Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Baughurst

Baughurst lies 9 road miles north-west of Basingstoke, on a natural ridge above low, brook-fed ground that was once heathland. Its roofs range from a Victorian church and its neighbours to the houses that arrived with the atomic research site nearby. We photograph your roof, then write you a fixed price.

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Roofer fitting roof tiles on a brick house near Basingstoke

Roofs we see in Baughurst

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

    Exposed houses on the ridge

    The village stands on a natural ridge, so homes along the high ground take wind from every side with nothing to break it. On those roofs the ridge tiles, verge edges and the lead around chimney stacks do the hardest work. Roofs here rarely fail evenly. One slope facing the prevailing weather ages years ahead of the sheltered one, and we compare the two from the photographs.

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

    Homes built as the parish grew

    The parish grew from 490 people to 2,250, partly because of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, and much of the housing that followed dates from the decades after the war, when concrete tiles were the usual covering on new homes. After sixty or seventy years, the weak points are predictable: tired underlay under the tiles, cracked bedding at the ridge, and timber bargeboards at the gable ends that have taken decades of weather.

  • House roof stripped to battens during a roof replacement

    Older cottages and the church

    St Stephen's Church was built in 1845 by Benjamin Ferrey, and older cottages in the parish can be of a similar vintage or earlier. Roofs of that age typically carry hand-sized tiles or slates, lead valleys and chimneys of softer brick, and they respond best to careful partial repair that keeps the sound material and replaces only what has failed.

9 road miles north-west of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Baughurst

In Baughurst, planning and building control both sit with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. The council publishes details of its designated areas and listed buildings on its conservation pages, and it is worth checking them against your address before work on an older house, especially one close to St Stephen's Church, which Benjamin Ferrey built in 1845. A listed house, or one inside a protected area, can need consent for changes that a plain semi would not.

On the post-war housing in the village, planning is usually not the issue and building control is. Re-covering part of a roof is normally exempt, but a larger job, or a heavier covering, may need approval and an insulation upgrade, and we handle the application where the work is notifiable. If your plans include a roof window, our planning guide for roof windows sets out the rules, and the guide on conservation rooflights applies to older, protected houses. For anything beyond like-for-like repair, check with the council's planning team first.

Faults we find on Baughurst roofs

Baughurst mixes contrasts: an exposed ridge, low ground that floods, a heathland past and a population that multiplied in the post-war decades. Those facts translate directly into roof problems.

Chapter 1: Why does the wind keep lifting tiles on our house on the Baughurst ridge?

What we find

A house on a ridge has no shelter, and the wind that crosses it speeds up as it rises over the roof. That creates suction on the leeward slope and uplift along the edges, which is why the tiles that go first are the ones at the verge, the ridge and the eaves. If tiles are held only by their own weight and a single clip, or were laid on old and brittle battens, a bad gale will shift them.

From the garden, look for a tile standing proud of its row, a ridge tile that has slid sideways, or a verge where the cement has cracked away. Inside the loft, daylight along the gable wall is a clue, and so is a rattle on windy nights. Neighbouring houses on the ridge usually show the same fault in a similar place.

What we fix

We start by checking the battens, the timber strips the tiles hang from, because tiles fixed to rotten battens will not hold however well they are clipped. Sound battens stay, weak ones are replaced, and loose tiles are fixed with a clip and, on exposed edges, a nail or screw to every tile in the outer courses. That follows the principle in BS 5534 that exposed tiles should be mechanically fixed.

The ridge and verges are dealt with by dry-fix systems rather than mortar, covered by BS 8612. A dry ridge on a semi typically costs between £900 and £1,600, plus scaffold (£300 to £900 extra). Your fixed quote follows the survey. The options for the top of the roof are on ridge tile repairs, and pitched roofing covers whole-roof work.

Chapter 2: Is it the roof or the rising water table that is damaging our Baughurst outbuilding?

What we find

The brook leaves the lower ground in the parish liable to flooding, and anyone with a house or garage on that side of the village knows how long ground can stay wet. A saturated garden has a knock-on effect on the roof: water from the downpipes has nowhere to go, backs up in the gutter and spills over the fascia. Garages and sheds with flat roofs suffer more, because the water sits on the roof when the outlet is blocked.

A flat roof of bitumen felt on a timber deck shows the damage in blisters, ridged seams and soft boards along the front edge. If the ceiling inside the outbuilding is stained and the fascia feels spongy, check the drainage as well as the membrane, because a roof that cannot shed water will fail again after being re-covered.

What we fix

Before we price a new roof we look at where the water goes. Gutters are re-hung to a fall, downpipes are cleared and connected, and where the ground is saturated we advise on moving the discharge away from the wall. Then the roof itself: we strip failed felt, replace soft deck boards and lay a new membrane, usually EPDM (a synthetic rubber sheet) or GRP (a fibreglass-and-resin finish that sets hard on site) with a proper drip edge.

