Beacon Basingstoke Roofing

Roofers in Wokingham

Wokingham is 19.5 road miles north-east of Basingstoke, and its roofs run from medieval timber frames in the town centre to the estates of Woosehill, Dowlesgreen, Bean Oak and Keephatch. We go up, photograph the faults on your own roof, and send a quote with the price fixed.

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Modern 2000s brick houses with grey concrete tile roofs on a new estate near Basingstoke

Wokingham roofs, from medieval to 1990s

  • House roof stripped to battens during a roof replacement

    Timber frames behind brick

    Rose Street has a large number of timber-framed buildings, the earliest thought to date from the 14th century, and many hide behind later brick facades. A roof on one of these has been patched and re-covered over several lifetimes, so the rafters, wall plates and old tile courses rarely run true. Whatever the front looks like, the work above it is a conservation job, and we survey it that way.

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

    Estates of the 1960s and 1970s

    Woosehill, Dowlesgreen and Bean Oak were built on former farmland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which makes their roofs old enough to be showing their age. Expect concrete tiles on gable or hipped roofs, bitumen felt underlay, ridges bedded in mortar and timber fascias. The ridge, the verge and the eaves are normally the first places that need attention.

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

    Keephatch and the early 1990s

    Keephatch followed in the early 1990s, so these houses are newer, with plastic fascias, lead flashings against chimneys and walls, and tiles that are generally still in good order. The faults here are smaller and more specific: a lifted flashing, a blocked valley, slipped tiles after a gale. A repair is usually all that is needed, and we say so when it is.

19.5 road miles north-east of Basingstoke

Planning and building control in Wokingham

The borough council is the authority for both planning permission and building control in Wokingham. The council lists the late medieval centre of Wokingham Town as one of its conservation areas, and its website is the place to look for the conservation area leaflets before you plan roof work on an older house. All Saints' Church is listed Grade II*, and Wokingham Town Hall, built in 1860, is also on the Historic England list, so a roof near the centre may sit beside, or inside, a protected setting.

Within the conservation area, a repair that matches what is already there is the safe route. Swap the material or alter how the roof looks and consent may be required, so put the question to the conservation officer before ordering. The same goes for any listed building. On the estates, building control matters more than planning: stripping and re-covering a whole roof can be notifiable, and the paperwork is ours to handle. A roof window is a separate matter, and the planning guide for skylights sets it out.

Faults on Wokingham roofs, and the fixes

Wokingham is a town of layers. A medieval core, a belt of estates laid over farmland in the late twentieth century, and a brickmaking past that shows in the chimneys and walls.

Chapter 1: Can the roof of a timber-framed building near Rose Street be repaired without stripping all of it?

What we find

A frame that dates back to the 14th century has moved. Walls lean, plates sag and rafters have been cut, doubled and propped by generations of builders, and the roof covering follows every wobble. Plain tiles that were laid to suit the old geometry loosen as the timbers shift, and the nibs or pegs that hold them rot or rust. Water then finds the gap beside a stack or the junction where the old roof meets a later brick-fronted addition.

From the street, you may see a dipped ridge line, tiles sitting out of course or a stain on a gable. In the roof space, the clue is damp on old oak, soft timber at the foot of a rafter, or daylight where a tile has gone. Because the brick front can disguise a much older structure, the roof is often the first place the building's real age shows.

What we fix

We start with the timbers. Before touching a tile we photograph the frame from inside and look for rot at the plate and the rafter feet, and for movement that explains the leak. Sound oak is left alone. Where only one slope has failed, we strip that slope, renew the battens (the timber laths the tiles hang from), and relay the sound tiles with matched reclaimed ones to fill the gaps. Nothing is replaced wholesale unless the survey shows it must be.

Fixings are chosen to suit the age of the building, and valleys and abutments get lead dressed to the irregular line rather than a straight cut. If the building is listed or inside the conservation area, we give you the photographs and a written description of the work to take to the conservation officer before any tile is ordered. Our nail sickness guide explains one of the commonest causes of slipping tiles on roofs this old.

Chapter 2: Why is the ridge failing on our 1960s house in Woosehill or Bean Oak?

What we find

On the estates laid out on former farmland, the original builders typically bedded the ridge and the gable edge in sand and cement. After more than fifty years of frost, sun and driven rain, that mortar shrinks, cracks and lets go of the concrete tile beneath it. A ridge tile can then rock in its bed, and in a strong gust it may slide or lift entirely. Fragments of grey mortar in the gutter or on a path are the usual first warning.

Underneath, the felt that was laid over the rafters has also aged. It is a bitumen sheet beneath the battens meant to catch anything that gets past the tiles, and by now it can be brittle at the eaves and torn where it was dragged over a ridge board. A brown mark on a bedroom ceiling near an outside wall is often traced back to exactly these two parts of the roof, rather than to the main body of tiles.

