Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Chineham

Chineham is 4.2 road miles north-east of Basingstoke, between the A33 and the Reading railway line, and most of its roofs belong to the estates built since the late 1970s. Before that it was a village of about seventy dwellings, mostly along the Basingstoke to Reading road. We photograph your own roof, then put a fixed written quote in front of you.

Get a free surveyCall 01256 213956
A Hampshire village cottage of flint and brick with a steep clay plain tile roof

Roofs we see in Chineham

  • House roof stripped to battens during a roof replacement

    Estate houses from the late 1970s on

    By the 1960s Chineham had only about seventy dwellings, so nearly everything you see today went up in the decades after the late 1970s. Rows of semis, terraces and detached houses share a few roof designs: concrete interlocking tiles, mortar at the ridge and gable edges, and timber fascias. Neighbouring houses often develop the same fault within a year or two of each other.

  • A row of Victorian terraced houses with Welsh slate roofs and brick chimneys in Reading

    Houses older than the estates

    The old village sat mostly along the Basingstoke to Reading road. A house that was standing before the estates will not follow the estate pattern: its covering could be clay tile, concrete tile or slate, over timbers and a chimney stack that may have seen several repairs. Roofs like that take careful repair, not wholesale replacement, and the first visit is to find out what is original.

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

    Garages, porches and extensions

    Estate houses of this age usually come with an integral or attached garage, and many have been extended since with a flat-roofed kitchen or utility room. These small roofs are covered in felt, EPDM or GRP, and the joint where they meet the main house wall is a common place for a leak. Most are straightforward to re-cover and are quoted in the same survey.

4.2 road miles north-east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Chineham

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is the authority for planning and building control in Chineham, which has had its own civil parish since 1986. Most of the housing is modern estate stock, so re-roofing is normally a building control matter rather than a planning one. The council publishes guidance on its website, and it is worth checking whether an older property near the Reading road carries any listing or local designation before you order materials.

Repairs or re-covering do not normally need an application when they affect less than 25% of the building envelope and less than 50% of the roof. A full strip and re-cover on an estate semi is likely to exceed that, and the insulation of the whole roof may then have to be upgraded. A heavier new covering of 15% or more can require the structure to be checked. We handle the notification where work is notifiable. For roof windows, the skylight planning answer comes first, before you apply for anything.

What we find on Chineham roofs

Because Chineham grew in a few big phases, its roofs age in step. The estate houses are now well into the middle of a concrete tile roof's working life, and the same faults appear in the same places along whole streets. The houses that predate the estates and the flat roofs behind the estates raise their own questions.

Chapter 1: Why are the gable edges of our Chineham house shedding mortar onto the drive?

What we find

The verge is the edge of the roof where it finishes at the gable wall. On most of the estates built here since the late 1970s, that edge was formed by bedding the last row of tiles in sand and cement mortar, then pointing it flush. It looks tidy for years, but the mortar is rigid and the tiles and wall expand and contract at different rates, so hairline cracks open and then widen.

Frost then works into the cracks, and pieces fall off, often first noticed as grey crumbs by the downpipe or on a car roof. Once the mortar goes, wind can reach under the verge tiles, lifting them in a gale. In the loft you may see daylight where the roof meets the gable wall, or stains on the boards close to the edge.

What we fix

We check each verge tile by hand and from the loft, then decide whether to re-bed in mortar or move to a mechanical dry verge. Dry verge units are plastic or aluminium caps that clip over the tile ends and hold them down, so the edge no longer depends on mortar. The British Standard for slating and tiling, BS 5534, expects mechanical fixing at these edges, which is why we lean towards dry systems on estate roofs like these.

On a terrace of similar houses it often makes sense to work along the ridge in the same visit, since the scaffold is already there. Where the ridge is done too, the typical UK range for a dry ridge is £900 to £1,600 for a semi, with scaffold at £300 to £900. Your fixed quote follows the survey. The verge repairs page goes through the options.

Chapter 2: Does the London clay under Chineham make a difference to the roof?

What we find

Chineham lies on London clay, north of the band of Reading Beds that crosses Basingstoke. Clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and over a long summer followed by a wet winter the ground can move enough to shift a house a small amount. We are roofers, not structural engineers, so we do not diagnose foundations. We do see the effect where the walls meet the roof.

A gable wall that has moved slightly pulls on the mortar of the verge. A chimney stack that has shifted opens the flashing around its base and cracks its flaunching, the sloping cap of mortar around the pots. Cracks above the window heads or a stack leaning a touch out of true are reasons to look at the roof as well as the wall, because the water is what turns a small movement into a damp problem.

What we fix

Where we find a roof defect that looks linked to wall movement, we photograph it and tell you plainly. We repair what is ours: renewing the flashings and soakers (small lead pieces folded into the tile courses), rebuilding failed flaunching, repointing the stack and sealing the verge. A flexible lead flashing tolerates a degree of movement that stiff mortar does not.

