Roofers in Northchapel

Start with the parish church. Its nave and chancel have a 14th-century core, a west tower went on in 1832, and in 1876 and 1877 the architect Anthony Salvin, who lived in the parish, refaced the building in local Blackdown stone and built the roofs it has today. The church is listed Grade II (list entry 1223427). A church still in worship has its repairs approved through the faculty route, not a council listed building application, which leaves the roof with the parish. Still, a Victorian roof by a known architect is a useful reminder of how buildings of that age were put together: planned timbers, drawn details and edges that were meant to last.

1.1 Victorian detail on a village roof

Houses, schools and chapels of the same period share a handful of weak spots. Gable copings and the verge, the sloping edge at a gable end, depend on mortar joints that open with age. Valley and parapet gutters, lined in lead, collect debris and wear at the folds. The main slope can be perfectly sound while the lead around a stone chimney is not. We look at every one of these before offering a view on the main covering, because the sensible fix is often at the edge and not in the middle of the slope.

1.2 Reading a roof's age from the ground and the loft

A few clues tell us how much life a roof has left. Tiles that sit proud of their line suggest nail sickness. Underlay that crackles when a tile is lifted has dried out. Battens that are dark, soft or split at the nail holes tell the same story from the loft side. A roof from the late nineteenth century that has never been stripped has done well to pass a century, and the survey is the place to learn whether it has more to give. Our roof inspections and surveys page sets out how each of these signs is recorded in photographs.

Not every older roof needs replacing, and a village building that has stood since the 1870s can often be made good with a handful of targeted repairs. We would rather show you three photographs of three faults than sell you a roof you did not need. A survey that separates the urgent from the optional is the most useful thing we can hand over.

Northchapel lies in the Low Weald just south of the Surrey border, and the area was once home to Wealden ironworks that smelted locally dug ironstone in water-powered furnaces in the Tudor and Stuart periods. Little of that survives above ground. What matters on a roof today is how old each building is and how often its joints have been looked at. Old walls and stacks move a little, and a crack that opens at a junction can let water in long before the covering shows any sign. We trace stains inside the house back to the point where the water gets in, which is often some distance from where it shows. Water can run along a rafter or down a wall for a metre or more before it appears on a ceiling, so a brown mark under one chimney breast may start at a cracked tile three courses up the slope. That is why we photograph the whole path and not just the stain.

3.1 Who decides: the Park, with the district doing the paperwork

The National Park Authority lists a conservation area for Northchapel. Inside its boundary, swapping the tile for another kind, adding a rooflight or taking down a stack is work to put before the planners first. The village lies within the South Downs National Park and the Authority remains the planning authority, but the district council's planners in Chichester process applications from this side of the Park, and its building control team looks after the Regulations. Anyone planning a roof window should first read our skylight planning permission guide. Re-laying the existing covering is not generally a planning matter, yet a listing or a direction removing rights can change that, so a short call to the council is worth making.

3.2 What the quote follows

After the survey you receive the verdict on the roof, photographs of each fault and one total price in writing. Where a job is notifiable, we explain what building control needs and handle the notification. The usual test is whether the work affects less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof, and when a case is borderline we ask the district's building control team directly. For older houses, we also say whether a stack or a wall needs attention before the roof does, because a new covering fitted over a moving stack will not last.