Roofers in Broadbridge Heath

Broadbridge Heath sits in the Low Weald on the western edge of Horsham, and its oldest houses grew up around the common before about 1800. The heath itself was inclosed in 1858, which turned open ground into fields, plots and a road pattern that still shapes the village. What a house from that period carries on its roof today depends on its own repair history, so we read each one on the roof rather than guessing from its date. A house with this much age behind it has usually been re-covered, extended and patched more than once, and every one of those changes left a joint behind.

1.1 Reading an older roof by its joints

Rooms were added, a rear slope was lengthened, a porch was tied into the wall. Each alteration meets the old roof along a line where two pieces of work have to shed water together, and those lines are where an older roof tends to let go first. We begin where one roof meets another and where a roof meets a wall. The metal strip sealing that junction is the flashing. On older work it is often lead, shaped by hand into the brickwork, and when it lifts or splits the water tracks down inside the wall and shows up as a stain on the plaster. Our lead roofing and leadwork page describes how a failed flashing is cut out and renewed.

1.2 Gable edges and the ridge line

Along the top, the ridge caps the meeting of two slopes, and at a gable end the tiles finish over the wall in a verge. On a house that has stood for generations both have often been re-bedded in mortar more than once. BS 5534, as revised in 2014, stopped treating mortar as enough on its own for ridge and hip tiles, so a repaired ridge now takes screws or clips as well. A cracked mortar line along an exposed edge is the kind of fault we photograph close up, so you can see it yourself before anyone mentions a price.

1.3 Small jobs that hold

Plenty of houses like these need a modest job, not a new roof. A handful of slipped tiles, a split flashing or a loose length of ridge can often be dealt with in one visit, and that is what we recommend when the photographs support it. If the battens (the thin timber strips the tiles hang from) or the covering across a whole slope have given up, you hear that as well, with the pictures to back it. Our roof repairs page covers what a repair visit involves. Nothing is priced until the survey is done.

After the Second World War the village grew again. A council estate and a private estate were laid out on the south side, and the Victoria County History records another large development under way in 1982. A southern bypass opened in 1983, and St John's church opened in 1963 to replace an iron chapel that had served from 1904 until it was demolished as unsafe in 1957. Those dates matter to a roofer because they tell us roughly how old the original tiles, battens and underlay are on a given street. A road built in one burst tends to age in one burst too, so when one house has a fault, the neighbours' roofs are worth a glance from the pavement.

3.1 What age says about the layers under the tiles

The underlay is the sheet beneath the battens, catching whatever the covering lets through. On a roof laid in the post-war years it may be an older bitumen felt that has turned brittle, and the battens above it may have loosened where they were nailed. A tile can look fine from the pavement and still sit on a failing layer. That is why we go into the loft where we can, and why our roof inspections and surveys include photographs of the underside. Renewing covering, battens and underlay together is a re-roof, and it is recommended only where a repair would not hold.

3.2 Garages, outbuildings and asbestos

Estates from these decades usually come with garages and outbuildings, and some have flat roofs or sheet roofing of their own. Treat any building built or refurbished before 2000 as though it contains asbestos until it has been checked, says the HSE. Asbestos cement sheeting is fragile and must not be walked on. If you have a garage or outbuilding of that age, mention it before any work is priced, and never break up or drill the sheeting yourself.