Roofers in Warblington

At the end of the lane running south from the crossroads stands St Thomas a Becket, the parish church the county history calls St Thomas of Canterbury. It is listed Grade I, and its entry has been on the national list since 16 May 1952. Part of the tower is of pre-Conquest date, and the south arcade has Purbeck marble detail. Havant Borough Council's conservation area appraisal is built around the church and the castle remains. In the churchyard stand two Grade II gravewatcher's huts, small enough to pass for garden sheds, and as protected as any larger building. Whoever owns a roof here, big or small, starts by finding out what status it holds. The churchyard lies at the end of a lane, away from passing traffic, which helps when materials need to be carried in or a ladder has to stand near a boundary.

1.1 Who approves the work on a church roof

St Thomas a Becket remains in Church of England use, which puts it outside listed building consent. Works go through the faculty jurisdiction instead, a church-law permission, and any development that affects the exterior still needs planning permission from the local authority. That consent route is the parochial church council's to follow, with its own professional advisers. Where we come in is on the houses and outbuildings around it, and we work out for each address whether the route is faculty, listed building consent or neither. Our guttering, soffits and fascias page covers a job that matters beside old masonry, because a gutter that keeps overflowing wets the masonry beneath it long before a stain appears indoors.

1.2 Small listed structures with small roofs

A listed hut with a roof the size of a double bed still needs its covering handled with care. Listing covers the whole structure, not just the grand parts. Works that would alter its character need listed building consent, and the safest route is a repair using matching material laid in the original pattern. We photograph the roof from every side, record the fixings and the lap of the covering before anything moves, and keep the pictures with the quote. If a tile or slate has to be replaced, we say what we propose to use and why it matches, and you or the owner can show that record to the council's conservation officer. Even the smallest repair to a listed structure is better done once and documented than done twice, and the photographs make a second visit from the council far less likely to be needed.

Warblington stands on the shore of Chichester Harbour between Havant and Emsworth. Havant's appraisal says the creek here became too shallow for boats at most stages of the tide after a fall in sea level in the 12th century, which contributed to the village's decline as Emsworth grew. That history explains why Warblington is small today: a crossroads, a church lane and a few houses, with a harbour shore that has been a working edge for a very long time. The shallow creek and the sea-level change belong to history, not to a hazard rating for any roof here, so we judge every house by what we find on it. Houses near open water take sea weather, meaning gales, driving rain and salt air, and we allow for it when we look at how a roof sheds water and holds its trims.

3.1 Edges, trims and flat roofs beside open water

The weak points on a roof near the shore are the places where one material meets another or the roof simply stops. Gales lift what is loose, and driving rain finds any gap behind it. The usual suspects are the verge, which is the tiled edge at a gable, the eaves, the cappings on a flat-roofed garage or porch, and the trims along a flat roof. A flat roof has to slope enough for water to leave it instead of pooling. BS 6229:2025 sets a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and we lay to a steeper design figure than that, so that the surface really clears once the roof has settled. Our roof repairs page sets out how we find a leak, make the roof safe first and then fix the cause.

3.2 Scaffold on a Hampshire road

Warblington is in Hampshire, so scaffolding set up on the carriageway or footway needs a licence from Hampshire County Council. The contractor puts in that application on the customer's behalf. Hampshire County Council expects 10 clear working days before the planned start, charges £211.90 for the opening fortnight and £72 for each fortnight after, and does not grant extensions. A fault reachable by ladder may not need scaffold at all, whereas a re-roof usually does, so that waiting time goes into the plan from the start. Building control for the borough rests with Havant Borough Council, and we handle the notification where work is notifiable.