Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Ascot

Ascot lies 26.3 road miles north-east of Basingstoke, and its roofs vary widely: large detached houses in their own grounds, terraces and flats, red-brick Gothic Revival churches and a post-war High Street. Every roof we survey is photographed first, and the quote that follows is fixed and in writing.

Get a free surveyCall 01256 213956
Modern 2000s brick houses with grey concrete tile roofs on a new estate near Basingstoke

Roofs we see in Ascot

  • A Georgian brick town house with a slate roof and parapet in a Hampshire market town

    Large detached houses in their own grounds

    The Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale plan area includes large detached houses in their own gardens. Roofs on houses like these are rarely a plain pair of slopes. Expect hips, valleys, dormers, tall chimney stacks, lead gutters and several roof levels, which means many junctions and long runs of lead where water can find a way in. A survey needs time, and we give it.

  • New EPDM flat roof on a brick extension

    Terraces, flats and the High Street

    The same plan area also takes in terraced housing and flats. On Ascot High Street most buildings are post-war, with flats above ground-floor shops. Those roofs are typically low-pitched or flat, drained through outlets and gutters that can hide behind parapets, so a blocked outlet may send water through a flat ceiling in one heavy storm. We handle commercial roofs as well as homes.

  • 1960s and 70s brick semi-detached houses with concrete interlocking tile roofs on a Basingstoke estate street

    Churches and Gothic Revival detail

    Ascot's churches are red-brick Gothic Revival buildings, including All Saints, Ascot Heath (1864) and St Francis (1889), and All Souls' Church in South Ascot, built in 1896 to 1897 to John Loughborough Pearson's design, is Grade II* listed. Gothic Revival roofs commonly have steep pitches, clay tile and decorative ridge and hip detail, and a repair has to match them in colour, size and profile.

26.3 road miles north-east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Ascot

Ascot falls under the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for planning and building control, and the borough's website is rbwm.gov.uk. The neighbourhood plan area covering Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale is 66.5% Green Belt, and almost all of it lies within the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area influence zone. Those designations bear far more on extensions and new building than on a like-for-like roof repair, but if you plan a loft conversion or an extension alongside a re-roof, ask the council's planning team early.

All Souls' Church in South Ascot is Grade II* listed, and other period buildings in the area may be listed too, so check whether yours is before you plan any work. On a listed building, a change to materials or appearance may need consent, and the borough's conservation officer is the person to ask. The heath and woodland around Ascot are good habitat for bats and nesting birds, which are protected, so an older roof may need a survey or careful timing first. A roof window on a loft room? See our skylight planning permission explainer.

What we find on Ascot roofs

Ascot's roofs ask for different skills in different streets. A big detached house wants someone who can read a complicated roof and trace water through its junctions. A flat above a shop wants a sound membrane and clear outlets. A period building wants matched clay and careful detail.

Chapter 1: Where do leaks start on a large detached Ascot house with several roof levels?

What we find

A big house in its own grounds has a roof built from many parts: a main ridge, hips running down to the corners, valleys where wings meet, dormers, and chimney stacks rising through the slopes. Every one of those is a place where two surfaces meet, and every meeting needs a lead flashing, a valley lining or a gutter to carry water away. The more junctions a roof has, the more chances there are for a small failure to start a leak.

On a house like this, water often travels a long way before it shows. It runs along a rafter or the top of a wall, and then appears as a stain in a bedroom far from the source. Look for staining beside chimney breasts, ceiling marks under valleys and mould on the top corner of an upstairs room. A tidy-looking roof from the drive can still have a split lead apron on a rear wing.

What we fix

We take the roof apart on paper before we touch it: a photograph of every hip, valley, flashing, gutter and stack, taken from a ladder or a platform, and a check from the loft that links each stain to its likely source. That report shows you the faults on your own house. Failed lead is replaced in the right weight with correct laps and falls, valley linings are renewed where they have cracked, and slipped or broken tiles are replaced with matching ones.

On roofs this size, repairing the worst sections while the rest keeps going is often sensible, and we tell you plainly when that is so. Typical UK pricing for chimney leadwork runs from £350 to £920, and the fixed quote comes after the survey. Our lead roofing and leadwork page describes the work in detail.

Chapter 2: The flat roof above our Ascot High Street flat has water lying on it. Who fixes it, and how?

What we find

Most buildings on Ascot High Street are post-war, with flats above ground-floor shops, and many of them are covered by low-pitched or flat roofs that run back behind the shopfronts. A flat roof does not shed water as fast as a pitched one, so everything depends on its falls, its outlets and its membrane, the waterproof layer that forms the roof surface. If the falls have settled, water lies in hollows. If an outlet is blocked by leaves or old felt, the roof fills like a tray.

The first sign for the flat below is a stain on the ceiling or a bubble in the paint, and often it appears in the same spot after each storm. On the roof, look for puddles that remain a day after rain, blisters in the surface, cracks round the edges and vegetation growing in the joints. Parapet walls (the low walls round the roof edge) add a further point of failure where they meet the roof surface.

