Few towns show their growth as plainly as Basingstoke. A small market town sat at the centre for centuries, and from the 1960s it was expanded fast as an overspill town for people leaving London, with whole estates built within a few years of each other. Newer developments followed on every side. The result is a town where the age of a house can be read from the road it sits on, and where the roofs of a given street tend to share the same materials, the same pitch and, a few decades on, the same faults. This guide walks through the housing eras, says what the roofs are usually like in each, and points to the problems that turn up when those roofs reach a certain age. It is a guide to patterns, not a promise about any one house, which only a survey can judge.
The old town and its Victorian and Edwardian streets
Around the centre and along the older roads you find the oldest housing in the town: terraced and semi-detached houses from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and older buildings in the market-town core. Roofs here were originally slate or clay plain tile on timber rafters, often with lead for valleys, flashings and bay roofs, and brick chimney stacks with lime mortar. Slate has a long life but fails at the fixings, with nails rusting and slates slipping. Clay tiles can flake in frost. Lead flashings tear and lift. Victorian roofs were also built without felt, so many have been re-covered over the years with a patchwork of materials.
These streets bring their own considerations. Some lie in conservation areas, where changes to materials and appearance may need consent, and the borough council's conservation team is the body to ask. Chimneys often serve rooms that are no longer used, and their flashings and pots need attention. Our hub on slate roofing and the one on chimney repairs cover the usual work.
Nearby villages and older cores
Beyond the town centre, older settlements such as Old Basing, Worting and Kingsclere keep their historic character. Their conservation area appraisals describe timber-framed buildings with brick infill, red brick, flint, and roofs of clay tile, slate and, in places, thatch. Steep pitches often mark buildings that were once thatched. In places like these, like-for-like repair is the usual approach, and any change of material is a question for the council. Our area pages for Old Basing give more detail on one such village.
The 1930s and 1950s: council housing and the first estates
Parts of South Ham were built as council housing in the 1930s and 1950s, and the Oakridge estate began in 1952 to house staff from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, with maisonettes among its early buildings. Houses of this period were typically brick, built in terraces and semis, with pitched roofs covered in clay or early concrete tiles over timber rafters and, in many cases, little or no felt. Eaves were often boxed in with timber soffits, and the guttering was cast iron, later replaced in many houses by asbestos-cement or plastic.
At this age, the tile fixings and the timber under them are the concern. Older batten and rafter timber can have decayed where the felt was missing, and chimneys and verges built in lime or soft mortar tend to crumble. Where the Oakridge estate was redeveloped from 2000 onwards, new housing replaced much of the original, so the roofs there are mixed in age. Our area page for South Ham looks at that part of town.
The overspill estates of the 1960s and 1970s
The biggest layer is the expansion of the late 1960s and 1970s. Winklebury was a collection of smallholdings until the late 1960s, when it became a housing area. Viables and Brighton Hill were formed around 1970 under the town centre development plan, and Brighton Hill's early housing was ex-council terraces, with private housing following by the mid-1970s. Kempshott was built mainly in the 1970s and early 1980s in three phases. Many of these estates were designed as nearly self-contained communities, with their own shops and schools.
The roofs in these estates are mostly pitched, low in pitch, and covered in concrete interlocking tiles over softwood trusses, with timber fascias and soffits, often later replaced in plastic. Flat-roofed garages, porches and extensions are everywhere. Typical faults now include tiles worn by moss and weather, mortar bedding on ridges and hips that has crumbled, felt that has perished under the tiles, and flat roofs on garages that have reached the end of their covering. Boarded eaves have often been painted for years and rotted. These are the houses whose original roofs are now old enough to need serious attention. For the area guides, see Winklebury, Viables and Kempshott.
The 1980s: Chineham, Lychpit and the next ring
Chineham has grown into a large residential suburb since the late 1970s, and Lychpit began in the early 1980s next to Old Basing. Housing of this period is usually brick or brick and tile-hung, with concrete tile roofs, integral garages and a mix of terraces, semis and detached houses. Roof pitches are generally steeper than in the 1960s estates. Typical issues are failed mortar on ridges and verges, tile hanging that has slipped, flat-roofed bays and porches reaching the end of their life, and gutters and soffits that were fitted when the houses were new. Our page on Chineham gives more.
