Roofers in Aldingbourne

Aldingbourne is a long, narrow parish. It holds 3,098 acres, runs four miles from north to south and averages a little over a mile across, so a single roofing round can take in a village centre, outlying farms and newer streets. The Aldingbourne Rife forms the western boundary, and the village and church sit near the middle. Arun District Council lists Aldingbourne, and Norton along Norton Lane, among its conservation areas, which is the first thing to settle before anyone touches a roof. Work out whether your address is inside either boundary, then whether the house is listed, and only then talk about tiles. When you send us photographs or ring, tell us the lane or road, because that places the house in the village centre, in Norton or out among the farms.

1.1 Plaster against tile at the church

The church is built of rubble with ashlar dressings, with much of the stone plastered over, and roofed with tile. Plaster on rubble is a reminder of how a wall and a roof depend on each other. Where tiles finish at a gable or beside a taller wall, the rain running off the roof lands on the plaster, and a failed joint soaks the wall as well as the loft. A leaking downpipe or a cracked gutter joint has the same effect from outside. Treat your own house the same way: a damp stain on a gable wall may be a roof fault rather than a wall fault, and the stain alone cannot tell you which. Our roof repairs page explains how we trace a leak back to its source.

1.2 Underlay, eaves and why a loft drips

Beneath the tiles sits the underlay, the membrane that catches wind-blown rain and condensation. The eaves are the low edges where the slope meets the wall. Marley's guidance on cold roofs sets the ventilation along the eaves by underlay type and pitch: for a high-resistance underlay it gives 25 mm on pitches of 15 degrees or less and 10 mm on steeper ones, because that underlay is not vapour-permeable. A loft that smells damp or drips in winter may have a blocked or missing eaves path rather than a leaking roof, and the cure costs less than a new covering. Marley, quoting the Building Research Establishment, puts the minimum life of clay tiles at 60 years: a planning guide, never a promise, and old hand-made roofs may behave quite differently from it. Where a survey shows the underlay has gone brittle or the battens (the timber laths the tiles hang from) have softened, the verdict moves from patching towards relaying, and we show you the evidence in the photographs.

The Rife along Aldingbourne's western edge was straightened in 1959, during the construction of Butlin's holiday camp in Bognor Regis, so the ground here has been reshaped within living memory. At the far side of the parish, Fontwell racecourse lies partly on the eastern edge. With a parish this long, no two roofing jobs start from the same place, and the first questions are always what the building is, how it is reached and who needs to agree to the work. A short lane to a farm gate and a cul-de-sac of newer houses call for quite different plans, from where the materials are stacked to how the waste is carried out.

3.1 Does a re-roof need building control?

Planning Portal guidance says approval is not normally needed if under 25 per cent of the total building envelope is affected and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Arun's building control page puts roof covering replacement on its list of approval work, so the sensible step is to ask Arun's team and let us confirm for your job. If a new covering weighs 15 per cent or more than the old, approval comes into play as well, and a structural check is advised. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the notification. Our pitched roofing page explains how a slope is stripped and relaid.

3.2 Scaffold on a narrow lane

A two-storey house on a tight lane often needs scaffold on or over the highway, and under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 a licence has to come from the highway authority. For Aldingbourne that is West Sussex County Council. West Sussex County Council issues the licence, the council asks for at least 10 working days' notice, and a one-month licence is £266. Ask whether a quote's total includes VAT and the scaffold, and allow for that wait from the day the survey is booked. Our own quotes follow the survey and give one total price.

3.3 Valleys where two slopes meet

A valley is where two slopes meet in a dip and send the water of both down one channel. On a house extended over the years, with a rear wing or porch roof joining the main slope, the valley is often where the oldest repair sits. We photograph it, show you the lining and the tile cuts either side, and say whether relining will do or the whole junction needs relaying. Leaves and moss collect in a valley first, so clearing it helps the roof drain between visits. If a valley has been lined with a bitumen strip or sealant to stop a drip, that is a sign someone has already tried a quick fix, and it deserves a proper look.