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

Roofers in Holt

Holt is 9.9 road miles east of Bath, a Wiltshire village on low ground above the River Avon. Roofs here get repaired and re-covered by us, from 17th and 18th-century houses to homes and workplaces on old factory land, and we start by working out where the water goes.

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Local roofs

Low ground, old houses and factory sites turned to homes

Holt stands on clays of the Kellaways Formation, just above the alluvium of the River Avon and on a terrace of Ice Age gravel. That is a geologist's way of saying that it sits low, with wet ground close by. For a roofer the ground matters because a roof has to put its water somewhere, and in a village on clay beside a river, the ground does not always want it.

The houses are a mixed set. The Courts, in the middle of the village, is a country house of the early 18th century, Grade II* listed and owned by the National Trust. Holt Manor, a little way north of the village centre, is a Grade II listed manor house from the 17th century. St Katharine's, the parish church, Grade II* listed, was rebuilt in 1891 to designs by C E Ponting, keeping the south porch and west tower of the medieval church.

Holt was once a spa, and its Great House, which housed visitors, was demolished in 1957 as unsafe and beyond economic repair. Industry also left its mark: the former Sawtells bedding factory site has been redeveloped for housing, and the former Beavens leather factory site for mixed residential and commercial use.

The village falls under Wiltshire Council. For anything listed, that is the authority that decides what consent applies, and the likely questions are raised at the survey, and the proposed work is written out in full so that nobody is left guessing.

Council: Wiltshire Council
From central Bath: 9.9 road miles, east
The Courts: Grade II* listed, early 18th century, National Trust
Holt Manor: Grade II listed, 17th century
Church of St Katharine: Grade II* listed, rebuilt 1891, medieval tower and porch kept

What we find

Downpipes, damp eaves and converted factory roofs

Clay, gravel and the water a roof sheds

A village built above an alluvial floodplain has to treat roof water as a ground problem as well as a roof one.

Rain does not vanish when it leaves the downpipe. It enters the ground, and what the ground does with it depends on what the ground is. Holt lies on Kellaways clay, close to river alluvium and a gravel terrace. Clay is slow to drain, so water placed carelessly stays near the surface. If a downpipe empties onto the base of a wall, or into a soakaway that cannot soak, the foundations, plinth and lower masonry take the water instead.

That makes the end of the pipe as important as the gutter. We follow each downpipe to the ground and ask what happens next. Is there a gully that connects to a drain? Is the soakaway a proper one, set away from the building, or just a hole with rubble in it? Has a path been laid in a way that slopes towards the wall? Fixing the roof alone does not help if the water it sheds is returned to the building at ground level.

The gutters need to be right too. A run that sags between brackets holds a pool and tips over at its low point. An outlet blocked by moss and grit sends water down the face of the wall. Cast iron rusts from within, uPVC cracks, and joints weep. Where a run is beyond repair, replacement in a matching profile restores both function and appearance. Fascia boards that have been wet for years are checked with a probe before anything new is fixed to them.

Details of the range of work, from realigning a few brackets to a full new run, sit under gutters, soffits and fascias.

The Courts, Holt Manor and houses of their age

A roof from the 1700s or the 1600s has survived on timber, lime and regular mending.

The Courts is an early 18th-century country house, and Holt Manor dates to the 17th century. Neither is a roof we are commenting on, but they show how far back the village's older buildings go, and a roof of that age has normally had its covering renewed more than once. The practical question for owners is the same at any scale: how do you mend a roof of that age without damaging it?

The answer starts with listening to the building. Old roofs are rarely flat or symmetrical, and a ridge that curves gently is not necessarily failing. We look for movement that is new: fresh cracks in plaster, tiles sliding on one slope, daylight in the loft along a line it did not show before. Those point to a fault. A roof that has settled and stayed settled can usually be repaired in situ.

Materials follow the building. Clay stays clay, stone stays stone, and lead is used where lead has always been used. Soakers, the small folded lead pieces slipped under each course of covering beside a chimney or wall, are renewed alongside the flashing, because a new apron over old soakers fails at the first of them. Mortar is chosen to suit the masonry: lime for older masonry, since it is softer than the stone or brick it bonds and can be renewed without harming them.

Where a house is listed, consent from Wiltshire Council may apply to a change of covering or detail, and we help you frame the question. Roof repair in general, from isolated leaks to storm damage, is described under roof repairs.

Words you will hear

Soaker: A small folded piece of lead placed under each course of covering beside a wall or chimney.
Lime mortar: A weak, porous mortar made with lime, which wears before the masonry does.
Wall plate: A length of timber laid along the top of the wall to carry the rafters.

