Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Fleet

Fleet is 14.2 road miles east of Basingstoke, and the Hampshire town grew up around its railway: Victorian red brick near the High Street and North Fleet, later estates at Ancells Farm and Zebon Copse. Slate, clay tile and flat porch roofs all turn up here. We survey with photographs and give you a written quote that does not move.

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

Roofs we see in Fleet

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

    Victorian and Edwardian brick terraces

    Fleet stayed largely undeveloped until the railway arrived in 1840, and land sold in 1882 was laid out on a grid. The streets that followed are lined with Victorian and Edwardian houses. Hart District Council's appraisal of North Fleet describes red brick, sash windows and pitched roofs of tile or slate, and those are the covering types we meet most often on older streets.

  • House roof stripped to battens during a roof replacement

    Post-war estate houses

    Beyond the original grid, the town spread with estates at Ancells Farm, Zebon Copse and Elvetham Heath. Estate houses of those decades are commonly roofed in interlocking tiles, and the detail varies with age: older ones tend to have felt underlay and mortar-bedded ridges, newer ones a breathable membrane and dry-fixed ridges. Which fault shows first depends on the decade the street was built, and our survey photographs record the age of each part.

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

    Bays, porches and rear extensions

    Almost every older Fleet street has bay windows, front porches or a lean-to at the back, each with its own small roof. These are covered in lead, felt or a newer membrane, and they meet the main wall at a joint that leaks if the flashing is tired. They are small areas, but a drip there can damage plaster and joinery well below the roof.

14.2 road miles east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Fleet

Hart District Council is the planning authority for Fleet. It designated the North Fleet Conservation Area in 1994, and the council publishes an appraisal for it on hart.gov.uk. All Saints Church is the only listed building inside that area, so most houses there are not listed, but the conservation area still covers them: the appraisal treats the red brick and pitched tile or slate roofs as part of what the area is.

For a house within North Fleet, repairs that put back the same slate or the same clay tile are the safest route. Swapping the covering for something different, or altering the roof shape visible from the street, may need consent, so ask the council's conservation officer before you commit. Elsewhere in town, the usual question is building control: a re-roof large enough to be notifiable needs an application, and we manage it on your behalf. Thinking about a roof window on a front slope? Our conservation rooflight guide explains what suits a protected street.

What we find on Fleet roofs

The age of the street decides most of what goes wrong on a roof in this town. Close to the High Street and across North Fleet, the roofs are Victorian and Edwardian: slate or clay tile over timber, with brick chimney stacks and lead at every junction. Further out, estate roofs from later decades fail in more predictable ways.

Chapter 1: Why do slates keep slipping off our Victorian house near Fleet High Street?

What we find

A slate is held by just two nails, driven near its top edge into a timber batten (the thin strip fixed across the rafters). On a roof laid in the later 1800s, those nails were often iron, and iron rusts. Over a century or more the nail shank thins, then snaps, and the slate drops a few centimetres and hangs on its neighbour. This is called nail sickness, and one slipped slate on a roof of this age usually means more are loose.

You may see slates sitting out of line, small fragments on the path, or the odd gap on the slope. In the loft, look for daylight at a gap or a dark stain on the rafter below. Old slates also delaminate, splitting into thin layers, and broken pieces left on the roof channel rain under the courses above.

What we fix

We lift a representative area first, to see whether the slates are sound and the nails alone have failed. Where the slate is good, we re-fix it with copper or stainless nails, or with clips for slates that have lost their nail holes, and bed replacements to match. Where an area is past saving, we strip it, check the battens and felt below, and relay with reclaimed slate in the same size and colour.

Single slate repairs are priced separately from bigger sections. Typical UK figures run £100 to £250 in labour and a slate costing £5 to £25 on top, with a tower or scaffold adding £300 to £800, and you get a fixed quote once we have surveyed. If the roof is failing across the board, our slate roofing page covers a full re-slate.

Chapter 2: Is the leaking chimney on our Fleet terrace a flashing problem or a brick problem?

What we find

Terraces in the older parts of Fleet commonly share a party wall chimney stack, one brick column rising through the roof and serving two houses. The stack stands high, takes the wind, and is wet on every face. Water attacks it in two places. The first is the flashing: the lead strip that seals the joint between stack and slope, which lifts, cracks or is pointed with hard mortar that has since fallen out.

The second is the brickwork. Rain driven into old brick and its mortar joints makes the stack saturated, and the damp shows as a brown patch on the chimney breast in the bedroom, or powder on the plaster. The flaunching (the mortar cap round the pots) can also crack, and a leaning stack suggests that a deeper repair, rather than a patch, is on the cards.

What we fix

We start on the roof, checking the flashing, soakers (small lead pieces interleaved with the slates or tiles up the sides of the stack), the pointing and the flaunching, and photograph each. Many leaks come down to the lead, which we replace, with a cut-in joint that is sealed and mechanically held. Cracked flaunching is cut out and renewed, and repointing is done in a mortar matched to the age of the brick.

