Roofers in Chichester

Chichester lies on the low coastal plain along the south-west shore of Sussex, and its walls and gates are Roman in origin. Inside them, the Victoria County History describes a medieval city probably built largely of timber frames, with brick used from the 17th century. From the turn of the 18th century the town changed gradually, and by the end of that century it had been almost entirely rebuilt. The result is a city of brick fronts with fine doorways and fanlights, the glazed fan above a front door. Behind those fronts the roofs have been repaired, patched and re-covered many times, so the first job on any house is to find out what is up there now.

1.1 Parapets, valleys and lead gutters

A Georgian terrace often hides its roof behind the front wall. Where a parapet runs along the front, the water that falls on the slope has to be carried away behind it, in a lead-lined gutter or a valley between two slopes. The valley itself is the inward fold between two slopes, a channel that takes the run-off of both. Lead is the traditional lining, and it lasts when it is laid with enough room to expand. Cracked lead, a blocked outlet or a gutter laid without a fall will let water into the ceilings below long before anything shows from the pavement. We survey from the roof and from inside the loft, because a stain in the front bedroom can start with a gutter you cannot see from the street.

1.3 Re-covering a Georgian roof and the building regulations

If a slope is stripped and re-covered, the Planning Portal says no building control application is normally needed where less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope is affected and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Over those limits, or with a covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier, approval is needed, and the thermal insulation may need upgrading. Chichester District Council's building control team can confirm which applies to your house, and where work is notifiable we handle the notification. We check the weight of any new covering against the old one before we price, because old timbers were sized for the covering they first carried.

The Chichester Conservation Area was extended after a review of its appraisal, east to include parts of Whyke and north-west to Orchard Avenue, Orchard Gardens and the Brewery Field, as the Chichester Society reported in 2017. If your home lies near a boundary line, ask Chichester District Council whether it now falls inside. An Article 4 direction can take away permitted development rights inside a conservation area, so ask the council's planning team whether one reaches your street before you change any roof. City status changes nothing on its own: a house here follows the conservation area's rules, plus any direction that covers its street.

3.1 The Market Cross and listed buildings

The Market Cross, an eight-sided building of Caen stone put up by Bishop Edward Story about 1500, is listed Grade I. Roof work on a listed building in the city needs thought before anyone climbs a ladder. Routine maintenance and like-for-like repairs do not normally need listed building consent, but works that affect the character of the building do. The list entry gets read before anything else, and the written quote records what it says. An unlisted house can still sit inside the conservation area, so the Market Cross is a reminder that a street may carry two sets of rules at once.

3.3 Narrow streets and scaffold licences

A terrace that fronts the pavement may leave nowhere for a scaffold except the public footpath. In that case the licence comes from West Sussex County Council as highway authority, the firm putting up the scaffold makes the application, and the council asks for a minimum of 10 working days' notice. Build that wait into your plans, and tell us early if the house has no front garden or side access, so the survey can allow for it.