Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Medstead

Medstead stands 12.3 road miles south of Basingstoke on high Hampshire ground, around 180 metres above sea level, and its roofs take the weather head-on. Flint-walled cottages, a Norman church and old farm buildings sit among later houses. We climb up, photograph what is wrong on your roof, and quote a firm figure in writing.

Get a free surveyCall 01256 213956
A Georgian brick town house with a slate roof and parapet in a Hampshire market town

Roofs we see in Medstead

  • Slipped and cracked clay roof tiles

    Exposed roofs on high ground

    The village averages about 180 metres above sea level, and King's Hill, which reaches 218 metres, runs through Medstead and neighbouring Bentworth. Nothing much stands between a roof up here and a south-westerly gale. Ridges, verges and the bottom courses of tiles take the punishment first, and rain driven sideways finds any gap in the laps long before it would on a sheltered valley floor.

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

    Flint, brick and old farmhouses

    Medstead has six Grade II listed buildings, among them Southdown Old Farmhouse, an 18th-century small manor. The Norman church of St Andrew has flint walls, and flint is common in older village buildings. Where a pitched roof meets flint or brick, lead flashings and lime mortar do the sealing, and those details outlast the tiles only if someone looks after them.

  • Brick estate houses with concrete tile roofs among pine trees

    Weatherboarded sheds and outbuildings

    The Victorian wheelhouse in the village is a timber frame clad in weatherboard on brick plinths, and smaller garden buildings often follow a similar pattern. Garden rooms, stores and lean-tos carry light roofs of felt, corrugated sheet or old tile. They are far easier to repair than to replace, provided the frame underneath is still sound and dry.

12.3 road miles south of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Medstead

East Hampshire District Council deals with planning and with building control in Medstead, and its website at easthants.gov.uk is the place to check whether your address sits in a conservation area. The village has six Grade II listed buildings, including Southdown Old Farmhouse and the war memorial, and the twelfth-century church of St Andrew stands at its heart. A house beside a listed building is not itself listed, but one that is listed, or lies in a protected area, needs more care.

On a listed roof, matching repair with the same materials is usually acceptable, while switching clay for concrete or slate for tile is the sort of change that needs consent. Speak to the council's conservation officer first, and read our notes on roof work on a listed building. On an ordinary village house, a repair rarely needs approval, but re-covering the whole roof may be notifiable to building control, and we take that on. Before adding a roof window, see our conservation rooflights page.

What we find on Medstead roofs

Medstead's height above sea level shapes almost every roof fault we are asked about, and its old buildings add a second set of problems on top.

Chapter 1: Why do tiles keep slipping on our house on the high ground in Medstead?

What we find

At 180 metres and more, the wind has a long run at a Medstead roof, and the strongest suction acts at the edges: the verge, the ridge and the eaves. A tile held by gravity and one nail will lift when a gust gets underneath it, and each time it lifts it works a little looser. Over a number of winters, the nail head shifts in the batten, the tile settles out of line and the course above starts to ride up.

From the garden, look for tiles sitting at a slight angle, a gap along a gable edge or a scatter of broken fragments on the lawn after a gale. In the loft, a draught along the eaves or fine spray marks on the underside of the felt show that wind-driven rain is being forced through the laps. A roof exposed like this tends to repeat the fault until the fixings change.

What we fix

We re-lay the slipped tiles with clips on the exposed courses and stainless or galvanised nails of the right length, and check that the battens underneath are not split or rotten. The edges get extra attention. Verge tiles can be fixed with a continuous dry verge system, and the ridge can be mechanically held down rather than bedded in mortar, which matches the thinking behind BS 5534. If a tile was lost to the wind, damp felt behind it is replaced.

A repair of this sort usually takes a day. Our guide to roof tiles lifting in the wind explains the physics of uplift, and our ridge tile repairs page covers the hipped and gabled details. Reported UK prices for dry-fixing the ridge of a semi start at £900 and reach £1,600, with scaffold on top at £300 to £900 more. Your fixed quote follows the survey.

Chapter 2: Can the old tiled roof on our 18th-century Medstead farmhouse be patched rather than replaced?

What we find

Farmhouses of that age were roofed with hand-made clay plain tiles, hung on riven oak laths or early softwood battens over rafters that were often cut from green timber. The tiles are slightly curved, uneven in thickness and soft-edged, which is exactly why they look right and also why they are fragile. Between the tiles and the rafters there may be lime torching, a coat of mortar pressed into the underside to stop wind and snow blowing in. When that crumbs away, the first sign is dust on the loft floor.

The worse problems are hidden. The wall plate, the beam the rafters sit on, can rot where rain has run down the wall for generations, and the lower ends of the rafters can decay with it. A sagging eaves line, a dip in the ridge or a gap where the roof pulls away from a gable wall suggest the frame is moving. Anything that looks structural needs checking from inside before a tile is touched.

What we fix

Repair is normally right, and on a listed house it is usually the only route the council will accept. We lift tiles in bays, keep every sound one and top up with reclaimed or hand-made tiles chosen for matching colour and thickness. Failed torching is renewed in lime, and any rotten rafter feet or wall plate are spliced with new oak or treated softwood, working to the existing structure. Lead flashings are replaced like for like, and our guide to leadwork on period and listed homes shows how.

