Georgian terrace of honey Bath stone with natural slate roofs and chimney stacks

Roofers in Lambridge

Lambridge is 2.3 road miles north-east of Bath, on the line where the city once ended, and its buildings are in Bath stone: a late Georgian terrace with mansards and dormers, a listed mid 19th century shopfront terrace and long residential rows. Mansard and dormer repairs on that terrace, like the work on the long rows, are carried out in matching natural slate and lead.

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Local roofs

Where the city boundary ran along a brook

The Lam Brook at Lambridge had formerly been the historic boundary of the city of Bath. Until 1742 there was virtually no building in the Larkhall and Lambridge area, and a plan of that date shows only Lambridge House and Dead Mill. What stands there now came later, and the main terraces of the Grosvenor and Lambridge character area are late 18th century, built chiefly in Bath stone.

The water is still part of the story. The Lam Brook joins the Whitewell Brook at the site of the mill pond of the former Lambridge Flour Mill. Lambridge Buildings, a mid 19th century terrace of three storeys in Bath stone ashlar, is Grade II listed and has commercial ground floors and shopfronts. Lambridge Place is a Grade II terrace of 1792 to 1800 with slate mansard roofs and dormers, and the Bath Preservation Trust commented on No. 8 when its artificial slate was to be replaced.

For a roofer that gives a handful of recognisable jobs. There is stone and slate to match, lead where roofs meet walls and dormers, flats above shops that share one roof, and the questions of consent that come with a listed building and a World Heritage city. Lambridge has its own ward, and the same council as the rest of the city.

We survey first, photograph the roof, and set out the work and its price in a fixed written quote.

Council: Bath and North East Somerset Council
From central Bath: 2.3 road miles, north-east
Listed terrace: Lambridge Buildings, mid 19th century, Grade II, three storeys
Brooks: The Lam Brook, joining the Whitewell Brook at the old mill pond
Building began: Almost nothing built here before 1742

What we find

Dormers, shared roofs and layered repairs in Lambridge

Lambridge Place and the mansard roof

A mansard with dormers is a different animal from a plain pitched roof, and a more exposed one.

Picture each side of a mansard as two planes, a steep one rising from the wall and a gentle one above it. The steep plane turns the loft into a storey, and dormer windows usually break through it. The Bath Preservation Trust has noted the increased visibility of the mansard roof and integrated dormers on Nos. 1 to 16 Lambridge Place, compared with Nos. 17 to 19, where the pitched roof is recessed behind the parapet.

That visibility is the point. A mansard is seen from the street, so its covering is part of the elevation. The Trust backed natural Welsh slate there in place of an artificial one, which shows how roofs of this kind get judged: by the colour, texture and detail of what covers them. A substitute that reads as flat and uniform spoils the look of the stone below it.

The working parts are demanding. The steep face is hard to reach, so access is usually by scaffold. Each dormer has a lead-lined roof, cheeks that must be sealed, and a window frame that moves slightly in the weather. Where a dormer meets the slate, the lead flashing steps along the courses. Where the steep and shallow slopes join there is a hip or a kink in the slope that needs a lead roll to shed water.

Because the roof is close to the street, small faults show early: slates that have slipped, a stain below a dormer, a rattle in a gale. We check each of these from the scaffold, not from the pavement. For the covering itself our slate roofing page explains how we match new slate to old, and sound slate is reused wherever we can.

Words you will hear

Mansard: A roof broken into a near-vertical lower face and a flatter top, giving usable space within.
Dormer: A small window with its own roof that projects from the slope.
Cheek: The side wall of a dormer, usually clad in lead or slate.
Roll: A raised, lead-covered timber that joins two sheets of lead along a seam.

Lambridge Buildings: shopfronts below, roof above

A Grade II listed terrace of three storeys with commercial ground floors has roof questions that go beyond stone and slate.

Lambridge Buildings is a mid 19th century terrace of three storeys in Bath stone ashlar, Grade II listed, with commercial ground floors and shopfronts. The shops are on the street, the floors above are lived in or let, and the roof covers all of it. When one unit has a leak, the cause is rarely confined to that unit.

The first task is working out whose roof it is. In a mixed-use terrace the freeholder is often responsible for the roof, with costs shared through a lease. That means any repair has to be agreed before work starts, and a clear written survey is the quickest way to get agreement. We record each fault with photographs, describe it in plain language and a fixed figure, so a managing agent or a group of owners can decide without needing a site visit.

The second is the roof shape. A terrace like this often has a pitched front slope behind a parapet, a lead-lined gutter and a rear roof that may be flat or low-pitched where later extensions were added. Any flat section at the back has its own membrane and its own age, separate from the slate in front. Systems used over shops and mixed-use buildings are described under commercial roofing, and flat roofing covers the options for a small rear extension.