What we fix

Our first step is to lift a few ridge tiles and see if the tiles are good and just the bedding has gone. If so, a dry-fix ridge goes on: clips or screws hold each tile to a batten over a ventilated membrane, so the ridge no longer relies on mortar. The standard BS 5534 asks for ridge, hip and verge components to be fixed mechanically, and BS 8612 deals with the dry-fix kits. Dry verge caps can go on in the same visit and keep wind out from under the gable edge.

If the underlay is failing only along the eaves, we fit an eaves carrier tray and a new fascia board rather than re-roofing the whole house. For a semi, UK prices reported for a dry ridge sit between £900 and £1,600, with £300 to £900 for scaffold on top, as general guidance for Wokingham houses of this type. Your fixed quote follows the survey. The ridge tile repairs page lists the options.

Chapter 3: Our Keephatch house is only thirty years old. Why is the flashing beside the chimney leaking?

What we find

A house from the early 1990s does not need a new roof, and we rarely recommend one. But thirty years is long enough for the weak points to show. At the chimney, the lead flashing is the strip that seals the joint between brickwork and tiles, and the soakers (small lead pieces interleaved with the tiles up the sides) sit underneath it. Lead moves with temperature, and the flashing is only as secure as the mortar joint it is tucked into, which loosens as the stack weathers.

Valleys, where two slopes meet, are the other common leak. Moss and leaf litter dam up the channel, and water backs up beneath the tiles at the edge. The signs indoors are a stain on the ceiling beside the chimney breast, or damp that appears only in a heavy storm from one direction. The tiles themselves are normally in good order.

What we fix

We start from the roof space, tracing the wet line to its source, then check the flashing, the pointing and the soakers on the roof itself. Often the repair is small: raking out and repointing the chiselled joint, then bedding a new section of lead, or clearing and relaying a valley. We avoid sealant smeared over the top, which hides the fault for one winter and holds water in behind.

If the lead is split along a fold or lifted along its length, it is replaced. Typical UK figures for a chimney flashing on four sides run about £525 without scaffold and about £1,000 with it. For the wider picture, our chimney repairs page sets out what we check on a stack and why the brickwork matters as much as the lead.

Chapter 4: Brick-making was once big in Wokingham. Does that affect the chimney stacks on older houses?

What we find

Wokingham was a brickmaking town, and older houses show it in their stacks and in the walls under the roof. Bricks fired locally in earlier centuries were often soft and varied in hardness, and they were laid in lime mortar that was meant to breathe. When a stack has been repointed in hard cement, moisture cannot escape through the mortar, so it leaves through the brick face instead, and the face flakes off. That is called spalling.

On a roof, you may see a stack leaning slightly, pots that rock, or a crown (the cement cap on top) that has cracked and let rain straight down the flue. Inside, a stained chimney breast, or white salts on the wallpaper, points the same way. These stacks stand in the weather on every side, so what looks like a small fault at street level is often a decade of slow damage at the top.

What we fix

We inspect the stack from a ladder or tower, and by photographs, before agreeing a plan. Where the joints have failed but the brick is sound, we rake them out and repoint in lime, which lets the stack dry. Cracked crowns are rebuilt, pots are rebedded and the flashings are renewed to suit. If the bricks themselves have gone, we replace only those, using reclaimed or matched ones so the stack still looks right against the roof.

Where a stack is no longer used, taking it down below the roof line is an option, and we can talk you through it. Typical UK figures for repointing a chimney run from £450 to £1,200. Our chimney repairs service covers each step.

Wokingham roofing questions

Can you repair a roof where an extension meets the older part of a Wokingham house?

Yes. The junction between old and new roofs is where flashings, valleys and abutments tend to fail, since different pitches and ages meet there. We examine the lead, valley and flashing for gaps and check that the tiles overlap properly. Often a new flashing or valley lining fixes the leak without disturbing either roof as a whole.

Do you work on houses behind the brick facades on Rose Street?

Yes, though a building with a medieval frame behind a later front needs more care than an ordinary house. We look at the timbers first, photograph what we find and keep to like-for-like repair. If the building is listed or inside the conservation area, you will want that photo record before you speak to Wokingham Borough Council's conservation officer about what is allowed.

Our Dowlesgreen house has a flat-roofed garage. Can that be repaired rather than replaced?

Often, yes. Felt roofs from that period split along joints and blister, and a localised patch or a new top layer can be enough if the boards underneath are dry and firm. If the deck is soft, we cut it back and re-cover. Read our flat roof repair or replace guide, then let us see the roof itself.

Is the roof on a Keephatch house likely to need replacing yet?

Generally not. Houses from the early 1990s should still have years in their tiles, and the faults tend to be at the flashings, valleys and fascias. We check the underlay from inside the loft and lift a sample of tiles. If the roof has life left, we tell you plainly and quote only for the repair that is needed.

Will the work need approval from Wokingham Borough Council?

Mending a roof, or re-covering a small area of it, does not usually involve a building control application. Stripping the whole covering can, and the council's planning team decides whether a conservation area or listing adds further consent on top. We deal with the building regulations side where the work is notifiable, and our guide to building regulations for roofing work explains how the thresholds work.

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