Roofers in Southgate

Chapman Taylor's design copies the proportions and the stone of Georgian Bath. What stands behind the facade is a modern building with modern roof build-ups, and that changes what we look for. A true Georgian terrace has a timber roof with slates and a lead-lined gutter behind its parapet. A building of the 2000s is more likely to have a flat or low-pitched roof on a concrete or metal deck, with an insulated build-up and a membrane on top.

The detail that keeps them watertight is at the edges. The parapet is the short upstanding wall at the roof perimeter, and a parapet gutter is the channel behind it that carries rainwater to the outlets. A box gutter does a similar job lower down, as a lined trough tucked between roof planes or against a wall. Where the stone facing meets the roof, a flashing (sheet metal dressed over the joint) and a coping (the capping stone on top of the wall) protect the top. Those parts hold the facade and the roof together, and if they fail the water reaches the stone.

New buildings also settle. In the first years the structure moves a little, sealants age and the first minor leaks appear around penetrations such as vents, flues and plant. Most are small and quick to find. A building that has been signed off and handed over has not necessarily been checked at roof level since, and a walk-over survey is the sensible start.

If you manage one of the blocks, we can survey the whole roof, photograph each junction and give you a written list in order of priority. The roof inspections and surveys page describes what the survey covers and what it does not.

Figures: SouthGate entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026

The whole city of Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so Southgate sits inside it. The Bath conservation area covers about half of that site, and as a central location this part of town is a likely candidate for it, though you should confirm your own address on the B&NES policy map rather than rely on us. The council's planning team also tells you whether a building is listed. A newly built precinct is unlikely to be, but a few older buildings around it may be.

For work on a roof that no one will see from the street, like-for-like repairs to a membrane usually raise few planning questions. A visible change is different: a new parapet height, a changed railing, a new rooflight or a different facing. Those can affect the way a building reads from the street. Because the design here was praised for fitting its Georgian setting, it makes sense to keep alterations modest and to ask B&NES before you commit.

Building Regulations apply to larger re-roofs. Once a re-roof reaches past the exemption limits in the national guidance, approval applies, and the new roof may have to meet current insulation standards. A flat roof renewed in full on a block of flats is likely to cross that line. At survey, before any price is fixed, we say whether approval looks necessary and who would submit it: the council's own team or a private firm on the register.

Roof terraces bring their own questions about guarding and edge protection. We can describe what we find at the edge, but a decision about barrier heights belongs with the building owner and their advisers. Our roof repairs page deals with a roof that is leaking now, where making it safe has to come before anything else.