Roofers in East Preston

Arun District Council designated the East Preston conservation area in July 1994, and its guidance describes a place where the early village is still readable: the church, a former manor house in a mainly classical style, and small cottages, several of them thatched. Twentieth-century buildings such as East Preston Lodge, the Vicarage and the extension to St Mary's Church sit among them. The guidance names the predominant materials as flint and brick, thatch and plain clay tiles. That mix makes a lane where every roof is a different age, a different pitch and a different material, and where the places they join are the places that fail.

1.1 Plain tiles and the abutting thatch

A plain clay tile is a small flat tile, hung from a batten by two nibs, so the roof is a skin of overlapping scales. The nibs, nails and battens are what hold it, and a slope can look sound from the road while the fixings behind it have given up. We check by lifting tiles at the ridge and the eaves and looking at the battens beneath. Where a tiled roof meets thatch, the junction is dressed in lead by hand, and a thatcher has to agree where the reed stops. Our part is the tiling, the lead and the chimneys either side of the reed, and our pitched roofing page covers stripping and relaying a slope, tile by tile.

1.2 The church and the manor house

St Mary's is listed Grade I, and Manor Cottage is listed Grade II. St Mary's, as a church in use for worship, has its own faculty route for repairs, but a neighbouring house that is on the list needs consent for anything that would change its character, and the church's route does not stretch to it. The list entry tells us what is protected, and we read it before suggesting any change to a covering. Patching with the same tile in the same place is a much smaller step than a switch of material, and if you are unsure which side your job falls on, Arun District Council's conservation officer can say. For a roof inside the 1994 boundary we also look at the chimneys, the verges and the lead as a set, since the boundary exists to protect the overall look of the old village and one new bright patch can spoil it. We keep a photographic record of the roof before and after the work, and you get a copy.

East Preston has an unusual listed building: Manor Road Garage, including its four forecourt petrol pumps, is Grade II. The village is a coastal one, roughly halfway between Littlehampton and Worthing, and its residential areas include Angmering-on-Sea and the Willowhayne, each with its own roads and its own mix of houses. We do not guess at the age of a roof from the road name. A survey tells us what covers the house, how old the fixings look and where the weak points are, and two neighbours with similar fronts can need quite different work.

3.1 Flat roofs on garages and extensions

Estate roads like these tend to have flat-roofed garages, porches and rear extensions added over the years. A flat roof usually fails at its edges, its upstands and its joints, not across the middle. The upstand is the strip of covering turned up against a wall or door frame, and the drip trim is the metal edge that throws water into the gutter. Before we recommend anything we check the falls, since standing water ages a covering faster than anything else: BS 6229:2025 sets a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and roofers design steeper, around 1:40, so the finished roof still drains. If water ponds, the deck beneath may be soft and the covering may need to come off. A coastal village also means sea weather, so we pay attention to edge trims, cappings and anything the wind can lift. The usual culprits are a split at a seam, a loose edge trim, a lifted corner, or a gutter outlet that has silted up and holds water against the covering. Under Approved Document L a new flat-roof waterproof layer is renovation, and renovation can bring in a thermal upgrade. We explain that before the work starts, so no one is surprised halfway through. The coverings available are set out on our flat roofing page.

3.2 What Arun says about re-roofing

Arun's own building control guidance puts new coverings on both pitched and flat roofs on its list of work needing approval. The Planning Portal, meanwhile, treats a job as outside building control when under 25 per cent of the total building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is touched. Both are published guidance, so Arun's building control team or your roofer can confirm which one fits your job. Where the work is notifiable, we handle the notification. Once the survey is done, the photographs of your roof and the written quote arrive together.