Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Sherfield-on-Loddon

Sherfield-on-Loddon lies 6 road miles north-east of Basingstoke on the A33, beside the River Loddon. Its roofs run from red clay tile and slate in the conservation area to the newer tiled houses of Sherfield Park on the edge of Basingstoke. We look at your roof, photograph what is wrong and write you a fixed quote.

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Brick chimney stack with clay pots

Roofs we see in Sherfield-on-Loddon

  • An Edwardian red-brick detached house with clay tile roof and tile-hung gables in north Hampshire

    Clay tile and slate in the old village

    The council's appraisal lists the village's traditional materials as timber frame with red brick infill, red and painted brick, and roofs of red clay tile, slate and thatch. Plain clay tiles are small and double-lapped, hung from battens (the timber laths the tiles hook over), so one slipped or frost-split tile can be swapped on its own. Slate is finer and lighter, and its weak point is usually the fixing nail, not the slate.

  • Roofer fitting roof tiles on a brick house near Basingstoke

    Sherfield Park estate houses

    Sherfield Park went up on the edge of Basingstoke between 2004 and 2014, so these roofs are young beside the village cottages. Age is rarely the issue. The faults we look for on houses of this vintage are details: a valley lapped too tightly, a verge that has lifted at the gable, or a flashing where an extension meets the main roof. Each is a small repair when caught early.

  • White uPVC fascia, soffit and guttering under a tiled roof

    Riverside and mill-side properties

    Longbridge Mill and Mill House stand on the southern bank of the Loddon, and homes near the water share a damp, low setting. A roof that dries slowly grows moss and algae, tiles hold water, and gutters silt up under leaf fall. Porches and flat-roofed extensions added to older cottages are the other weak spot, because their felt or rubber membrane has to join a tiled slope or a brick wall with lead.

6 road miles north-east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Sherfield-on-Loddon

The borough council, Basingstoke and Deane, decides planning applications in the village and runs its building control. The Sherfield on Loddon Conservation Area was first designated in 1981 and lies by the River Loddon in a gently undulating landscape of clay and peat. The council publishes the appraisal on its conservation appraisals page, and it is worth reading before you plan work on an older house, because it names the clay tile, slate, thatch and red brick that make up the village's character.

Within the designated area, repairing like for like is normally simple enough. Swapping clay for concrete tile, or changing how the roof looks from the lane, might need consent, so put the question to the conservation officer at the council ahead of buying any tiles. Outside it, on the Sherfield Park roads, the question is usually building control: stripping and re-covering the whole roof may be notifiable, which we take care of. Considering a roof window? Our planning guide for roof windows covers the rules, which tighten inside the designated area.

What we find on Sherfield-on-Loddon roofs

Sherfield-on-Loddon splits into two kinds of roof. The conservation area carries clay tile and slate over timber frame and old brick, laid long before anyone wrote a building standard. Sherfield Park carries modern tiled roofs that were built to a standard but still pick up faults at the joints.

Chapter 1: Why does our clay-tiled cottage in Sherfield-on-Loddon lose tiles after every hard frost?

What we find

Old plain clay tiles are porous. A tile that has soaked up water over a wet autumn can freeze in January, and the ice pushes the face off in flakes, which roofers call spalling. Once the face has gone, the tile thins, cracks across the nail hole and slides out of its course. You find the pieces in the border or on the path, and a gap that lets rain onto the battens below.

Timber-framed houses add a second cause. The frame has moved over centuries, so the roof planes are rarely flat, and tiles on a sagging section sit unevenly and shed water badly. From the loft you may see daylight through a slipped tile, or a dark stain on an old rafter where a leak has dripped for a season or two.

What we fix

We strip only the section that has failed and keep every tile that is still sound. The gaps are filled with salvaged or hand-made plain tiles chosen to match colour and curve, so the repair does not show from the lane. Rotten battens are replaced, and fresh nails or clips fix the tiles instead of the corroded ones that were holding them before.

We do not straighten a sagging roof plane unless it is leaking, because forcing an old frame to a new line can create more trouble than it solves. Where a bigger section needs replacing, we photograph the whole roof and talk the options through with you before you approach the conservation officer, since swapping the material could need the council's consent. Our pitched roofing page explains how this kind of work is planned.

Chapter 2: Why does the lead round our chimney keep letting water in on a Sherfield-on-Loddon house?

What we find

Chimney stacks on the older houses are built of red or painted brick, and the joint where the stack passes through the roof is the most exposed point on the whole house. The strip of lead that seals it is called a flashing, and the small lead pieces woven between the tiles up each side are soakers. Over the years lead cracks along the folds, mortar fillets that someone added as a cheap repair crack away from the brick, and water finds the gap.

Inside, it shows as a stain on the chimney breast or a damp patch on the ceiling beside it. On a house next to a thatched neighbour, or with a thatched section of its own, the stack is often the only brick and lead on the roof, so it takes the full force of rain and wind. Crumbling mortar between the bricks is the other sign to watch for.

