same visit, and we note any cracked or slipped tiles for repair, because moss often hides them.

If the tiles are failing rather than just dirty, we say so. Cleaning a tired roof only delays a repair, and a re-cover may be a better use of your money. Typical UK prices reported for moss removal with biocide are £748 for a small roof, £863 for an average one and £978 for a large one; a fixed quote is only given once we have surveyed. Our roof cleaning and moss removal page explains the process, and trimming back an overhanging tree often slows regrowth more than any treatment.

Andover roofing questions

Why do the verges and gable ends fail first on a house from the overspill years?

On many post-war roofs the tiles at the gable edge are bedded in mortar. Over decades the mortar cracks and falls out, and the end tiles can slip. Water then gets under the verge and into the timbers beneath. A repair can mean rebedding the verge, or replacing it with a dry verge system that fixes the end tiles mechanically and does not rely on mortar.

Our house was built in the overspill years. Does the roof need replacing yet?

Not necessarily. On houses of that period it is usually the ridge mortar, the eaves felt and the fascias that tire first, while the tiles can have years left. We check the underlay from the loft and lift a few tiles to inspect the battens. If a repair will do, we quote a repair and say so, and the work carries our written 10-year workmanship guarantee.

Does a newer house on Augusta Park or Picket Twenty need any roof attention?

It is worth a look after storms and every few years, because faults on newer roofs hide at the details: a lifted flashing, a slipped dry verge cap, a blocked valley. A survey takes in those junctions and the roof windows, and we send photographs of anything we find. If the house is still under a builder's warranty, check its terms before you arrange any repair.

We own a flat above a shop near Andover High Street. Who repairs the roof?

That depends on your lease, so read it or ask your freeholder or managing agent first. We survey the roof, photograph the faults, such as a blocked outlet or a split in the membrane, and give you a written report you can pass on. We work on residential and commercial roofs, so a mixed building is no problem for us.

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