Factory land turned over to housing and mixed use

Where a bedding factory and a leather works once stood, new roofs of several kinds now sit side by side.

The Sawtells bedding factory has been demolished and its site redeveloped for housing, and the Beavens leather factory site now holds mixed residential and commercial uses. Those changes put roofs of quite different types close together. Houses have pitched, tiled roofs. Flats may have flat roofs with a membrane. Commercial units sometimes have low-pitched metal or single-ply roofs with rooflights and plant on top.

Each type fails in its own way. On pitched roofs of recent build, we look at ridge and verge fixings, the lap of the underlay at the eaves and the junctions at dormers and porches. On flat roofs, the seams, the upstands against walls and the outlets are the usual weak points. Water pooling for days after rain tells us the falls have gone. Single-ply membranes fail at laps and around penetrations; EPDM is rubber supplied in a sheet, GRP is resin set over glass fibre, and both depend on the details at the edges being sound.

For a commercial occupier, a roof leak affects stock, machinery, employees and insurance. Repairs need to be quick but not careless. We survey, photograph and write down what we found and what it needs, and give a fixed price. If there is a pattern of leaks across a block, we tell you whether the cause is a single fault or a general fatigue of the covering, because the answer changes the sensible spend.

The commercial side of this work is covered at commercial roofing. Property managers may find the single, photographed report useful for planning ahead.

Roof types on redeveloped sites

Roof type	Typical weak point	What we do first
Pitched tile	Ridge, verge and eaves underlay	Inspect fixings and laps
Flat membrane	Seams and upstands	Check falls and standing water
Low-pitch metal	Fixings and rooflight seals	Walk the line of each fixing
Mixed block	Shared gutters	Map where each outlet goes

What the Great House teaches about neglect

A building that housed spa visitors was pulled down because mending it no longer made sense.

The Great House once offered lodgings to visitors to Holt Spa. In 1957 it was demolished, judged unsafe and incapable of economic repair. We know nothing about the state of its roof, and a roof was surely not the only issue. But the story illustrates how a building ends up beyond help: not in one storm, but through years in which small faults went unremedied until the cost of mending them passed the value of what was left.

Roofs follow that curve. A slipped tile is cheap to replace. Left alone through a winter it lets water onto a batten, which rots; the rot spreads to a rafter; the ceiling below stains, then sags. At each stage the repair is larger and the choice narrower. Most of the cost of a failed roof lies in the damage that follows the first leak.

St Katharine's church, rebuilt in 1891 while keeping its medieval tower and porch, is an example of the opposite approach, where old fabric is kept and new work is built alongside. Victorian roofs of that date turn up in many villages, and they can have good slate and sound timber but ageing lead and iron fixings. A periodic check finds the lead that has split, the nail that has rusted and the gutter that has been quietly overflowing.

The sensible habit is a look after each winter, and after any gale. Our roof repairs service deals with the problems that turn up, and our written survey tells you what to do now and what can wait.

Small faults

Mend a slipped tile or split flashing as soon as it is found, because the cost of a roof rises with every wet month it is left.

Nearby

Roofers near Holt

Roofing services in Holt

Local questions

Holt queries from the old houses and factory land

My Holt house is on clay. Does that change where the rainwater from the roof should go?

Yes. Clay drains slowly, so a downpipe that empties onto the base of a wall or into a poor soakaway keeps water against the building. We follow each pipe to its end, check that it reaches a proper drain or a soakaway set away from the house, and look at whether paths and beds slope towards the wall. Sometimes a roof is dry and the damp comes from what happens below the downpipe.

The Courts and Holt Manor are nearby. How do I find out if my older house needs consent for roof work?

Start with whether your house is listed, which you can check on the Historic England list, and then ask Wiltshire Council what the listing means for a repair of the kind you have in mind. Like-for-like repair is usually the smaller question. We provide a written description of the covering, lead and fixings so the council has particulars to work from.

I own a unit on one of the old factory sites. Who is responsible for the roof?

That is set by your lease or title, and we cannot give a legal ruling. A survey can cover the whole roof, with pictures of every section and a map of the route the water takes through shared gutters and outlets. With that record, the owners or managing agent can agree who pays for what. The fixed written price follows.

Is it worth repairing a Victorian roof or should I replace it?

It depends on the timber, the covering and the metalwork. Many Victorian roofs have sound slate or tile and sound rafters, and need only new lead, new fixings and gutter work. Others have failed across the whole slope and will not hold a repair. We go into the loft, look at the battens and underlay, and say which case you have.

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