The third is consent. Because the terrace is listed, B&NES must grant consent before work that alters its character, and a phone call to the conservation team comes first. For a shopfront terrace we describe the roof work separately from the ground floor so the council can see exactly what is proposed. Repairs that put back what was there, in the same material, give the fewest difficulties.

Shared roofs

Agree the scope with the freeholder in writing before anyone is on the scaffold.

The late 18th century terraces and the layers of repair

Stone terraces from the first wave of building have been repaired so many times that the repairs are part of the history.

The first terraces of the Grosvenor and Lambridge character area date from the late 18th century, and they are built in Bath stone. After more than two centuries, a roof on one of these terraces has typically been re-covered, partly re-covered or patched more than once. What looks like a single roof from the street may be a mixture of several periods.

Reading those layers is the first part of a survey. A run of newer slates of a different colour tells us where a section was renewed. Cement fillets along a wall show where an earlier repairer sealed a joint with the wrong material. Lead of different thickness at different chimneys points to a succession of hands. Each clue shows what has already been tried, and what is likely to need doing next.

Our preference is to unpick the worst of the previous work and to put back the roof as it was built. That may mean removing a cement fillet and replacing it with a proper lead flashing, replacing mismatched slates with a better match and renewing the battens that hold them. These are small, specific tasks, and they stretch the life of the covering without the cost of a full re-roof.

Timbers matter too. A roof of this age may have rafters that have taken water for years at the wall plate, where damp from a failed gutter collects. We check them from the loft with a probe and a torch, and where there is decay we cut it out and splice in new timber. The repair sequence for the whole roof is set out in our pitched roofing service.

Brooks, the old mill pond and keeping water moving

Lam Brook and Whitewell Brook meet at the mill pond, and roofs here have to move rain away as steadily as the streams do.

This part of Bath grew up around water. The Lam Brook marked the old boundary of the city, and where it joins the Whitewell Brook was the mill pond of the Lambridge Flour Mill. Dead Mill and Lambridge House appear on the 1742 plan, long before the terraces. Both brooks still define property boundaries in Larkhall and carry water from Swainswick and Charlcombe down to the Avon.

For roofs, the lesson is about drainage rather than flooding. A terrace in a district where the ground is wet needs its rain to leave the building promptly. If a gutter overflows, the water runs down the stone face and soaks into ground that is already damp, and the stone at the base of the wall can stay wet for long periods. Stone that stays wet decays faster, especially in frost.

We therefore look at the whole route: the gutter or parapet gutter, the outlet, the downpipe, its shoe at the bottom and the drain it meets. A downpipe with a cracked joint soaks the wall behind it. A blocked gully backs water up against the foot of the wall. Cast iron guttering on an old terrace is worth repairing rather than replacing where it can be, since it matches the building. When replacement is needed, our gutters, soffits and fascias page describes the alternatives and the way each is fixed.

Chimneys deserve a look in the same spirit. Their flaunching and pointing take the weather from above while damp rises into the base from the roof void. A stack in lime that has been left alone for years is better than a stack in fresh cement, and we point it out on site.

Myth

Cast iron gutters on an old terrace should always be replaced with plastic.

Fact

Sound cast iron can be repaired and repainted, and it matches the building. Replacement is for runs that are cracked or sagging beyond repair.

Nearby

Roofers near Lambridge

Roofing services in Lambridge

Local questions

Questions along the old city boundary at Lambridge

The dormer windows on my Lambridge mansard leak at the sides. Is that the lead or the window?

Usually the lead cheeks or the junction between the dormer and the slates. The window frame is the less likely culprit. We examine the lead seams, the rolls and the flashing where the dormer roof meets the steep slope. If the lead has split we patch or replace it in the same pattern, and then we test the window seal so we are sure of the cause.

I own a flat above a shop in Lambridge Buildings. Who decides whether the roof is repaired?

That depends on your lease, but in most mixed-use terraces the freeholder or a managing agent organises roof repairs and recovers the cost from the leaseholders. We can survey for them, photograph each fault and quote a fixed price, which makes it easier to reach agreement. Since the building is Grade II listed, any change to its appearance needs B&NES consent first.

Can artificial slate on a Lambridge terrace be swapped for natural slate in one phase?

Yes, and many owners work slope by slope. One elevation can be stripped and re-covered in natural slate, with new battens and underlay, while the rest waits. The Trust's support for Welsh slate at Lambridge Place gives a local precedent. Check consent with B&NES before anything is ordered.

Our terrace backs onto the Lam Brook and the base of the wall stays damp. Could the roof be to blame?

It might be a contributor. A leaking gutter or a cracked downpipe can soak the wall from above, and a broken drain can saturate the ground at its foot. We trace the water from the roof edge down to the gully before pricing anything. If the roof drainage is sound, the cause lies in the ground or the wall, and we will say so.

Get your free survey

Get your free roof survey

Tell us what's happening and we'll call you back to arrange a visit. Prefer to talk? Call 01225 285181.

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