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Roofing in Kent and south east London
Bromley, Bexley, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Medway and Gravesend cover two very different roof populations, and they fail in different ways. Our own team works right across them, on re-roofs, repairs, flat roofs and chimneys.
Interwar and postwar tiled roofs
The suburbs built between the wars and through the fifties are mostly plain or interlocking concrete tile on softwood battens, and a good many are now at the age where the battens rather than the tiles decide the outcome. The tell is a roofer who cannot re-hang a slipped tile because there is nothing sound to nail to.
Concrete tile of that era also delaminates from the face as it ages. A roof where handling a tile takes a layer off it is a roof to plan for rather than patch indefinitely.
Kent peg and clay
Older village and rural property across west Kent carries clay peg tile, often on a roof with a good deal of movement in it. Pegs fail individually and are replaceable, which is why these roofs reward repair far longer than a concrete one does.
What they do not forgive is being re-covered with something heavier than the original. The structure was built for what is on it, and adding weight to an old roof has consequences a long way from the tile.
Exposure along the estuary
Along the Medway and the estuary, wind uplift and salt-laden air are real factors rather than a sales line. Verges and ridges that are bedded in mortar lift where a mechanically fixed detail would not, and fixings corrode faster than they do twenty miles inland.
On exposed slopes the fixing specification has to allow for it. It is a small part of the price and it is the part that decides whether the roof is still where you left it after a January gale.
Chimneys, which are everywhere here
Interwar semis have tall stacks and a lot of them, frequently unused since the central heating went in. Uncapped redundant flues let water straight into the stack, perished pointing does the rest, and the leak shows up in a bedroom on the other side of the wall. Re-flaunching, repointing and capping a dead flue solves more of these than any flashing repair.
Where we work in Kent and south east London
Recent jobs include re-roofs in Orpington, Blackfen and Milton, a natural slate roof in Petts Wood and a loft conversion roof in Bexley. If your town is not listed, send your postcode anyway.
- Bromley, Orpington, Petts Wood and Beckenham
- Bexley, Sidcup, Welling and Blackfen
- Greenwich, Eltham and Lewisham
- Dartford, Gravesend and Swanley
- Sevenoaks and Tonbridge
- Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells
- Medway: Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham
- Canterbury and east Kent
Recent jobs in Kent and south east London
Questions
Is a coastal position really different?
Yes. Fixing specification and mortar details change on an exposed slope, and a quote that ignores it will be back in a few winters.
Can you match Kent peg tile?
Matching an old clay roof on a visible slope usually means reclaimed tile. We tell you what the match will be, and what it costs, before any work starts rather than substituting quietly.
Do you charge to come out and quote?
No. The quote visit is free, and the price comes back fixed and in writing.