Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Odiham

Odiham is 9.7 road miles east of Basingstoke, just south of the M3, with the Basingstoke Canal passing the village and RAF Odiham to the south. The older roofs here are handmade clay tile and slate on brick, stucco and timber frames, many of them in a conservation area. We photograph what is wrong on your roof first and quote a fixed price afterwards.

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

Roofs we see in Odiham

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

    Steep handmade clay tile roofs

    Hart District Council's conservation area appraisal records that the roofs in old Odiham are covered in handmade clay tile or in slate, and that many of the steep pitches suggest the buildings were thatched once. A steep pitch sheds water fast but loads the tile fixings, so the faults here are slipped tiles, rotten pegs and corroded nails, and gaps where a hand-made tile has flaked in frost.

  • Brick estate houses with concrete tile roofs among pine trees

    Slate on later brick houses

    Slate is the other roof covering the appraisal names, and it turns up on brick houses across the village. Slates are thin, light and long-lived, but the nails that hold them are not. Once a nail rusts through, the slate slides a few centimetres and leaves a gap, and the first sign is often a slate lying in the border or a damp mark on the ceiling.

  • Brick chimney stack with clay pots

    Brick, stucco and hung tile

    The appraisal lists brick and stucco, hung clay tiles on walls as well as roofs, and timber framing that mostly shows only on the side elevations. Each material meets the roof somewhere: render at a parapet, tile-hanging at an abutment, brick at a chimney. Those junctions, and the flashings that seal them, are where Odiham houses most often let water in.

9.7 road miles east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Odiham

The planning authority for the village is Hart District Council, and the centre of Odiham has been a conservation area since 1979. Hart's adopted appraisal for Odiham and North Warnborough describes the roof materials the council expects to see, and it is the first thing to read before you replace a covering on an old house: you can find it on Hart's website. All Saints Church is listed at Grade I, and other buildings in the village are listed too. Our guides to conservation area roofing rules and roof work on a listed building set out how consent works in general.

A like-for-like repair, in matching handmade clay or slate, is normally the straightforward route. Changing the material, the colour or the way a roof looks may need consent, so put the question to Hart's conservation officer ahead of any order for materials. Building control is a separate question: you can use the council's team or a registered building control approver, and a larger re-cover can be notifiable. The building control paperwork is ours to handle. If you want a roof window in an older house here, the choice of rooflight matters more than usual, and our conservation rooflights guide explains the options.

What we find on Odiham roofs

Odiham is an old settlement strung along a long main street, and the buildings show several centuries of repair. Hand-made tile, slate, lime-bedded brick and stucco all sit side by side, and each one fails in its own way.

Chapter 1: Why are the handmade clay tiles on our steep Odiham roof slipping out of place?

What we find

Plain clay tiles are small, and on a steep pitch each one is held by two nibs hooked over a batten, plus a nail or a wooden peg through every second or third course. After a century or two, iron nails rust and snap, and oak pegs rot at the hole. The tile then drops by a few centimetres, leaving a visible gap in the course or a tile resting on its neighbour. Hart's appraisal notes that many of the steep pitches here suggest the buildings were once thatched.

Hand-made tiles are softer than machine-made ones, so frost can flake the face and leave a pitted surface that holds water. A roof can look sound from the road and still have dozens of loose tiles on the rear slope, which is why the clue is usually in the garden: broken pieces on the lawn, or one slope noticeably greener than the rest.

What we fix

We open up just the failed section, set aside every tile that is still sound, and renew the battens beneath. Missing and cracked tiles are replaced with reclaimed or handmade plain tiles picked to suit the colour and curve of the originals, which is also what a conservation officer would expect to see. The tiles are then fixed with stainless or copper nails, or clips, instead of reusing corroded iron.

It matters that the roof is not stripped further than it needs to be: patching sound old tiles is both cheaper and more faithful to the building than a new roof. If the underlay below has perished, we say so and renew a section with breathable membrane. Where more than a patch is needed, our pitched roofing page describes a full re-cover, and the quote for any repair follows from the survey photographs.

Chapter 2: The slates on our Odiham house keep slipping. Can they be fixed without a new roof?

What we find

Slate is a hard-wearing stone, so when a slate slips the cause is almost always the fixing, not the slate. Each is held by two nails near the head. In a damp climate, ferrous nails rust over the decades and the head shears off, leaving the slate hanging by friction. Wind then does the rest. The result is a gap in the course, and under it a line of exposed underlay or boarding that the water finds quickly.

On the brick houses in the village, slate roofs often run into ridge tiles, hips and a chimney, and these details tend to fail before the field of slates. A grey stripe of staining down the face of a gable wall, or slates stacking up in the gutter, points to a roof on its way out only if the slates themselves are cracking or delaminating. Otherwise it is the nails.

