Roofers in Minchinhampton

Height changes how a roof behaves. On a sheltered street in a valley, a tile can sit loose for years because the air barely moves above it. Up here, the same tile is tugged every time a gust crosses the common. The difference is not dramatic on any single day, but over a winter it adds up, and the first signs are small: a chipped edge, a ridge with a hairline crack in the mortar, a slate that has slipped a finger-width and then stopped.

The standard we work to is BS 5534:2014, which governs slating and tiling. Under it, ridge tiles, hip tiles and verges cannot depend on a mortar bed by itself, and a mechanical fixing is expected too. For an exposed hilltop roof that is common sense as much as compliance. A ridge tile held by mortar and nothing else will eventually part company with the roof, and the open question is only whether it happens in a gale.

Where a ridge or verge has failed, we have two routes. The first is to rake out the old bedding, rebed with fresh mortar and add the fixings. The other route is dry-fix, where ridge and verge pieces are clipped on without a mortar bed, a system tested to BS 8612:2018. Dry-fix needs less maintenance and flexes with the roof, so on a high roof it is often the sensible choice. On older roofs with bespoke ridge tiles, rebedding keeps the look. The ridge and verge repairs service sets out both routes in detail.

Beyond the edges, we also look at the field of the roof. Clipped tiles, nibs that have snapped, nails that have corroded: all of these show up as slight unevenness in the lines of the courses. If you can see a roof that does not look quite straight any more, it is worth a closer look before the winter.

Holy Trinity lost its spire in 1563 when the nave arches that carried it proved to be failing, and the stub was finished with a coronet structure. It is a reminder that large church roofs are not a roofer's problem alone. They sit on masonry, arches and timbers whose movement over centuries has shaped the roof lines we see now, and any repair has to respect that.

Church and chapel roofs are different from house roofs in four ways. They are tall, so access is a job in itself. They are long, so the gutters and the valleys between roofs carry more water. They are often laid with lead in the places houses use something lighter. And their timbers are generally larger, older and less forgiving than domestic rafters. A fault that would be a half-day repair on a house can need scaffolding, a plan and weeks on a church.

Chapels have a further story. Minchinhampton Baptist Church in Tetbury Street dates from 1834, and the Baptist chapel in Chapel Lane, built in 1765, is now a private house. A building designed as a chapel and later converted keeps the roof it was given: wide spans, deep pitches, and a loft space that was never planned as habitable. If you own such a house, the questions are practical. What is the roof made of, and where does it leak? Has it been insulated, and has that been done in a way that lets the timbers breathe?

The last of those is worth care. Insulation fitted tightly against the underside of an old roof can trap moisture where it does the most damage. Our roof inspections page describes how we look at a loft, the timbers and the ventilation as well as the covering, so that a conversion roof is judged as a whole.