If the cracking is wider or is growing, we recommend you ask a structural engineer or your building control body to look at the wall before more roof money is spent, and put that in the survey notes. Typical UK ranges for chimney leadwork are £350 to £920. See our chimney repairs page.

Chapter 3: The flat roof over our garage extension in Chineham is leaking where it meets the wall. Repair or replace?

What we find

Garage and utility roofs on the estates are small, flat or nearly flat, and covered with bitumen felt or a single-ply sheet. They fail in predictable places. The upstand, the vertical edge of the membrane against the house wall, loses its seal when the flashing lifts or the sealant dries out. Water then runs down behind the sheet, and the first sign is a damp corner on the ceiling inside.

Elsewhere on the roof, the covering splits along its seams, blisters where moisture has been trapped, or ponds in a dip where the deck has sagged. A garage that has been extended often has two or three roof coverings of different ages joined together, and each ages at its own rate. A single stain inside may come from a point several metres from where it appears.

What we fix

If the deck is dry and the membrane is sound apart from the upstand, we reseal that edge with a new lead or membrane flashing and leave the rest of the roof alone. Where the covering has failed over a wider area, we strip back to the deck, replace any soft boards, and fit EPDM (a single-sheet synthetic rubber membrane) or GRP, a fibreglass system that is laid as a liquid resin and sets solid.

Typical UK ranges per square metre are £80 to £120 for EPDM and £100 to £160 for GRP, and an EPDM roof on a single garage typically runs from £1,200 to £2,500. Our flat roofing page explains how each material behaves.

Chapter 4: Can the old clay-tiled roof on a Chineham house that predates the estates be repaired without replacing it?

What we find

A house that was standing before the estates is older than its neighbours, and where it carries clay plain tiles they are small, double-lapped and hung on timber battens, over rafters that may be hand-cut and uneven. Such roofs have been patched many times, and what looks from the road like one roof may actually be several repairs done at different dates in tiles that do not quite match.

Common faults are nail sickness, where the iron nails fixing the tiles corrode and let them slip, rotted battens under the lower courses, and chimney flashings that have been smeared over with mastic instead of being dressed in lead. Sagging in the ridge line points to a rafter or purlin problem, which is a job for a carpenter before any tiles go back.

What we fix

We survey the roof from inside and out, photograph what is original and what is a later patch, and mark the sound tiles. Repair normally means stripping only the failed section, keeping every good tile, replacing battens and nails, and matching new or reclaimed tiles to the existing colour and camber. The chimney gets new lead flashings dressed into the courses, not another coat of sealant.

If the structure underneath needs attention, that goes in the report before any quote is built on it, because patching tiles over a failing timber is wasted money. Where more than a repair is justified, such as a section of re-roofing, we talk it through with you and the council if the house is listed. Our pitched roofing page covers how these jobs run.

Chineham roofing questions

Chineham stands on London clay. Can ground movement show up as a roof problem?

Clay soils move with wet and dry seasons, and that movement can crack a chimney stack or open a gap where an extension meets the house. Water then gets in at the flashings and the roof gets the blame. If you see fresh cracks in brickwork, we photograph the roof side and tell you if the cause looks structural, in which case your building control body or an engineer should look at the wall first.

Our estate roof is over forty years old. Does that mean it needs replacing?

Not by itself. Age is a reason to look, not a verdict. Concrete tiles from the 1980s often outlast the felt, the ridge and verge mortar and the fascias. We check the underlay from the loft and lift a few tiles to inspect the battens. If the roof has years left, we say so and quote the repair; if the underlay has failed across the slope, we explain why a re-roof is the better route.

Do we need building control for a new roof on a Chineham semi?

A full strip and re-cover on a semi usually does, because it will affect more than half the roof. Smaller repairs normally do not. Basingstoke and Deane's building control team or a registered building control approver handles it, and the insulation of the whole roof may have to be upgraded. We deal with the notification, so you do not have to chase paperwork yourself.

Why does moss keep coming back on the roof of our house near the Reading railway line?

Moss needs damp, shade and a rough surface. A roof that sits beside trees or a north-facing slope that stays wet after rain gives it all three, and concrete tiles hold spores in their pores. We remove it by hand with a biocide treatment rather than pressure washing, and clear the gutters at the same visit. Typical UK prices for moss removal run from £748 to £978 depending on roof size.

Do you do commercial roofs on the units near the District Centre?

Yes, we cover residential and commercial roofing. Business premises are a different job from houses, with sheeting, single-ply membranes and built-up felt, and fragile-roof safety matters for anyone working on them. We survey, photograph and quote in writing, and can plan the work so a trading unit stays open. Read more on our commercial roofing page.

Nearby areas

Get your free roof survey in Chineham

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