If the upper courses are loose, we rebuild them. Typical UK prices for chimney leadwork average about £570, with a range of £350 to £920, and your quote is fixed after the survey. Read our chimney repairs and repointing page for the full picture, and check with a neighbour: if the stack is shared, the work may involve them too.

Chapter 3: Why does the porch or bay window roof on our Fleet house keep leaking at the wall?

What we find

Small roofs on Edwardian bays and porches are built around a junction. The lower roof rises into the main wall, and a strip of lead is chased into the brick and dressed down over the covering. Over decades, the lead creeps down the slope under its own weight and heat, cracks at folds, and the mortar that held its top edge in the wall crumbles. Rain then runs behind the lead and into the porch ceiling.

Bay roofs often have a lead-covered flat top and lead rolls up the corners, and these corners split first. A ceiling stain in the corner of a bay, or a drip beside the front door in heavy rain, usually points to an old junction at the wall, a blocked small gutter, or a flat covering whose seams have opened.

What we fix

We expose the junction and see how far the failure runs. A short length of new lead, chased into a fresh joint in the brick and sealed, often cures a wall leak. Where the whole covering has gone, we strip it, renew rotten boards, and relay in lead or a modern membrane that suits the shape, with welted joints (folded seams that shed water) on a lead roof.

Small roofs make a good case for doing the lot at once, since the scaffold is the largest cost on a job this size. Details of the metal and the folds are on our lead roofing and leadwork page, and the written quote you receive is fixed. Any rotten timber found behind the lead is shown to you in the photographs before it is touched.

Chapter 4: What fails first on a roof in the Ancells Farm or Zebon Copse estates?

What we find

Estate houses are generally built in phases to a repeated design, so one roof's weak points tend to repeat down the street. Where a house has concrete interlocking tiles, the tiles themselves usually last a long time. The first parts to fail are the ridge, the verge (the edge of the roof at the gable) and the bedding mortar that holds them, along with the felt under the lowest tiles at the eaves.

You notice it as mortar fragments in the gutter, a ridge tile sitting off line, or a damp patch on the bedroom ceiling near the outer wall. In a strong blow, a loose ridge tile can come down on a path or a parked car. Mortar-only fixing is now behind current standards: BS 5534 expects ridge, hip and verge components to be mechanically fixed.

What we fix

We lift a few ridge tiles to check whether the tiles are good and only the bed has failed. If so, they go back on a dry-fix system, clipped or screwed to a batten over a breathable roll, so nothing relies on mortar. Dry-fix systems fall under BS 8612. Gable verges are finished with dry verge caps, and at the eaves we fit a support tray that carries water into the gutter if the felt has perished.

A dry ridge on a semi has a reported UK range of £900 to £1,600, with scaffold £300 to £900 extra, and the fixed quote arrives after the survey. Our ridge, verge and dry-fix page goes through each part, and if the underlay has failed right up the slope, we will say plainly that a re-roof is the better answer.

Fleet roofing questions

How do you stop water getting in around the lead at a Victorian chimney in Fleet?

Water usually gets in where the lead flashing has lifted from the brickwork, split at a fold, or lost the mortar fillet that holds it in. We trace the entry point, then replace the flashing and soakers where they have failed, set into the brickwork joints and dressed over the tiles or slates. Where the stack itself is crumbling, the quote covers what it needs before the lead goes back.

My house is in North Fleet. Do I need the council's permission to re-slate?

For a like-for-like repair, usually not, but check first. The North Fleet Conservation Area was designated in 1994, and Hart District Council's appraisal lists tile and slate pitched roofs as part of its character. A change of material or roof shape could need consent. Ask the conservation officer before work starts, and we can send them your survey photographs.

Fleet Pond is close to us. Does that affect the roof?

It can. Fleet Pond is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the largest freshwater lake in Hampshire, so homes nearby often sit close to mature trees and damp, still air. That means shaded slopes, moss, and leaves in the gutters. We clear by hand, avoid harsh pressure washing, and check valleys and outlets. Protected bats and nesting birds are also something we watch for.

Can you get to jobs in Fleet quickly from the M3?

Fleet is easy to reach by road from the M3. The nearest junction is 4A at Minley, joined to the town by the A327, so we are not held up by long cross-country routes. We do prioritise emergency calls, and if water is coming in we make the roof safe first, then arrange the proper repair once the weather lets us.

Are the roofs on the Elvetham Heath estate different from the old streets?

They are younger and are built differently from the Victorian roofs near the station. Newer houses have interlocking tiles, felt or breathable membrane, and factory-made roofline parts, so faults are about fixings, flashings and sealants rather than slipping slates. Whichever kind of roof you own, we photograph it first and quote only what the pictures justify.

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