What we fix

We clear the outlets first, so we can see whether ponding is a drainage problem or a surface one. If the membrane is sound, we repair splits and edges. If it has failed, we strip it back, check the deck and insulation, correct the falls with tapered boards where needed, and re-cover. Where several flats share a roof, one repair can protect them all, and we give the managing agent a photographed survey they can circulate.

Flat roof covering is typically priced per square metre across the UK, with felt at £60 to £100 and EPDM at £80 to £120, while GRP can run to £160; the quote is fixed after the survey. Who pays depends on your lease, so check it or ask your freeholder. Our flat roofing and commercial roofing pages cover both sides of the work.

Chapter 3: Why do gutters block and roofs turn green under the trees around Ascot?

What we find

The Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale plan area is mostly Green Belt, and almost all of it lies within the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area influence zone, which tells you the character of the ground: heath, pine, birch and oak, with gardens running into woodland. Houses set among trees take a steady fall of needles, seeds and leaves. They collect in gutters and valleys, where they rot into a damp mat that holds water against the roof.

Shade does the rest. A roof that gets no sun after midday stays wet, and moss and algae settle on tiles and in the gaps between them. Warning signs include overflow marks on the fascia, plants growing in the gutter, water pouring over the front of a gutter in rain, and green or black patches on the north slope. A blocked valley is worse, as it can push water up under the tiles.

What we fix

We clear gutters, hopper heads and downpipes by hand, scoop out valleys and check that every outlet runs. Moss on the tiles is scraped off and a biocide applied, without a high-pressure jet that could strip tile surfaces. While we are up there we look at the fascias and soffits, the boards under and along the eaves, because years of overflow can leave them soft.

Where trees are the cause, we suggest which branches to take back and whether leaf guards would help. Typical UK prices reported for moss removal with biocide are £748, £863 and £978 for small, average and large roofs, and the fixed quote comes after the survey. Our guttering, soffits and fascias page covers the repairs and renewals.

Chapter 4: How do you match clay tiles and decorative ridges on an older red-brick house in Ascot?

What we find

Ascot's churches show the local taste of the Victorian years: red brick, steep roofs and Gothic detail, as at All Saints, Ascot Heath, from 1864, and St Francis, from 1889. A house in the same spirit may carry plain clay tiles on a steep pitch, a crested ridge, bonnet hips (rounded clay tiles that cap the hip) and tall chimneys. Clay tile is long-lived, but the individual tiles can delaminate, which means their faces flake off in layers after frost, and fixings corrode.

On a steep roof, small faults are harder to see from the ground. Loose tiles may sit crooked in a way that only shows in low sun, and a rash of broken tile fragments in a flower bed is a warning. Decorative ridge tiles are bedded in mortar that has often cracked, so each one can rock.

What we fix

Matching is the heart of the job. We look for sound reclaimed tiles of the same size, colour and camber, or order new handmade ones when the original is no longer made. Cracked or flaking tiles are replaced one at a time and each fixed with a clip or nail, so the roof holds up in wind. Ridges and hips are re-bedded and mechanically fixed, with the decorative profile kept, in line with BS 5534.

A steep roof needs proper access, so scaffold is often part of the price. Typical UK scaffold hire for roofline work runs from £200 to £2,600 depending on the house, and the fixed quote follows the survey, with scaffold itemised. If the house is listed, we recommend you ask the council's conservation officer about materials first. Our pitched roofing page explains how these jobs run.

Ascot roofing questions

Does Green Belt status affect roof work on an Ascot house?

Most of the Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale plan area is Green Belt, but repairing or re-covering a roof like for like is a different matter from extending it. Raising the ridge, adding dormers or changing the footprint is where the planning team's view counts. Check with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead before altering the shape of a roof.

Is it worth repairing the roof on a big older Ascot house, or should we re-roof?

It depends on the covering and the timber under it, and we find out at the survey. If the tiles and battens are sound and the faults are at the lead and ridges, repair is the better spend. If the tiles are failing across the slope, a re-roof makes more sense. We quote what the roof needs, tell you when it has years left, and the work carries a written 10-year workmanship guarantee.

Our Ascot house is listed. Can you repair the roof?

Yes, on a like-for-like basis. We record the roof in photographs, recommend matching clay tile or slate and lead, and give you the survey report to take to the borough's conservation officer. Consent may be needed for anything that changes materials or appearance, so ask before work starts. All Souls' Church in South Ascot is an example of a Grade II* building where that care applies.

Do you work on commercial roofs above shops on Ascot High Street?

We do residential and commercial roofing, so a building with shops below and flats above is within our remit. We survey the roof, photograph outlets, parapets and the membrane, and write up the faults for the owner or managing agent. Repairs can often be planned around the shops below, with the roof made safe first if water is coming in.

Nearby

Get your free roof survey in Ascot

Tell us what’s happening and we’ll call you back to arrange a visit. You’ll get photos of your roof and a fixed written quote.

  • No obligation
  • Photo report of your roof
  • 10-year workmanship guarantee

Rather talk? 01256 213956

Call Free survey