We always photograph the roof from inside as well as outside, so you hold a record to show the council's conservation officer before any consent question arises. If a change of material is tempting, we explain the risk first. Old farmhouse roofs are prime places for roosting bats and nesting birds, both protected, so a survey or careful timing may come before any work.

Chapter 3: Why does damp appear where the roof meets the flint wall of our Medstead cottage?

What we find

Flint walling is built in lime mortar, which lets moisture move in and out of the wall. Where a roof slope butts into that wall, at a gable or beside a chimney, a strip of lead is tucked into a groove cut in the masonry and dressed down over the tiles. Over the years the groove mortar erodes, the lead lifts, and rain runs behind it onto the timber or plaster below. Some older walls have also been patched with hard cement, which traps water in the flint behind it instead of letting it escape.

The signs are a damp patch on the inside of the wall, close to the ceiling, that darkens after a wet week and dries slowly. Outside, look at the flashing: gaps at the top edge, lead that has split along a fold, or a bead of mastic someone has smeared over the joint. Mastic is a short-term cover and often masks the real fault.

What we fix

We rake out the failed mortar, repoint the groove in lime that matches the wall, and fit new lead flashing with stepped pieces and a proper upstand (the vertical part that turns up the wall). On a chimney the same job includes a back gutter, a small lead channel that carries water round behind the stack. Our page on the chimney back gutter explains what it does.

Where hard cement has been used, we advise taking out only what has to go, because breaking into flint risks loosening more than you meant to. Reported UK prices for chimney leadwork range from £350 to £920 across jobs of different sizes. For the wider picture, our chimney repairs page covers stacks, pots and flaunching.

Chapter 4: What roof suits a weatherboarded outbuilding or old store in Medstead?

What we find

A frame clad in timber boards and standing on a brick plinth is light, so its roof has to be light as well. Many such buildings carry felt on boarding, corrugated sheets or a few rows of old tiles over thin rafters. Each fails in its own way. Felt cracks and tears at the edges. Corrugated cement sheets from the mid twentieth century grow moss, turn brittle and crack around the bolts, and some contain asbestos. Tiles slip because the rafters have bowed under their weight.

The roof matters for the frame beneath it. A leak at the eaves runs down the inside face of the weatherboarding, soaks the bottom rail and lets rot work up from the plinth. By the time paint bubbles on the boards, the damage inside may be well advanced. Press a screwdriver into the lowest timber from inside: if it sinks in, the roof has been failing for some time.

What we fix

If the sheets might be asbestos cement, do not drill, scrub or stand on them. Lifting them off intact falls into the HSE category that needs no licence, though it still demands a written risk assessment, proper controls and trained operatives. Should they need breaking up to come down, the work turns into a notifiable job. On a small building, overlaying with a new roof can be the safer route, and we tell you which after the survey. We make sure the waste goes to a site that is allowed to accept it.

For felt or sheet replacement we fit new boarding where it is soft and cover the roof in a single-ply rubber membrane or fibreglass resin, whichever suits the shape. Typical UK prices for re-covering a single garage-sized roof fall between £1,200 and £2,500, depending on size and access. Our garage roof replacement page has more on materials and costs.

Medstead roofing questions

Medstead is high up. Does altitude affect the roof?

At about 180 metres above sea level, Medstead takes more wind and weather than low-lying ground, with King's Hill higher still. Exposed roofs lose ridge and verge tiles first, and lifted flashings let wind driven rain in. Frost can also crack porous tiles that hold water. When we survey we check how the edges are fixed and look for lifted or cracked tiles, then photograph each fault.

Our house stands on King's Hill ridge. Does the exposure change what you recommend?

It can. On open high ground we favour mechanical fixings at the ridge and verges and clips on the lower courses, and we pay close attention to the felt and the battens. A roof that has stood for years is not necessarily weak, but the weather up there finds the weak points faster. We say plainly where a repair is enough and where the wind will keep undoing it.

Does a Grade II listing mean a leak repair needs consent?

Usually not for like-for-like work: replacing a slipped tile with a matching one, or renewing lead in the same pattern. Consent tends to be needed when materials or appearance change. Ask East Hampshire's conservation officer before anything is ordered. We photograph the roof and give you a written record to show them, and our listed building guide sets out the usual rules.

Can you repair a flint-walled cottage roof without harming the walls?

Yes. We work in lime mortar where the wall is lime-built, cut flashing grooves carefully and avoid hard cement, which can trap moisture in the flint. If a previous repair used cement, we explain what to leave alone and what to renew. The aim is a watertight junction that the old wall can live with.

Do you also work on outbuildings and small commercial buildings around Medstead?

Yes. We handle residential and commercial roofing, so garden rooms, stores, workshops and small business premises are all within reach. Each gets the same free survey with photographs, and a fixed written quote. Our commercial roofing page explains how larger sheeted roofs are handled.

Nearby

Get your free roof survey in Medstead

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