Roofers in Lyminster

Lyminster is small, and a good deal of its character comes from one building. Substantial parts of the chancel and nave of the parish church of St Mary Magdalene date from around 1040, and the church is listed Grade I. The priory that once stood here had its estates granted by Henry VI to Eton College, which still holds the patronage of the parish. Arun District Council's conservation area appraisal, dated August 2026, describes flint as the dominant walling material and puts clay tile first among the roof coverings, with slate also present on some buildings. That shapes how we plan a job: we expect to be matching new clay to old clay beside flint walls, not simply choosing whichever tile is easiest to get.

1.1 What clay asks of a roofer

Clay tiles can last a long time when they are looked after. Marley cites a Building Research Establishment figure of at least 60 years for clay, while buildingconservation.com cautions that on an old peg-tile roof the 60-year figure tells you little, so age alone never settles the question. We look for tiles with crumbling faces, for gaps where tiles have slipped, and for fixings that no longer hold. If a slope is sound apart from a run of slipped tiles, refixing those tiles is the whole job. If the whole slope is going, we tell you plainly and mark the failing areas on the photographs. Our pitched roofing page explains how a clay slope is stripped, re-battened, covered with new underlay and relaid, with the good tiles reused wherever they will go back.

1.2 Slate on some buildings

Where a Lyminster building carries slate, the covering behaves differently. Slates are thin and flat and held by nails, and a slipped one can be re-secured with a tingle, a slim metal strip bent to grip the slate while leaving the row above undisturbed. If the nails have rusted through along a whole slope, individual repairs only buy a little time, and relaying the sound slates on new battens is the more lasting fix. A mixed village like this one often has a clay roof and a slate roof side by side, and each wants the right person looking at it with the right materials to hand.

Because the church is Grade I, the houses around it deserve care in their own right. Work on the church goes through the Church of England's faculty system and is a matter for its parish, not for a roofing firm. For a neighbouring house, the first question is whether it is listed, and the second is whether any change goes beyond putting back what was there. A like-for-like repair, with matching tile and the same pitch, is normally the lighter route, and it is the one we start from.

Lyminster's setting is rural. The appraisal describes open fields, drainage ditches and low-lying land belonging to the wider Arun Valley, with long views north to Arundel Castle. The Lyminster bypass and the realigned A284 have reduced the through traffic in the village, so the lanes are quieter than they were. For roofs, an open valley floor means little shelter. Weather arrives across the fields, and a ridge or a verge that is not properly fixed will be the first thing to show it. Wind-driven rain finds any gap between the tiles and the wall at a verge, and a damp mark on an inside gable wall is often the first sign. Photographs of the gable from the garden are a good start if you want to send us something before the survey. We see no reason to alarm anyone, but a roof with loose capping or a patched verge deserves attention before the autumn gales and not after them.

3.1 Outbuildings, extensions and flat roofs

Alongside the older houses, a village like this has garages, utility rooms and extensions with flat roofs. A flat roof must be built with a slight slope, the fall, to shed rainwater. BS 6229:2025 sets a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and roofers usually design steeper, around 1:40, so the finished surface still drains. Ponding water, blistered felt and a soft edge are the signs that a covering is failing. For a garage re-felt, Checkatrade (updated October 2026) gives around £1,000 to £2,000, with an average of £1,500, as a typical UK range; the figure for your own building comes from the written quote after our survey. Our roof repairs page covers the smaller jobs that avoid a full replacement.

3.2 Old buildings and wildlife

An old roof close to fields and ditches can house bats and nesting birds, which are both protected. If we see signs of either, we stop and tell you before any work goes further. Garages and sheds built or refurbished before 2000 may contain asbestos, according to the HSE, which advises you to assume it is present until checked. We would send you to a proper sample test before touching an old cement-sheet roof, and we would not break it up. Asbestos cement is only non-licensed work when it is handled carefully and not broken, and it becomes notifiable if it is substantially damaged, so this is a job for a proper survey before any quote.