Roofers in Purley (CR8)
Purley has some of the most complicated domestic roofs on our patch. The Webb Estate houses were individually designed in Arts and Crafts and Tudor Revival, which on a roof means multiple gables, steep pitches and a great deal of detail — and the detail is where they fail.
Where a complicated roof actually goes
On an individually designed house the roof is rarely one slope.
Several pitches meet, there are gables and dormers, sometimes a catslide running down over a lower room, and tile-hanging carried down the walls. Every junction between those elements is a potential entry point, and on roofs of this age it is almost always the junctions that go before the covering does — valleys, the leadwork round a chimney or a dormer cheek, the flashing where a lower roof meets a wall. That is why a price given as one figure tells you very little. We price these element by element so you can see what the valleys and the leadwork are costing as against the area of tile.
What may go back on, in a conservation area
Much of the estate sits within a conservation area, and on a roof that governs what can be used. A re-cover in the nearest cheap equivalent changes how the house reads from the road and is visible for decades. Our approach is the careful one: strip by hand, set aside everything sound, relay the salvaged material on the elevations that are seen, and match the shortfall as closely as it can be matched. Where a property is listed there may be consent to obtain before work starts. Down towards the station and on the interwar streets the roofs are more ordinary and the job is more straightforward.
Who actually does the roofing
Roofing is a specialist trade, and a complex tiled roof is a specialist job within it.
SG brings in roofers it has worked with for years and manages them on site — we survey the roof, price it, run the job and stay answerable for the result.
More in Purley
Everything we do in Purley is on the Purley area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the roofing page.
Common questions
Q.01My roof has several pitches and valleys. How is that priced?
As a written schedule broken down by element rather than one figure. On a roof like this most of the cost sits in the valleys, flashings and leadwork, not in the area of tile, and you should be able to see that.
Q.02Can you match the tiles on a Webb Estate house?
As closely as they can be matched. We keep the sound original material during the strip and relay it where it is seen. Where an exact match does not exist we say so at survey rather than at handover.
Q.03Does the conservation area affect roof work?
It can affect what materials may be used, and where a property is listed there may be consent needed before starting. We establish the position at the survey.
Q.04Do you repair tile-hanging as well as roofs?
Yes. Hung elevations are common on the estate houses and they weather and fail much as a roof does, so they are surveyed and priced the same way.
Thinking about roofing in Purley?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.