For a single garage in EPDM, UK guides give £1,200 to £2,500. Where the outbuilding has an older corrugated cement roof, we test before touching it, as it may contain asbestos. Compare options on our flat roofing and garage roof replacement pages.

Chapter 3: Our semi was built when the AWRE grew the village. Is the roof at the end of its life?

What we find

Housing built for the research site's growing workforce was put up quickly and in numbers, and houses of that period were commonly roofed with concrete interlocking tiles on bitumen felt. Concrete tiles are durable, but the supporting parts age differently. The felt under the tiles dries out and tears at the laps, the timber battens soften at the nail holes, and the mortar along the ridge and verges cracks away. The tiles may look weathered and green with moss while still being sound.

Signs that the roof is under strain include brown stains on a bedroom ceiling after rain, daylight through the loft when the lights are off, and tiles that crumble or flake at the edges. A bungalow built at that time, with a low pitch and little roof space, can hide a problem for years, because there is no loft to inspect.

What we fix

We go up and photograph the roof first, then inspect the underlay and battens from the loft where there is one, or from a lifted tile where there is not. If the felt has failed only at the eaves or around the chimney, a section repair keeps the rest of the roof in service, and we say so. If it has perished across the slopes, a full re-roof with breathable membrane, new battens and either the cleaned tiles or new ones is the honest answer.

A concrete-tile re-roof on a three-bed semi is typically £6,500 to £10,500 across the UK. Larger jobs are notifiable under the Building Regulations, and we deal with that. Read more on roof replacement, or ask for a roof inspection first.

Chapter 4: Can the roof of a Victorian cottage near St Stephen's Church in Baughurst be repaired rather than replaced?

What we find

Cottages of the church's period, the middle of the nineteenth century, were usually roofed with plain clay tiles or slate, and the roof structure beneath was cut to suit. Those roofs fail locally rather than all at once. Nails rust and let tiles slip, a lead valley splits where it has been walked on, and soft chimney brickwork loses its pointing so rain enters at the stack. A sagging ridge line can mean a rotten timber below rather than a tile problem.

Moisture is the common thread. A cottage on the lower ground has damp air around it for long periods, which keeps timber wet and lets moss take hold on the north slope. Inside, look for staining at the wall plate, a musty smell in the loft or cracked plaster under a valley.

What we fix

Repair is usually the right answer for a roof like this. We strip only the failed area, keep every tile or slate that is sound, and fill the gaps with reclaimed pieces chosen to match. Rotten rafter ends and battens are cut out and replaced with treated timber, valleys are re-lined in new lead, and chimneys are repointed in lime so the soft brick is not trapped behind a hard cement mortar.

You get the photographs of the whole roof and a fixed quote that separates the repair from any larger option, so you can choose. If the house is listed or in a protected area, talk to the council's conservation officer before we start, because changes to materials or appearance may need consent. For the metalwork, see lead roofing and lead work.

Baughurst roofing questions

Baughurst brook floods the low ground. Does flooding affect the roof?

Not directly, since a flood reaches the ground floor before the roof. But a damp, low-lying site can mean moss and algae on shaded slopes and blocked drains that overflow into gutters. We would check the gutters, downpipe connections and fascias for water damage that could be mistaken for a roof leak. If the leak is in the roof, the photographs from your survey show where.

Does it matter that our Baughurst house is on a ridge when choosing a roof covering?

It does. An exposed site raises the wind load on a roof, so fixings matter more than on a sheltered street. We nail or clip every tile on the outer courses, fix the ridge and verges mechanically, and check that the battens are sound enough to hold the fixings. The choice of tile also matters, because a heavier covering may need the roof structure checked first.

The brook floods near us. Could that affect the roof or gutters?

Not the roof directly, but wet ground makes drainage harder. If rainwater from the downpipes cannot soak away, gutters back up and overflow behind the fascia, which rots the timber and lets damp into the wall. We check the gutters, outlets and downpipes at every survey, and if the problem is the ground rather than the roof, we tell you so.

Our house sits next to the old airfield land. Do you cover that side of Baughurst?

Yes. Land in the area was cleared in 1942 to build RAF Aldermaston, and homes and outbuildings of various ages now sit around it. We cover the whole parish and the villages around it, including Aldermaston. Garage and outbuilding roofs from that era may have corrugated cement sheets, which we test before anything is disturbed.

Can you repair the roof of a house close to the church without changing its look?

That is the aim. Like-for-like repair with matching tile or slate and traditional lead usually keeps the character of the roof intact. If you live in or beside a protected area, the council's planning team can confirm whether consent is needed for anything beyond that. We record the roof in photographs before and after, so the work is clearly documented.

Nearby areas

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