Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Bisley

Bisley is 24.2 road miles east of Basingstoke, a Surrey village on the A322 with open heath to its west and the National Shooting Centre inside its historic bounds. Its roofs run from a Grade II* church to cottages and modern houses. We photograph each one, and a quote at a fixed price follows.

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

Roofs we see in Bisley

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

    Church and older village buildings

    Bisley's church of St John the Baptist is Grade II* listed, and its 15th-century porch is said to have been built from a single oak tree. Old buildings like it often combine heavy timber, small clay tiles and hand-dressed lead. Anything near them wants like-for-like repair, with materials picked to match, and a clear photographic record of the roof before a tile is touched.

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

    Houses on the heath edge

    Much of the west of the parish is acidic heath used by the Ministry of Defence, so houses on that side face open ground, little shelter from wind, and a lot of wind-blown debris. Ridge and verge tiles take the worst of it. Concrete or clay tiles on these roofs are usually sound, while the mortar holding the ridge, the gable edges and the timber barge boards deserve checking first.

  • House roof stripped to battens during a roof replacement

    Camp and range buildings

    Bisley Camp and the National Shooting Centre sit within the village's historic bounds, and the camp mixes clubhouses, ranges and outbuildings of many different ages. Where a building there has a sheeted or flat roof, access planning and fragile-roof care come first. We survey them with the same photographs and fixed written quote as a domestic job.

24.2 road miles east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Bisley

Planning and building control for most of Bisley sit with Surrey Heath Borough Council. The village has an unusual wrinkle: Bisley Camp is one of Guildford borough's 40 conservation areas, as Guildford's historic environment information records, so the right council to ask depends on exactly where your building stands. If you are near the camp, check which authority covers your address before ordering any materials.

The church of St John the Baptist is listed at Grade II*, which is a high grade, and any roof work on a listed building needs the right consent. In a conservation area, like-for-like repairs are normally straightforward, while altering the material or look of a roof may need permission, so ask the conservation officer at the right council before you start. On ordinary houses, re-roofing the whole building can bring building control into play, and we take care of the paperwork. For roof windows, when a skylight needs planning permission explains the rules.

What we find on Bisley roofs

Roofs in Bisley are shaped by what surrounds them: heath to the west, trees along the lanes, and the large buildings of the camp. Wind, falling needles and leaves, and old materials each cause their own faults.

Chapter 1: Why do the gable-end tiles on our heath-edge house keep lifting in the wind?

What we find

A house on the western side of Bisley has open heath upwind of it, so gusts reach the roof without anything to break them. The roof edges suffer most. At a gable the verge tiles stick out past the wall, and wind gets underneath and tries to peel them upward. If those tiles were bedded in mortar when the house was built, the bed gradually cracks, and each storm loosens it a little more.

From the ground you may notice a verge tile sitting proud of its neighbours, a pale line where mortar has fallen away, or fragments on a path under the gable. Inside the loft there may be a draught across the gable end. A strong gust can then pull a whole run off, and a tile landing on a drive or a car is a real hazard.

What we fix

We take down the loose verge tiles, rake out the failed bed and look at what is underneath: sound battens, a clean edge, an undamaged undercloak. Then we refix the verge with a mechanical system. A dry verge uses plastic or metal units that clip or screw over the tile ends, so the edge is held by fixings and not by cement. The ridge gets the same treatment, with a continuous batten and vented ridge roll, as British Standard BS 5534 expects.

This is usually a day or two's work on a typical house, and it needs scaffold at the gable. Our ridge tile repairs page gives more detail. Dry ridge work on a semi has a typical UK range of £900 to £1,600, and scaffold at the gable comes on top at £300 to £900. The survey photographs show you the loose tiles on your own roof, and your fixed quote follows from them.

Chapter 2: Can new tiles be matched to the old clay tiles on a Bisley village cottage?

What we find

A cottage near the church may have clay tiles that have weathered for generations, with every colour from orange to deep brown, a gentle curve across the roof and a texture that a new machine-made tile does not copy. When one tile cracks or slips and is replaced with a bright new one, the repair stands out from the road. Some owners worry it will also look wrong beside the listed church.

The faults themselves are ordinary: tiles that have slipped, cracked in frost, or lost their nibs, nails that have rusted, and battens that have gone soft. In a thick old roof, the lower courses near the gutter often take the most water and decay first. Moss sits in the lapped joints and holds moisture against the clay, which speeds up frost damage.

What we fix

Matching is a skill in its own right. We look for reclaimed tiles with similar weathering, or for new hand-made tiles that are close in size, colour range and camber, and we mix them through the roof so a repair does not show as a patch. Where only a few tiles are bad, we lift the sound ones either side, replace the broken ones and relay. We use stainless or copper fixings, so the repair does not rust the way the original did.

