Roofers in Loxwood

Loxwood's first chapel was built around 1410 as a chapelry of Wisborough Green and was rebuilt in brick in 1822. The village became a parish in 1873. The church standing today, St John the Baptist, was designed by R Plumbe, started in 1898 and finished in 1900. It is built of red brick with stone dressings, and in 1978 the parish was linked with Alfold in Surrey, within the Diocese of Guildford. A building of 1900 is a little over a century and a quarter old, young for a church and old for a roof. Whatever covers it has had time to find every weak joint, and the stone dressings are where those joints tend to cluster.

1.1 Dressings, copings and where roofs meet stone

Stone dressings are the carved or cut pieces that trim a brick building: window surrounds, gable copings, the stones at a corner. Where a roof meets one of them, a flashing (a dressed strip of lead bridging roof and wall) has to be tucked into a groove in the stone and pointed, so water runs over the stone and not behind it. A bead of mastic over an open joint looks neat on the day and splits when the materials move. Repointing in a mortar that is harder than the stone also does harm over time, so the mix matters as much as the lead. Gable copings and kneelers (the shaped stones at the foot of a gable) stand proud and take the worst of the weather. If one is loose, or the joint beneath it has opened, water enters the wall below the roof line and stains the brick inside long before anyone sees a tile out of place. We look along every coping from a ladder, not from the churchyard path.

1.2 Parapets, box gutters and the consent route

Behind a parapet or a gable coping, rain collects in a box gutter, a lead-lined channel that has to fall steadily to an outlet. Royston's brochure lists lead codes 5 to 8 for parapet and box gutters, and the heavier codes cost more but take more movement. Outlets are small and fill first, and a box gutter that cannot clear in a downpour spills into the wall, so we check the outlet, the falls and the dressed ends before judging the lead itself. As an Anglican parish church in use, St John's sends its works through the faculty system rather than listed building consent, and planning rules still reach changes to the outside. Church roofs also draw in bats and nesting birds, both protected. Our lead roofing and leadwork page explains the sheet, the dressing and the falls in more detail.

Loxwood lies in the Low Weald, and the Wey and Arun Canal passes to the east and south. Land beside water tends to hold trees, and trees shed leaves, needles and twigs onto roofs. None of that makes a roof fail by itself, but it changes what we check first: the gutters, the lower courses of the slope and any section that the sun reaches late. Damp that lingers on a shaded slope feeds moss, and moss lifts tiles and blocks gutters. A roof clean is sometimes the right answer, and sometimes a sign that the covering is closer to its end than the moss suggests. A gentle clean and a close look beat a hard power jet on old tiles, which can strip the face from them. Moss is also a clue about the hidden parts: where it thrives, the slope above has often stayed wet for months, and the battens beneath are worth a check.

3.1 Gutters, falls and leaf fall

Gutters need a fall to move water towards the outlet. Brett Martin's installation guide suggests 1 mm for every 600 mm, with brackets no more than 900 mm apart, while FloPlast gives 1:350 for its MiniFlo system, so the fall depends on the system fitted. A sagging run holds a pond that overflows at the first heavy shower. If the overflow soaks the wall below, the damp that results is often blamed on the roof. Fascias and soffits (the boards under the eaves) soak up the same overflow, which is why a gutter job often finishes with some timber to replace. Our guttering, soffits and fascias page covers how we renew the run and where the fascia board behind it needs replacing as well.

3.2 Ventilating a roof that stays damp

A damp roof space needs air to leave it. Marley says a cold roof with a high-resistance underlay needs a 25 mm opening along the eaves on pitches up to 15 degrees, and 10 mm above that. BS 5250:2021 on moisture in buildings is listed by BSI as current but under review. We check that insulation has not been pushed into the eaves and that the vents are clear. Bathroom and kitchen fans that vent into the loft add moisture of their own, so a leak is not always the roof's fault. Bats and nesting birds in the eaves are protected too, and we stop and take advice if we find signs of either. Our guide to underlay and ventilation covers the options in more depth.