Roofers in Earnley

Earnley sits on the very flat Manhood Peninsula, inland from Bracklesham Bay, and the Broad Rife separates the parish from East Wittering. The Victoria County History describes the village centre as a church, a manor farm and a few cottages, and Chichester District Council designated the Earnley Conservation Area in February 1976. In its 2013 appraisal review, the council names flint and red brick, with clay tiles for the roofs, as the most prevalent materials within that area. The church itself is a simple composition of flint pebbles with stone quoins, the dressed stones that mark its corners.

1.1 How clay tile ages

Marley cites the Building Research Establishment for a clay tile roof lasting 60 years at the least, and that number is a starting point only. Old hand-made peg tiles, hung from small wooden pegs, do not always follow it. A tile gone soft and flaky at the edges shows from the ground, but the real test lies beneath: whether the battens, the cross-strips of softwood nailed over the rafters, still hold a nail, and whether the underlay, the waterproof sheet under the tiles, has perished. We go up, take pictures of each fault, then give you a verdict: a handful of tiles, or the whole slope.

1.2 Thatch in the church's past

The nave dates from the 13th century and the chancel from the 14th. The county history records that the chancel was thatched until about 1580. That detail is a small reminder that a roof can change its covering without losing its character. Today the church is roofed with tile, and the lesson for a homeowner is practical: a covering that suits the building is better than one chosen only for price. When a repair will no longer hold, the pitched roofing hub sets out the stripping, re-battening and recovering that follows.

1.3 Matching tile in the conservation area

A repair in the centre of the village should use clay tile of the right size and colour. Fitting concrete tile into a clay roof shows from the road for as long as the roof lasts. Before any work we hold a sample against the slope, and we tell you if matching tile will take longer to source. If you want to change the covering altogether, ask the council's planning officers first.

Cakeham Manor lies nearby in West Wittering parish, with a hexagonal brick tower of about 1519 and a site that began as a medieval bishops' house. For a homeowner the point is simple: a listed building nearby does not change the rules for your own house, which turn on whether it is listed itself and whether it sits inside the conservation area.

3.1 Solar panels in the conservation area

In a notice dated 15 August 2013, Chichester District Council gave notice of an Article 4 direction for houses in the Earnley Conservation Area. It covers the installation, alteration or replacement of solar PV or solar thermal equipment on a dwellinghouse, a block of flats or a building in its grounds, for all houses in the area. Put simply, panels on a roof inside the boundary are something to raise with the council before you order a system. Ask at the same time what else applies to your address, since a direction can cover more than one subject.

3.2 A new covering and the Building Regulations

Building control is not normally engaged when under 25 per cent of the total building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected, says the Planning Portal. A much heavier covering brings it in, and the Portal's marker is a covering 15 per cent heavier or more. In Earnley the body is Chichester District Council, and planning is the council's own as well, since the parish lies outside the South Downs National Park.

3.3 Dormers and roof windows

Roof windows and dormers are treated differently inside a conservation area, and our guide to skylight planning permission explains the planning side. For repairs, the useful step is to send us photographs and the address. We tell you whether the house sits inside the boundary and how that changes the first call to the council. The quote that follows is written, with one total price, and the survey photographs show the roof as we found it.

Houses near the green and the farm stand close together, so scaffold, skips and deliveries need planning with the neighbours. A short word before work begins, and a clear idea of where the skip will stand, saves a good deal of friction in a small parish. It also helps to tell us about any track, gate or verge that a delivery lorry has to cross, since a heavy vehicle on soft ground can leave marks that last a season, and a roof job should not leave a rut at the end of the lane. We ask the same of every site: it is cleared at the end, and the waste is taken away.