Keeping the original tile is better for the building and for planning. If the roof needs more than a patch, we show you photographs of each failing area so you can decide with full information. Our guide on matching new tiles to an old roof explains what to look for and what to ask a roofer.

Chapter 3: Why is the roof of our Bisley house always covered in needles, moss and blocked gutters?

What we find

Bisley sits among heath and woodland, and houses close to trees collect a steady fall of needles, leaves and twigs. On a pitched roof they settle in the valleys, the V-shaped channels where two slopes meet, and along the gutter line. A valley full of debris holds water on the lead or tile beneath, and when the water cannot run away it backs up under the tiles at the edge of the valley.

Shade does the rest. A north-facing slope under branches stays damp, which suits moss. Moss grows into the joints and lifts tiles slightly, and when it dies off, bits of it wash down and block downpipes. You will see the gutter overflowing over its front edge in rain, a green stain down the wall below, and damp patches on a ceiling nearest the blocked outlet.

What we fix

We clear the valleys and gutters by hand, checking the lead or mortar flashings as we go, because blocked valleys often hide a split. Moss is removed by scraping and a biocide wash instead of high-pressure jetting, which can blow out the joints between tiles and strip the face from older concrete. We then check the fall of the gutters and replace any sagging brackets, so water leaves the roof instead of standing in the run.

For roofs that sit under overhanging branches, we fit leaf guards on gutters and recommend cutting back the branches before autumn. Our roof cleaning service covers moss and gutter clearance as one visit. Hand moss removal with biocide is quoted in UK cost guides at £748 for a small roof and £978 for a large one. The quote that follows the survey is fixed.

Chapter 4: The old corrugated roof on an outbuilding near the camp looks like asbestos. Who can replace it?

What we find

Around a place like Bisley Camp there are plenty of sheds, stores and outbuildings, and older ones were commonly roofed with corrugated cement sheets. Cement sheet from some decades contains asbestos, and you cannot tell by eye whether it does. Weathered sheets grow moss and lichen, turn brittle, and crack around the bolts, and a cracked sheet can drop water onto whatever is stored below.

The risk comes from breaking or disturbing the sheets. Drilling, scrubbing, pressure washing or walking across them can release fibres, and old sheets can give way underfoot. So the rule for any suspect corrugated roof is to leave it alone, keep people off it, and have the material identified before anything is done. A leak should be dealt with from below, by catching or diverting water, not by working on top.

What we fix

Careful removal of asbestos cement roof sheets, without breaking them, is non-licensed work under HSE guidance, though a risk assessment, proper controls and trained workers are always required. If the sheets will be substantially broken up, the job becomes notifiable, so we plan the work to lift them whole. The old sheets are bagged or wrapped and taken to a site that is permitted to accept them. Overlaying with a new covering is sometimes a sensible alternative, and we tell you which route suits the building after the survey.

A new roof for a small outbuilding can then be profiled metal sheet or an EPDM roof on a new deck. See our garage roof replacement page, or commercial roofing for larger premises. Taking the sheets off a single garage is typically priced at £1,200 to £2,000 in the UK. Your fixed quote follows the survey.

Bisley roofing questions

Do ridge and verge tiles need extra fixing on an exposed roof?

Ridge and verge tiles are the parts of a roof the wind reaches first, and mortar bedding alone can be shaken loose over the years. On exposed ground it makes sense to use mechanical fixings, such as clips or a dry-fix system, on those edges. We check the bedding and the tile condition during the survey and quote to refix or replace what has loosened.

Which council do I ask about a roof near Bisley Camp?

Most of Bisley falls under Surrey Heath Borough Council, but Bisley Camp is one of Guildford borough's 40 conservation areas. Check your address with the planning team of the council that covers it, and ask whether the conservation area applies to your building before you order materials.

Our house faces the open heath west of Bisley. Does exposure shorten a roof's life?

Exposure affects the edges more than the field of the roof. Ridge, hip and verge tiles carry the load from gusts, and their fixings or mortar beds are what fail first. We check these, along with the battens and underlay below. Often the tiles are fine and only the fixing method needs upgrading, which is far cheaper than a new roof.

Can you roof near the church of St John the Baptist, or is that work for a specialist?

A Grade II* church needs specialist conservation advice and consent for nearly all work, which is a matter for the church and its own advisers. For a neighbouring cottage or outbuilding, we do like-for-like repairs with matched clay tile and lead, and we photograph the roof first so you have a record for the conservation officer.

How do you manage scaffold and deliveries when the A322 is the only main road through Bisley?

We plan access at the survey. A single main road means lorries and scaffold deliveries need thought, so we check where materials can be unloaded and whether a skip or a scaffold needs a licence for the highway. On a lane or a private drive, we arrange timings to keep your neighbours moving. Once the roof is finished, we clear the site and take the waste away.

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