Roofers in Slindon

Slindon sits on the dip slope, the gentle southern face of the South Downs, and the SDNPA's appraisal records that the northern end of the village is about 40 metres above the southern end. That is a modest climb, but it shapes the village: lanes tilt, gardens step, and a scaffold on a sloping verge needs levelling before it goes up. The same appraisal notes that the Slindon Estate, now owned by the National Trust, has cottages sharing a consistent palette of materials, notably flint and clay tiles. When a whole row looks the same from the lane, one mismatched roof stands out to everyone who walks past it.

1.1 Matching clay tile to the cottage next door

Hand-made clay tiles weather unevenly, and a new tile beside a century-old one stays brighter for years. Where a repair is only a few tiles, we search out reclaimed tiles in the same size and colour so the patch does not shout from the road. Where a whole slope has failed, we may strip it, sort the sound tiles into stacks, and relay them on new battens and underlay, topping up with new tiles on the least visible courses. Each course, a single horizontal line of tiles, is counted and sorted as it comes off. Putting the new tiles on the rear slope or the lowest rows keeps the lane side looking as it always has. The survey photographs show which tiles are cracked, which are sound and which have simply slipped, so you see why we recommend what we do.

1.2 Flint walls at the eaves and the gable

Flint walls have deep, irregular faces, and a roof that has lost its gutter pours water straight down them and into the footings. So on an estate cottage we check the gutter and the first row of tiles before anything else. The eaves are the lower edge of a roof, where the tiles overhang the wall, and they take most of the water. The verge, where the roof slopes down beside a gable wall, gets the same attention: tiles bedded and pinned over a neat undercloak, the thin starter course that sits beneath them. Our pitched roofing page explains how we strip and relay a tiled slope, and our roof repairs page covers the smaller jobs that keep an older tiled roof going.

Slindon was first designated a conservation area by Arun District Council in February 1976. When the South Downs National Park was created in April 2011, the National Park Authority became the village's planning authority. For Slindon the SDNPA decides planning applications itself, while building control stays with Arun District Council. That is a split worth remembering, because one roof job can need an answer from each body. Roof windows, dormers and extensions follow tighter rules inside a National Park, so read our skylight planning permission guide before you plan one.

3.1 Two churches, two consent routes

St Mary's parish church, Grade I since 5 June 1958, has a 13th-century chancel and a tower added when Sir Thomas Jackson restored it in 1866. The Catholic church of St Richard was built in 1865 to a design by C.A. Buckler, an unusual presence in a village of this size. An Anglican church that is in use goes through the faculty system and is exempt from listed building consent, and a Roman Catholic church in use is exempt too, with its own approval process. Neither exemption reaches a house, a cottage or a hall, so the roof of a private listed home is treated differently from the church roofs. If your roof meets a churchyard wall or a neighbour's gable, tell us at booking, because shared walls can mean a party wall notice before anyone touches the abutment.

3.2 The possible Article 4 direction

The village appraisal floats an Article 4 direction for the conservation area at some future date, which could remove permitted development rights that homes now enjoy. None appears on the Authority's list at present. Rules change, so ask its planning team before you alter a visible slope. An unlisted cottage with a sound roof usually needs no permission for a like-for-like re-cover, but a different material, or a roof window in the front slope, is the sort of change the team will want to see first. Our slate roofing page also explains how we match old slate on a house that falls under these controls. Building control may apply as well, and the written quote names who we expect to notify.

3.3 Roof access on a sloping lane

Because the village steps up towards the Downs, scaffold towers and ladders often stand on a slope, on grass verges or on the narrow lanes between flint walls. We plan the access before the survey ends, and if a scaffold has to stand over the lane, West Sussex County Council must issue a licence, which the firm erecting it requests. The council asks for at least 10 working days, so a roof job on a lane with no private frontage needs a little more lead time than one set back from the road.