Roofers in Whitehill and Bordon

Whitehill and Bordon has a founding story that is unusually plain. The Victoria County History of 1908 records that a permanent military camp was made at Bordon in the west of Headley parish, and that part of the Woodcote estate was sold to the military authorities as an appendage to Bordon Camp. The setting is Woolmer Forest heathland. Brick followed the first camp buildings: Louisburg Barracks, built in 1906, housed two artillery regiments, a riding school and a veterinary hospital. A place shaped by a camp is not one where one era set the pattern. Its roofs date from whichever decade built them, for whichever purpose, and each has been altered by whoever owned it next.

1.1 Why we do not guess at a roof here

On a street of one date, a roofer can reasonably guess what lies under the tiles. In a place like this a guess is a risk. One house may have a clay tile covering over timber battens, the one beside it a concrete tile over a modern membrane, and a third a patched mixture of both after an extension. So we begin by finding out what is actually there, from the loft first, with a lamp and a camera, and then from the roof itself. The pictures go out with the written quote. Only then do we say repair, patch or replace.

1.2 Joins, extensions and chimney stacks

Where a town has been altered piece by piece, roofs meet walls and each other in odd places. A rear extension against a first-floor wall, a porch tied into a gable or a chimney stack standing alone in a slope all need lead flashings, the strips of sheet lead that seal a roof to a wall. Royston Lead lists code 4 at 1.80 mm and code 5 at 2.24 mm for flashings. MyJobQuote gives a typical UK figure of £150 to £250 for patching chimney lead and £350 to £460 for a full renewal without scaffolding. Those figures show how much of the cost is just reaching the stack.

1.3 Telling a repair from a relay

The real test is how many separate faults share one cause. A single slipped tile is a repair. A line of slipped tiles along an eaves, with softened battens beneath, points to a failed fixing system and a stretch that has to be stripped and relaid. Lifespans give a rough guide only: Marley reckons concrete tiles last around 60 years and calls that no guarantee, so a roof of unknown history could be well short of it or well past it. Our roof repairs page sets out how we weigh a patch against a bigger job.

Owners of older garages, workshops and small units across the town ask us about the same things: the sheeting, the flat roof and the cost of reaching it. East Hampshire District Council's employment-to-residential Article 4 direction covers changing employment buildings to homes. It was made on 31 January 2018, took effect on 31 March 2019 and removes no roof rights. If you are converting a unit into a home, that is a planning question for the council, not a roofing one. The roof is a building question as well: Approved Document L 2021 Table 4.2 sets 0.15 W/(m²·K) for a new or replacement roof element in an existing dwelling, and the 2026 edition's Table 3.2 repeats it from 24 March 2027.

3.1 Asbestos on older sheeted roofs

HSE advice is to proceed as if asbestos is there in a building completed or refurbished before the year 2000. Fibre cement sheeting, a common cover for older garages and workshops, may contain it. HSE guidance is that asbestos cement roofs are always fragile, and large pieces must be lowered to the ground and never dropped or thrown down a chute. Careful removal of sheets that are intact and merely weathered is non-licensed work. If the material breaks up significantly, the work becomes notifiable non-licensed work and the waste needs a consignment note. Never walk on such a roof. Our commercial roofing page covers the larger units.

3.2 Flat and low-pitched covering

Single-ply, felt and liquid coverings are all found on older flat roofs, and each has a typical life: 10 to 20 years for torch-on felt according to Less, 20 to 30 or more for EPDM, and 25 to 40 for GRP. BS 6229:2025 gives a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and a roof that holds water is losing years. A survey tells you whether a repair will hold for a few winters or whether the deck has gone. Whoever quotes, check whether the figure includes VAT, which the government puts at the standard 20 per cent for a re-roof.

3.3 Access and the scaffold licence

Scaffolding that blocks a pavement or road is licensed by the highway authority, and here that is Hampshire County Council. The scaffolder applies and pays: £211.90 for the first two weeks, with ten clear working days needed between application and start, and no extensions.