What we fix

A single slate can be replaced by sliding a new one into the gap and holding it with a copper or aluminium tingle, a small clip that grips the slate's lower edge. For a section with several failures, we strip the area, re-nail with non-corroding fixings and relay the sound slates, adding salvaged ones to fill the gaps. Where slate on the whole roof is delaminating, new natural slate costs more than man-made, and we compare them for you.

For a single repair, UK guides report £100 to £250 in labour, with the slate itself at £5 to £25, and a scaffold tower adding £300 to £800 where access is difficult. A whole natural slate re-roof is typically reported at £120 to £180 for each square metre covered. Your fixed quote follows the survey. More on the material is on our slate roofing page.

Chapter 3: Where tile-hanging meets the roof on our Odiham cottage, why is damp getting into the first-floor room?

What we find

Hung clay tiles are fixed vertically on battens against a wall, overlapping like roof tiles, and the Hart appraisal records them as a feature of the village. Where the hung tiles stop and the roof starts, or where a lower roof abuts a higher wall, a metal flashing has to carry the water out over the roof covering. The junction takes the full run-off from the wall above, in addition to the rain falling on the roof itself.

Older houses were often flashed with lead, which lasts well, but mortar fillets and cement-based repairs added in the 20th century crack as the building moves. Water gets behind the lead, runs down the inside face of the wall and appears as a dark patch on the plaster beside the window or at skirting level. A single heavy shower can show it, but the stain tends to grow slowly.

What we fix

We open up the junction, remove failed mortar and render, and check the battens and the back of the hung tiles for rot. New lead is chased into the wall or tucked under the tile courses, with soakers (small lead pieces layered between tiles) at the sloping edge, then dressed down over the roof covering and fixed with clips so it can move without tearing.

Where the hung tiles have slipped, we replace them with matching handmade tiles, which is far better than painting over the damage. Lime mortar is used for any repointing, since a cement mix is harder than old brick or soft tile and can crack the masonry around it. The repair is photographed stage by stage. How lead is cut, fixed and sealed is described under lead roofing and leadwork.

Chapter 4: Our Odiham chimney stack looks tired and the ceiling below has a stain. What is likely to be wrong?

What we find

On the older houses, the chimney stack is the highest and most exposed part of the building. Brick in lime mortar loses its pointing in the weather, and rain that gets into the joints can soak the stack from the top. The flashing around the base, the cap or flaunching on top (the mortar bed that holds the pots) and the lead tray that sits within the stack are all places where water can enter.

On a house with stucco, the same applies to rendered stacks, where the coating cracks and lets water in behind it. Inside, the sign is a tide mark on the chimney breast or on the ceiling beside the stack. Damp that worsens in a south-westerly gale usually means the wind-driven water is entering high up. A leaning or loose stack should be treated as urgent.

What we fix

We examine the stack from the roof or a tower and photograph each joint, the flashings and the cap, then tell you which elements have failed. Repointing in lime mortar, a new flaunching and new lead flashings and soakers cure most leaks, and a failing stack that cannot be saved can be taken down and rebuilt to the same height and brick pattern. If a chimney is no longer used, capping and ventilating the flue is a sensible alternative to leaving it open to the rain.

Reported UK prices for repointing a chimney span £450 to £1,200, and for new leadwork £350 to £920, scaffold being extra. The full range of work is on our chimney repairs page.

Odiham roofing questions

Does a steep Odiham roof once thatched need special care when it is retiled?

Yes. Hart's appraisal notes that many steep pitches in Odiham suggest the buildings were once thatched. A steep clay tile roof sheds water well but loads the battens and rafters differently, and old timbers can be thinner than modern ones. Handmade clay tiles also vary in size, so matching is slow work. Check with the council's conservation team if the property is listed or in the conservation area.

We live near RAF Odiham. Does that change how you work on a roof?

The base lies to the south of the village, home to the RAF Chinook fleet, and it does not change how a roof is repaired. We plan scaffold and working times with you, as we do anywhere, so that noise on the day suits your household.

Can you match the old handmade tiles on our Odiham house?

Usually, yes. We source reclaimed plain clay tiles, or new handmade ones, chosen against the colour and curve of your existing roof, and mix them across a slope so the repair does not stand out. We lay a sample on the roof for you to approve before the work begins. In the conservation area, matching the originals is also what the council expects.

Does a canal-side house in Odiham need anything special on the roof?

Damp air and nearby trees mean moss, algae and leaf fall build up faster on shaded slopes, so gutters need to be kept clear and tiles checked for moss. We remove moss by hand with a biocide, not by pressure washing, and our roof cleaning page gives the typical UK costs for it.

Can All Saints or other listed buildings in Odiham be repaired by you?

For a listed house in the village, we record the roof in photographs, suggest a repair in kind, using matching clay or slate and give you a report to take to Hart's conservation officer. Consent is needed before any change of material. Protected species such as bats and nesting birds can also affect when an older roof is worked on.

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