Roofers in Funtington

The county history describes Funtington as lying mainly along a single street, with cottages that include some 17th-century timber framing and others built of flint and brick with thatched roofs. At the west end it picks out a larger house of flint with 17th-century brick dressings, its porch gable carved with the date 1655. The village sits at the foot of the South Downs, below Stoke Down, north-west of Chichester, and the South Downs National Park Authority lists Funtington among its conservation areas. Walls like these were laid by hand from whatever the ground offered. Flint is hard and sharp, brick is softer and timber moves, and the roof has to sit on all three without trapping water at the joints. That is why a roofer in the village spends more time at the edges, around the stacks and along the walls than on the open slopes, and why the quality of a repair shows in the lead and the verge long before it shows in the tiles. A cottage in this row can look sound from the street and still be letting water in behind a gutter or under a cracked flashing for years.

1.1 Roofs that meet moving walls

A timber frame breathes. It swells in damp weather, shrinks when it dries and shifts a little with the years, so a rigid seal along its edge cracks sooner than a flexible one. On roofs beside such walls we prefer lead flashing, because lead is soft enough to be shaped to an uneven surface and holds its form as the building settles. A silicone bead or bitumen strip stuck over the gap may last a season, but it hardens and splits as the timber moves, which is why we reach for lead first. Flashing is the sheet metal that closes the gap where a slope meets a wall or chimney. The edge of a roof against a gable, called the verge, wants the same care, with the cement or mortar bed pointed neatly and the tiles fixed in place by clips as well. Our lead roofing and leadwork page sets out where lead earns its place on an old roof.

1.2 Thatch is not ours, tile and chimneys are

A thatcher looks after the thatch. What we handle is the rest of the roofscape that sits alongside it: the tiled extension, the slate porch, the garage and the chimney that rises through or beside the straw. A stack is the brickwork that carries the flues above the roof, and in an old cottage its mortar and flaunching (the cement collar around the pots) are often worn away long before anyone notices from the ground. Cracked flaunching lets rain in down the flue lining, and a damp patch in a bedroom ceiling is usually the first sign. See our chimney repairs page for the checks we carry out.

Within the parish lie other small settlements, and West Ashling holds the cottage that shows most clearly how a village roof can mix coverings. The county history records a timber-framed cottage there with a roof tiled at the front and thatched at the back. East Ashling and West Ashling each have a conservation area of their own on the National Park Authority's list, as Funtington does. In a place like this the line between one covering and the next is not a detail. It is where a roofer spends the most time, and where leaks begin.

3.1 Where thatch meets tile

On a roof that is tile on one slope and thatch on another, the join runs along a ridge or a valley, and water behaves differently on each side of it. Tile sheds quickly and delivers a lot of water to the join, while straw soaks some of it up. Lead lining at the junction has to be wide enough to carry the flow and sit under both coverings without disturbing either. We do not work on the thatch itself, but we can plan the tile side so that it hands water down cleanly and does not wet the straw. A roof like this one rewards a patient survey far more than a quick patch. We look from the ridge down along the join, check each course of tile against the lead, and photograph where the lining stops, because a lining that ends a few inches short is a very common source of a slow, hidden leak. Those photographs go into the quote, so you can point at the exact spot when you talk it over with whoever looks after the thatch.

3.2 Admiral's house and large old properties

Funtington House was the home of Admiral Sir Provo Wallis, who died there in 1892 in his 101st year. Houses of that size and age have long roof runs, tall chimney stacks and several valleys, and a small leak can travel a long way inside before it shows. For any large or historic property we start with a full survey of the roof, valleys and gutters, with photographs of each fault, and propose the leanest repair that cures what we find. Where a repair no longer holds, our pitched roofing page describes the strip, re-batten and relay that follows. A big old house may have several roof levels, each with its own valley and gutter, so the survey takes longer, and the written quote follows only once we have seen every slope up close. Long ladders, a tower or a cherry picker may be needed to reach the upper stacks safely, and we plan that access with you beforehand so there are no surprises on the day.