The 2000s onwards: Hatch Warren, Beggarwood, Popley and Rooksdown
The next wave arrived in the mid to late 2000s, with rapid growth at Hatch Warren, Popley and Beggarwood. Beggarwood was built almost entirely between 2001 and 2009. Rooksdown grew on the site of the former Park Prewett Hospital, in stages, with new build alongside conversion of the old hospital buildings, some of which are listed. Houses from this era have concrete or slate-effect tile roofs over engineered trusses, with a breathable felt and, more often, dry-fix ridge and verge systems and plastic eaves.
These roofs are the youngest, and problems tend to be about workmanship, not age: tiles badly lapped, flashings poorly finished, ridge fixings that were never completed, and flat roofs on dormers and bays with thin coverings. They also have the modern details of ventilation and insulation that older roofs lack. Our area pages cover Hatch Warren, Popley and Rooksdown.
What the roof types look like, side by side
| Era and area | Typical roof | Faults to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Victorian and Edwardian, town centre | Slate or clay tile, lead details | Slipped slates, tired flashings, chimney mortar |
| 1930s to 1950s, South Ham, Oakridge | Clay or early concrete tile | Missing felt, decayed battens, crumbling verges |
| 1960s to 1970s, Winklebury, Viables, Kempshott | Low-pitch concrete interlocking tile, flat garage roofs | Moss, perished ridge mortar, ageing felt |
| 1980s, Chineham, Lychpit | Concrete tile, tile hanging, flat porches and bays | Ridge and verge mortar, slipped tile hanging |
| 2000s onwards, Hatch Warren, Beggarwood, Popley | Concrete or slate-effect tile, dry-fix systems | Workmanship faults, flashings, thin flat roofs |
Bungalows, chalets and extended houses
Every era has its bungalows and its houses that have been extended, and both change the roof. A bungalow has a large roof for its floor area, so a re-roof is a bigger job and ridge and hip lines are long. Chalet-style houses from the 1960s and 1970s often have a dormer or a boxed-in upper storey with tile hanging and a flat or low-pitched roof that meets the main slope at an awkward angle. Extended houses add junctions between old and new roofs, where a valley, a step flashing or an abutment is formed, and where leaks tend to start. Many loft conversions in these areas added dormers with flat roofs and roof windows too. The junction, more often than the open roof, is where we find the fault.
Flat roofs on Basingstoke houses
Flat roofs turn up on garages, porches, bays, dormers and extensions in every era. Many on the 1960s and 1970s estates were built in felt and have been recovered at least once. Older felt roofs show blistering, cracks, ponding and splits at the edges. A later extension or a conversion may have an EPDM or GRP roof of whatever age. The right replacement depends on shape and use, and our hub on flat roofing and its guide to the life of a flat roof explain the choices.
Why the era matters when you plan work
Knowing the age of a roof helps you plan. A roof from the first years of an estate has had a long life and may be at the stage where a re-roof is cheaper than repeated repair. A younger roof is more likely to need a targeted fix. Houses on the same estate share the same design, so a fault that shows on one is worth looking for on yours. Neighbours' scaffold is a prompt to have your own roof checked. Our guide to how often roofs need to be replaced goes into the question of age, and if you are buying in one of these areas, buying a house in Basingstoke: the roof checks sets out what to look at first.
Local conditions that affect every era
The town sits on clay over chalk in much of its area, with a mix of gravel and clay to the north and east. It is exposed to south-westerly weather from the downs, and many streets have mature trees, which shed leaves into gutters and drop moss spores onto roofs. Frost and a wet winter do the rest. None of this is unusual for north Hampshire, but it explains why moss, blocked gutters and wind damage to ridges feature on so many surveys. Our hub on roof cleaning covers the moss side.
What we do with this knowledge
When we survey a roof, the era of the house tells us where to look first. A 1970s estate house gets its ridge, its felt line at the eaves and any flat roof checked closely. A Victorian terrace gets its slate fixings, lead and chimney stack. A 2000s house gets its flashings and dry-fix details. Then we photograph what we find, whatever it is, and tell you plainly whether it needs a repair or a replacement. The price you are given is a firm figure on paper, and our workmanship carries a ten-year guarantee. The full picture of what we do is on our homepage, and the office number is 01256 213956.