What we fix

We strip the old flashing, rake out failed mortar and fix new lead into the joints of the brickwork, not onto the face of it. New soakers are cut to the tile gauge so they sit flat in each course. Where the brick is soft, repointing is done in lime, not cement, so the mortar gives before the brick does and the stack does not trap water behind a hard shell.

Cost guides report chimney leadwork at £350 to £920, averaging about £570, with scaffold extra; once we have seen the roof, our quote is fixed. A rebuilt stack is only needed when the brick itself has gone. Our chimney repairs service and our leadwork page cover the choices in more depth.

Chapter 3: What is wrong with the flat roof on our extension near the River Loddon?

What we find

Low, damp ground and overhanging trees are hard on flat roofs. Leaves settle in the outlet, water stands behind them, and the surface sits wet for days after rain. Standing water finds every weakness: a seam in the felt, a lifted edge, a blister that has split. On older porches and kitchen extensions, the boards under the covering may have soaked up the damp and gone soft, which you can feel as a springy spot when the roof is inspected.

Inside, look for a brown ring on the ceiling that grows after heavy rain, or a patch of peeling paint near the wall where the extension meets the house. That junction is where the membrane turns up the brick and is sealed with lead or a trim, and it often fails first. Green growth along the low edge tells you water is lingering there.

What we fix

If the deck is sound and the covering is simply worn, a repair or an overlay may be enough, and we say so after looking at the roof. Where boards have rotted, we strip back to the structure, replace the damp timber, add insulation to current standards and lay a new membrane. EPDM (a single-sheet synthetic rubber) suits a small extension well because it goes down in one piece with few seams.

EPDM is typically reported at £80 to £120 for each square metre, with felt lower and GRP (fibreglass resin poured and set hard on site) higher; your fixed quote follows the survey. A full replacement is a bigger job than a patch and can be notifiable, so we handle building control where it applies. Read more on our flat roofing page.

Chapter 4: Our gable wall has cracked and the verge tiles have shifted. Is the clay ground to blame?

What we find

The parish sits on a clay subsoil with patches of gravel, and many of those gravel areas were worked as small pits. Clay swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, and in a long dry summer a house on clay can move slightly. A roof is often the first place you notice. The verge, where the tiles finish above a gable wall, is bedded in mortar on many older houses, and a hairline crack in the wall can open the bed and let a verge tile slide.

Look for a stepped crack in the brickwork below the verge, a gap that has opened between the tile ends and the wall, or a ridge that no longer runs straight. We are roofers, not structural engineers, so we judge only what we can see at roof level. Cracks that keep growing need a separate opinion.

What we fix

We look at the roof first and tell you honestly whether the roof or the wall needs attention. If the movement has stopped and only the mortar has failed, we relay the verge tiles on a fresh bed and fix them mechanically as well, since BS 5534 calls for mechanical fixing of the ridge, hip and verge, with mortar no longer relied on by itself. Dry verge systems are covered by BS 8612.

If a crack is still active, we make the roof watertight and suggest you bring in a structural engineer before more is spent on the tiles. Cost guides give a dry ridge on a semi as £900 to £1,600, and our quote is fixed after the survey. Fixing methods are set out under ridge, verge and dry-fix systems.

Sherfield-on-Loddon roofing questions

Can the older roofs in the Sherfield-on-Loddon conservation area be repaired like for like?

Usually, and like for like is the sensible aim in a conservation area. Where the roof is red clay tile or slate, we match the tile, the pitch and the way it is laid, and re-use sound tiles where we can. Switching to another tile or slate is a matter for the borough council's conservation team, so ask them before work starts, and we will happily quote to match what is there. We photograph the roof first, so you can see what actually needs replacing.

Can a roof on a Sherfield Park house really need work already?

It can, though the roof as a whole is usually sound. Houses built between 2004 and 2014 have a roof still well within its life, so we look for small things: a lifted verge tile, a worn flashing, a valley where leaves have collected. Catching one early costs far less than the staining it causes. If the main roof has years left, we tell you so, and repairs carry our written 10-year workmanship guarantee.

Do I need consent to re-tile a cottage inside the Sherfield-on-Loddon conservation area?

Repairing in matching clay tile or slate is normally fine, yet altering the material or the look of the roof could need consent. Ask Basingstoke and Deane's conservation officer before any tiles are ordered. We photograph the whole roof as it stands, which gives you a clear record to show the council and a firm basis for the quote.

Why do the roofs near the mill and the river grow so much moss?

Roofs close to the Loddon sit in damp, low ground, often with trees close by, so they dry slowly after rain. Moss holds water against the tile and packs the joints. We clear it by hand and apply a biocide, because pressure washing can strip the surface of older tiles, and we clear the gutters on the same visit. Our roof cleaning page explains the method.

Which nearby villages do you cover alongside Sherfield-on-Loddon?

We cover Basingstoke and every town within 30 road miles. Nearby, we also cover Old Basing to the south-west and, further out, Tadley. Wherever you are, the process is the same: a photo survey, a fixed written quote, and repair wherever repair works.

Nearby areas

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