Roofers in Havant

The Victoria County History describes Havant as a market town built very regularly round the crossroads of the Chichester to Southampton road and the road from Hayling Island to Rowland's Castle. At the south-west angle of that crossroads stands the church of St Faith, with a low central tower seen above the houses around it. The list entry records it as Grade II*, first listed on 16 May 1952. Near the church the county history singles out the late 16th-century half-timbered Old House at Home as the most interesting house. That is a lot of age packed into a small area, and the roofs follow. Some of it you can see from the street. Much of it you cannot, because the appraisal notes that roofs in the commercial core are often obscured, so a roof can be ageing out of sight until a stain shows on a ceiling. That is why we survey from the roof itself and photograph what we find.

1.1 Handmade clay with a little natural slate

Havant Borough Council's St Faith's Conservation Area appraisal, dated July 2007, says that in the historic commercial core roofs are often obscured, but where seen the covering is handmade clay tile with some natural slate. A handmade tile is not perfectly flat or evenly coloured, which gives an old roof its soft, varied look. It also means a modern machine-made tile never quite matches, and a repair patch can show from the street. So when tiles slip we try to reuse sound ones from the same roof, and where new ones are needed we choose a tile of the same size, thickness and colour range. A bright new patch in a soft old slope shows from the street.

1.2 Hips, brick stacks and the Homewell roofscape

Behind the Homewell terrace the appraisal notes an exceptionally high-quality roofscape of clay tiles laid in hips with brick chimneys. On a hipped roof the hips are the angled ridges running from the top down to each corner, finished with a row of hip tiles. Each hip tile is cut or shaped to follow the angle and fixed at its foot, and the brick stacks that stand beside them need good flashings and sound pointing. Where a hip or a stack has failed, our chimney repairs page explains what a repair involves and when rebuilding is the answer. A stack that leans, or a flaunching (the mortar that holds the pots at the top of the stack) that has cracked and let water in, is one of the first things we check when a Havant ceiling shows a stain.

For Havant, planning and building control both sit with the borough council, while the county council looks after the highway. Two parts of the area carry Article 4 directions that bear on roofs. Homewell's is dated 26 July 1985 and was made under the 1977 General Development Order, removing Class I, which covers extending, improving or otherwise altering a dwellinghouse. Langstone's, made on 6 June 2012, covers unlisted buildings and removes, for elevations facing the highway, any alteration to the roof of a house, for example the insertion of roof light windows. It also covers demolishing a chimney stack visible from the highway, along with solar panels and thermal equipment, so a Langstone owner planning any of those should speak to the council before booking anyone.

3.1 What that means in practice

A direction does not forbid roof work. It means certain changes that would normally go ahead without an application need one, and the council decides each case on its merits, so ask early and ask in writing. A plain like-for-like repair on a pitched roof is generally not what these directions are about. Swapping tiles for a different covering, or fitting a roof window on the front slope of a house in Langstone, is something to raise with the council first. The Homewell direction is older and written in the language of the 1977 order, so the council is the right place to confirm what it still catches today. Havant Borough Council's planning team can confirm whether your address falls inside either area. The borough also has the Brockhampton Conservation Area, designated on 13 April 2005, so a house there deserves the same early question to the planning team. Planning a roof window somewhere else in the town? Our guide to skylight planning permission is the place to start.

3.2 Scaffold licences and the church

Scaffolding on a public highway in Havant needs a licence from Hampshire County Council, which the scaffold company applies for on your behalf. The county wants a gap of ten clear working days between applying and starting, and charges £211.90 for the first two weeks. St Faith is Anglican and still in use for worship, so the ecclesiastical exemption applies and repairs are authorised by faculty; an application for planning permission remains necessary where the exterior is affected. Where work is notifiable under the Building Regulations, we explain it and handle the notification. Both bats and nesting birds are protected, which is why the eaves and roof space are checked before stripping, and the site is cleared and waste taken away at the end of the job.