Roofers in Liphook

Liphook Conservation Area was first designated in April 1977 and extended in October 1992, and East Hampshire District Council's character appraisal spells out what holds the village together. Its list of characteristic materials takes in hung clay tiles, masonry with red brick dressings and galletting. To a roofer, that list reads like a map of awkward junctions, the places where one material stops and another begins and water looks for the gap. A sound covering can sit beside a failing abutment for years before a brown stain appears on a bedroom ceiling, and by then the timber behind the tiles has had a long soaking.

1.1 Where tile-hanging runs into a roofline

Tile-hanging means clay tiles fixed upright to a wall instead of laid on a slope. Where such a wall climbs through a roof, or the roof runs into its side, the join is sealed with lead. Each course of roof tile gets a soaker, which is a little folded lead sheet tucked beneath the tiles and turned up against the wall, and a longer stepped flashing covers the top edge of the whole run. If the lead has lifted, split or was never pressed tightly into the wall, rain slips behind the hung tiles and runs down inside. We photograph the junction from above and from inside the loft, because damp often turns up a metre or more from the real source. Our lead roofing and leadwork page shows how these details are made and dressed.

1.2 Galletting, brick and the stacks above them

Galletting means pressing small chips of stone into wet mortar joints, which is why the walls of some older Liphook buildings look studded. The same attention to masonry carries up to the chimneys. A red brick stack with open joints lets rain into the flue and the roof timbers below it, and a repoint wants a softer, lime-friendly mix matched to the old brick, never one harder than the brick around it. When bricks are shelling or the stack has started to lean, rebuilding the top few courses is the more honest answer. Our chimney repairs page explains the work, from the lead tray to the flaunching, the sloping mortar bed on the stack top that holds the pots and throws water off. Inside the boundary, look at the conservation area map first, and check the list entry too if your home is listed. Then ask us for the photographs before anyone talks about a price.

The River Wey Conservation Area follows the river past Liphook, Bramshott and Passfield to protect an eighteenth-century water-meadow system. It sits next to the village boundary and not inside it, but it shapes the setting all the same. Roofs close to damp ground and tree cover collect moss and leaf litter faster than roofs in the open, and gutters on a shaded side clog sooner. That is ordinary upkeep and does not call for a new roof by itself.

3.1 Shade, moss and what lies under it

Light moss on a clay tile is largely a question of looks until it starts holding water against the tile edge or blocks a gutter outlet. We check whether the tiles are sound beneath the growth, whether the moss is lifting the laps, and whether the downpipes run clear. A wash and a clear-out could be all that is wanted, and on a shaded slope a yearly look at the gutters costs far less than the damage a blocked outlet can do to the fascia and soffit behind it. If the growth was hiding cracked tiles or a slipped ridge, you will want those faults on the quote as well. Cleaning has limits, and we tell you when a roof is better left unwashed.

3.2 St Mary's and the listed route

The old parish church for Liphook is St Mary at Bramshott, listed Grade II* and first listed on 16 March 1954. A listed church has its own consent route, which turns on the denomination and on whether the building is still in regular worship use, so the first call is to whoever looks after the building. For a listed house, works that change its character need listed building consent from the council, while a repair in matching materials is treated differently from a re-roof in another material. The list entry gets read before we suggest anything at all.

3.3 Arts and Crafts roof detail

The appraisal counts Arts and Crafts houses among Liphook's positive buildings. Houses in that tradition tend to carry plenty of roof detail: hips, valleys, tile-hung gables and lead at every change of plane. More detail means more joints to inspect, which is why survey photographs matter. A hip that has settled, a cheek of lead that has slid down, a gable where the tile-hanging has parted from the verge: each is small alone, and each can let in water through a wet winter. We take pictures at each junction, so you can see the loose lead or the cracked tile for yourself, and the job we put forward is the smallest one that will hold.