A Wiltshire market town street with stone and brick houses and clay tile roofs

Roofers in Devizes

Devizes is a Wiltshire market town 20.1 road miles east of Bath, with Grade I houses on its market square, a school centred on a house rebuilt in 1772, and a canal lifting through it. It needs roofers who can work on homes and on larger commercial buildings. We survey both, repair where repair works, and match old materials when they must change.

Get a free survey Call 01225 285181

Local roofs

A market town on the edge of the plain

Devizes stands at the west edge of the Vale of Pewsey and the northwestern edge of Salisbury Plain. That puts it where vale meets plain. Its centre is rich in listed buildings: 17 Market Place, a substantial house dating to the early 1700s, is Grade I, and Brownston House on New Park Street is also Grade I. The town's two 12th-century churches, St John's and St Mary's, are Grade I as well.

Not everything in Devizes is old. Part of the built-up area to the north, around 1,200 houses, lies in Bishops Cannings parish and not in Devizes at all. Southbroom House, near the Green, was built in 1501, burnt down and rebuilt by the Eyles family in 1772. It is now at the heart of Devizes School, so a roof that began as a private house now covers classrooms.

Through the town runs the Kennet and Avon Canal, which rises 237 feet (72 m) by means of 29 locks near Devizes, 16 of them in a straight line at Caen Hill. The canal towpath runs through the town, and buildings close to the water need their drainage watched.

Wiltshire Council deals with planning and building control. Our survey is free, it includes photographs of the roof you own, and the price we give afterwards is fixed in writing.

Council: Wiltshire Council
From central Bath: 20.1 road miles, east
Grade I listed: 17 Market Place, Brownston House, St John's and St Mary's
Kennet and Avon Canal: 29 locks near Devizes, 16 in a line at Caen Hill
Southbroom House: Built 1501, rebuilt 1772, now part of Devizes School

What we find

Town house gutters and flat roofs on open ground

Market Place and the Grade I town houses

Houses of the early 18th century were built to impress, and their roofs have to be mended with the same intention.

The streets around the Market Place carry some of the finest houses in the town. 17 Market Place is Grade I, a substantial house of the early 1700s, and Brownston House on New Park Street is another. Properties at that level are protected as complete buildings, which brings the roof inside the listing. A change to its look needs the council's permission in the form of listed building consent, decided by Wiltshire Council.

What this means in practice is a different way of working. Before we propose anything, we study how the roof was made: which material covers it, how the courses diminish towards the ridge, what the chimneys are built of and where the water goes. We then write a proposal that changes as little as possible. If twelve slates have slipped, we replace twelve slates, in matching size and colour, and refix the neighbours. If the lead in a hidden gutter has split, we cut out the length and replace it in lead, not in a modern substitute.

Large houses of the period commonly hide their drainage. A lead-lined channel behind the front wall, or sunk between two roof slopes, takes the run-off of a big roof to a single outlet, and a blocked outlet turns it into a tray. The result is staining on the ceiling below and, if it goes unnoticed, softened timber at the wall plate. We trace the staining back along the line of the channel and open the gutter to look.

It is easy to underestimate how far a leak can travel before it shows. Water from a split in the lead runs along a timber, soaks a plaster ceiling and appears metres from the defect. That is why the report we give you contains photographs of the roof itself and the likely path of the water, not only of the stain.

For larger works on a roof of this kind, such as a full re-cover, see roof replacement, which sets out how a roof is stripped, repaired and relaid in stages.

Schools, shops and the commercial roof

A house first built in 1501, rebuilt in 1772 and now at the heart of a school, shows how many kinds of building a town roofer meets.

Southbroom House was built in 1501, burnt down and was rebuilt by the Eyles family in 1772. It now stands at the heart of Devizes School. A roof that was designed for a family home covers classrooms, and the buildings around it are the kind that any school accumulates: flat-roofed blocks, porches, corridors and sheds. Commercial and public buildings in a town of this size follow the same pattern, and they need a different approach from a house.

The first difference is that the building keeps working. A school, a shop or an office cannot close for a fortnight because the roof leaks, so the work is planned around occupancy: access routes, noise, safe exclusion zones and the hours when the building is empty. We discuss the schedule with whoever manages the site before we price, and we write it into the quotation.

The second is the roof system. Commercial flat roofs are usually built from one of a handful of membranes. Each has its own strengths, its own joints and its own way of failing, and the table below sets them side by side. The right choice depends on the deck, the insulation, the foot traffic and the budget.

The third is pricing. Commercial roofs are quoted after a survey, since the area, access, edge details and drainage change the cost more than the membrane does. For that reason we give no list prices for them, and your fixed figure follows the survey. The commercial roofing page describes how a survey and quotation work for shops, offices, schools and similar buildings.

