Roofers in Boxgrove

Boxgrove's village street runs north and south, a little to the west of the Priory Church, and most of the buildings along it date from after 1700. Thatch still covers several of the older cottages, and one of them carries the inscription M/IM 1738. Thatching is a trade of its own, so our work here sits around it, on the tiled roofs beside a thatched neighbour and the stacks that rise through them.

1.1 Where a tiled roof meets a thatched neighbour

On a row of cottages two roofs often share one gable wall. The covering on one side may be reed or straw and on the other clay tile, and the line between them is where water collects. Rain is kept out by a flashing, a length of lead tucked into the wall and dressed down over the covering. In an old flint wall the joints are uneven, so the lead has to be cut into the wall one joint at a time and not simply stuck to its face. When we survey a cottage we look at that junction before anything else, because a damp gable wall is easily blamed on the roof slope when the real cause is a tired flashing.

1.2 Chimney stacks that rise through the slope

Older cottages tend to have a stack coming up through the middle of the roof and not at the gable. A stack in the middle of a slope needs lead on all four sides: an apron at the front, stepped flashings up the sides, and a back gutter, the small channel that carries water round the high side of the brickwork. Cracked flaunching, the sloping mortar collar around the pots, lets rain run into the flue. Our chimney repairs page explains what we check, and our guide to chimneys in conservation areas is worth reading if your cottage sits inside the Boxgrove or Halnaker boundary.

1.3 Slipped tiles and tired battens

A clay plain tile hangs by a small nib from a batten, a thin softwood lath nailed across the rafters. On a roof that is two or three centuries old, the tiles may outlast the battens beneath them. If a slope has started to slip, we lift it, keep every sound tile, replace the cracked ones and renew the battens and underlay, the sheet beneath the tiles that catches wind-blown water. That is usually a smaller job than stripping and starting again with a new covering, and it is the answer we give when the survey photographs show it will hold.

Away from the main street the parish opens out. The road from Chichester to Petworth crosses Boxgrove on the line of the Roman Stane Street, and the southern part of the parish is flat, at about 60 ft. The parish also takes in the hamlets of Strettington and Halnaker, below the Downs. Roofs out here are rarely grouped in a street. Each has its own age and its own history of repair, so the first job is always to find out what is already on the building.

3.1 Strettington's flint and free-stone house

A house at Strettington has walls of flints and some free-stone, with brick angles from the 17th century. A building that has been altered in several centuries usually has several roof covers on it: a sound old tile slope, a patch of newer tile, a flat extension added in a later decade. Each needs a different repair. On a farmhouse like this, the survey notes the lead code on every flashing, because lead sheet comes in codes from 3 to 8 and each suits different positions. Code 3 is only for soakers, the small folded pieces of lead that sit under each tile where a roof meets a wall, while codes 4 and 5 are used for flashings.

3.2 Halnaker windmill and exposed ground

Halnaker windmill, an 18th-century landmark on Halnaker Hill, is round and tapering with a wooden cap. It stands on a hill above the plain, and a roof on open ground gets more of the wind than one tucked between buildings. We weigh the position of each roof when we choose fixings, and since the 2014 revision of BS 5534 ridge and hip tiles are mechanically fixed as well as bedded, never left on mortar alone. Clips and screws hold them down in a gale when the mortar has cracked.

3.3 Barns, outbuildings and garages

Farm lanes bring outbuildings: barns, stables, workshops and garages with their own roofs. For a barn or garage put up or reworked before 2000, the HSE advises treating its sheeting as asbestos until a check proves otherwise. Sheeting of weathered asbestos cement that stays whole and is lifted gently counts as non-licensed work, yet it is brittle underfoot and the waste needs a consignment note. Not sure what an outbuilding is covered with? Have us look first, before anyone steps onto it. If you have a loose ridge or a slipped hip tile after a gale, our roof repairs page explains how we deal with it and when a patch is enough.