Roofers in Rogate

Rogate's village centre is a crossroads, and St Bartholomew's church stands in the middle of it. Its walls are local sandstone laid as ashlar, meaning squared, finely dressed blocks, under a tiled roof. The church is listed Grade I (list entry 1275547, first listed 18 June 1959). The Anglican exemption from listed building control, which applies while a church is in regular use, sends its roof through the faculty jurisdiction, while any outward change still needs planning permission. None of that touches a private house, but it shows how carefully old roofs in the middle of the village are treated, and homes beside the church deserve a thorough survey before anything is altered.

1.1 Tile roofs beside sandstone walls

Where tile meets a sandstone wall or stack, the joint is the weak point. Flashing is a lead strip set into a cut joint in the stonework and lapped down over the tile, and a soaker is a small folded piece of lead that sits under each course of tiles next to a stack or wall. If either is lifted, split or missing, water finds its way down inside the wall. Mortar fillets and sealant are not a lasting substitute. New lead goes into freshly raked joints, is held with wedges and is pointed in a mortar suited to the stone. Our lead roofing and leadwork page lists the lead details we form on site.

1.2 What a roadside roof asks for

A house at a crossroads usually needs scaffolding on or beside a public road. Under the Highways Act that calls for a scaffold licence, which is issued by the county highways team at West Sussex County Council. West Sussex County Council covers Rogate, and its published guidance asks for a minimum of 10 working days from application to erection. A start date is therefore never instant, and the timing is explained when the quote is written, so the start you are given is one that holds. Parked cars, bins and passing lorries are all part of planning such a job, and neighbours deserve warning before the poles go up.

Gutters at a roadside house deserve a look too. An outlet that discharges over a footway or a shared wall can soak a passer-by or a neighbour's masonry, and the downpipe path is worth checking before the scaffold comes down. With the scaffold up, the fascia, soffit and gutter brackets can all be examined at arm's length, which is often the best time to decide whether the roofline needs more than a clean-out. A hairline crack in a fascia joint that looks trivial from the pavement can hide a board that has been wet for years.

The north of Rogate parish is chiefly woodland, including Langley and Coldharbor Woods and Harting Combe. In 1590 there was an iron hammer-mill at Haben and an iron furnace in Harting Combe. Today the woods are the part of that landscape that matters most to a roof, because tree cover shapes how any slope near it wears. Branches overhang tiles, leaves and needles drop into valleys and gutters, and shaded slopes stay wet for longer after rain.

3.1 Trees, gutters and slow rot

The damage rarely arrives in a single storm. A gutter blocked by leaves overflows against the wall, a fascia board takes water along its top edge, and rot starts where nobody looks. Moss grows thicker on the shaded side and holds moisture against tiles, and a stiff brush or careful wash-down by hand is gentler on old clay than a pressure lance. Where moss has lifted the edges of tiles, the fixings underneath are checked before anything is cleaned off. A tree close to the house can also drop a limb in a gale onto the ridge, and a ridge hit that way should be inspected from the top, not just from a window, before the next rain arrives. Leaf litter on a flat porch or lean-to roof deserves the same attention, since a small pool behind a blocked outlet goes through a covering faster than most owners expect. Felling and pruning are tree surgeons' work, so you are told where branches need cutting back before the roof itself can be dealt with. Our roof repairs page covers the repairs that follow.