Roofers in Severn Beach

The seaside resort that Severn Beach became in 1922 was not built to a single catalogue. Robert Stride, the local builder responsible for Osborne Road, Beach Road and Beach Avenue, reused surplus material from the closed remount depot at Shirehampton. That is useful information for anyone planning roof work, because it means you cannot assume that neighbouring houses share timbers, felt or fittings.

What we do on these streets is straightforward. We start in the loft and look at the rafters, the purlins (the long horizontal timbers that support them part-way down the slope) and the battens. Timber of mixed sizes is not a fault in itself, but it affects how a new covering is fixed and how much weight the frame can take. Moving to a covering 15% heavier or more brings Building Regulations approval into play, along with a check of the structure, so the loft inspection comes before any choice of material.

Next we find out what the covering is. Resort-era houses may have been recovered at least once, and a slope that looks uniform from the road can turn out to be two different materials joined along a line. Where there is a mismatch, we match the repair to the part of the roof being repaired.

Underneath, roofs from the 1920s can lack an underlay altogether, or carry only an early felt that has dried and cracked. If the tiles or slates above are sound, they can be lifted, the battens and underlay renewed and the covering reinstated. If they are not, the right conversation is about replacement, and we cover that in our roof replacement service.

None of this means the streets are fragile. It means each house deserves its own survey, with photographs of what is actually up there, before a price is fixed.

A coastal village sees weather arrive without warning, and when a gale strips a ridge or throws slates into the garden, the first priority is stopping water getting in. Leaks and storm damage jump the queue here, and a leaking roof is made safe before it is repaired, usually with a temporary cover or a tarpaulin fixed to hold through the next rain.

The second step concerns your insurance. Many insurers define a storm by a gust threshold, with a figure of at least 55 mph often used, and standard policies commonly exclude general wear and tear. Rain getting in through a neglected roof may therefore fall on the wrong side of the policy wording. Nobody can promise that a claim will pay out, and claims are not something we run for you. What helps is evidence: photographs of the damage taken before anything is moved, a record of the date and weather, plus a roofer's written account of what failed and why.

Gutters deserve their own attention after a storm. Debris blown in can block a run, and a blocked gutter overflows over the fascia and into the wall. Check the downpipe outlets, look for sagging sections and note any joint that is open. The gutters, soffits and fascias service replaces sections or complete runs, and MyBuilder (2026) puts typical UK guttering at £30 to £70 a metre, with scaffold extra where the house has two storeys. The figure we fix for you comes after we have been up and looked.

Finally, treat repeat damage as information. If the same slope loses slates every winter, the fixings or the underlay beneath are probably failing, and repairing one tile at a time will keep costing you. A survey that reads the whole roof usually costs less over three winters than a series of call-outs.