Common flat roof systems

Membrane	Method	Typical use
Torch-on felt	Layers of bitumen sheet, fused together with a torch	Offices, outbuildings, re-covering existing felt
EPDM	One synthetic rubber sheet, glued to the deck	Wide clear areas with few pipes or lights through them
Single-ply	A PVC or TPO sheet, welded at the seams	Schools and shops with plant and rooflights
Lead	Sheet metal with rolls and drips	Heritage roofs and parapet gutters

The canal, Caen Hill and waterside damp

Where a canal runs through a town, buildings beside it can stay damp for longer.

Near Devizes the Kennet and Avon Canal rises 237 feet (72 m) by means of 29 locks, 16 of them in a straight line at Caen Hill. It is a remarkable piece of engineering, and it runs through the town. Buildings beside a canal or a lock sit close to standing water, trees and often shaded ground, and these conditions slow the drying of a roof.

The effects are well known to anyone who has owned a waterside property. Shaded and north-facing slopes grow moss and algae, which hold water against the tile or slate. Leaves from overhanging trees collect in gutters and valleys. Damp air condenses in cold lofts, and in a poorly ventilated roof space the timbers stay wet through the winter. Water that has nowhere to go will eventually find a way into the structure.

Our response is practical. We clear and check the gutters first, since a blocked gutter causes more damp than a damaged tile. We then look at the moss, which is lifted or washed off gently with an appropriate treatment on an older roof, because aggressive cleaning can harm a covering that is already soft. Last, we look at ventilation in the loft, adding vents at the eaves where air cannot move.

A line of overhanging branches deserves a conversation as well. Trimming back a limb costs far less than repeated gutter repairs and an annual clean, and the owner of the tree is often a neighbour or the canal's managers. We note where branches reach the roof and suggest what to ask.

On roof cleaning you will find which treatment suits which covering.

237 ft

Rise of the canal near Devizes, about 72 m

Locks on that rise

Locks in a straight line at Caen Hill

Figures: Devizes entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026

Northern estates and the open edge of the plain

Houses on the town's northern side, partly in a neighbouring parish, can be exposed to the weather.

Around 1,200 houses on the north side of the built-up area lie in Bishops Cannings parish, not in Devizes itself. They share the town's roads, shops and schools, and they share its position at the edge of the plain. For roofing purposes the parish line matters less than the exposure. A house on the open side of a settlement takes wind and driven rain with little to break them.

Housing of that kind generally needs three kinds of attention. The first is the ridge and verge, where mortar ages and wind finds the weak joint. The second is the eaves, where the fascia board and soffit hold the gutters up and keep the rafters closed against birds and weather. The third is the underlay, the sheet beneath the tile battens, which is there to intercept rain that slips past the covering and shed it into the gutter. Where it has torn or sagged, the leaks it causes appear far from the cause.

Gutters have to be sized and sloped for the roof they serve. On an exposed house, rain is often driven sideways over a gutter that is too small, and the wall below stays wet. A spirit level along the gutter shows its fall, a tape shows the bracket spacing, and a probe finds sealant that has failed. Replacing a length costs less than leaving the wall wet for several winters.

The decision between repair and renewal rests on what we find. When a few tiles have slipped and the rest are sound, a repair is right, and that is the advice you will get. When fixings have corroded across a slope, or the underlay has perished, only a re-cover will hold.

The flat roofing service covers extensions, porches and garage roofs, which are common additions to estate houses and need their own detail.

Words you will hear

Fascia: The timber face at the edge of the eaves that the gutter is screwed to.
Soffit: The panel that closes in the underside of the eaves overhang.
Underlay: A sheet under the battens that drains any water getting past the covering.
Ponding: Standing water on a flat roof that fails to drain.

Nearby

Roofers near Devizes

Roofing services in Devizes

Local questions

Market Place to Caen Hill, what Devizes asks

Do the Grade I houses around Devizes Market Place need consent for a roof repair?

Changing a listed roof needs consent from Wiltshire Council, which would rather hear from you first. A piece-for-piece repair in matching slate and lead raises the fewest issues. We write down the material, the method and the extent so that you can show the council a definite proposal.

How do you keep a school or shop open while the flat roof is replaced?

By planning around the building. Before pricing we agree with the site manager the access route, the working hours, the exclusion zones and the working sequence, so the roof is uncovered in sections and sealed at the end of each day. The schedule is written into the quotation, and your fixed figure follows the survey.

My house is by the canal and the north slope keeps growing moss. Is that harming the roof?

Over time, yes. Left alone, moss soaks up rain, presses on the tile edges and lifts them as it thickens. We clear it gently, which suits an older covering better than a hard wash, and we also look at the gutters and the shade. If the tiles are sound beneath, cleaning and a gutter clear-out can be all that is needed.

My home is in Bishops Cannings parish but has a Devizes address. Does that affect who I ask about building control?

Only slightly. Both sit in Wiltshire, so notifiable work goes to the council's building control team or to a private registered approver. The parish matters for parish-level records and councillors. We tell you at the survey whether the roof work is likely to be notifiable.

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.

Photos of your own roof
A fixed price in writing
10-year workmanship guarantee