Roofers in Paulton

When a place is designated as an area of special architectural or historic interest, the council is expected to look after its character. In practice that means some changes to a building's appearance from the street are best raised with B&NES before they are made. A repair that puts back what was there rarely raises much concern. A change that alters the look of a roof can raise a good deal.

We think about the covering first. Natural slate that is replaced with a synthetic slate, or clay tiles replaced with concrete, alters the roof's colour, its texture and the way it weathers. Inside the protected area, a change like that should go to the council early. We prefer to match what exists, using reclaimed material where it is available, and to keep the roof's pitch, eaves and verge as they were.

Details matter too. A chimney that is rebuilt a course taller, a ridge in a different colour, a fascia replaced with a different profile: each is small, and together they change a street. We photograph the details of your roof before we start and describe what we will put back, so you can check the plan against the original.

Roof windows and rooflights are the common point of contact with planning. The rules depend on where the window goes, what sort of house it is and whether a direction applies to the street, so we do not try to summarise them here. Our skylights and roof windows page sets out where the questions arise, and B&NES can say what applies to your address. Some streets in the district also fall under Article 4 directions, so check the council's policy map.

For listed buildings the rules are stricter. Hill House is listed, and work to its roof needs listed building consent, which is separate from planning permission. Holy Trinity is listed as well, yet a Church of England parish church still in use comes under the ecclesiastical exemption, so a diocesan faculty, not listed building consent, covers its roof work. A legal ruling on a particular house is not ours to give, though we can lay out the job and the questions to put.

The replacement of the Purnells printing factory with 420 houses between 2009 and 2015 created a whole district of recent roofs. Those roofs have now taken ten winters or more. They are far from the end of their lives, but they are at the point where small faults begin to show.

We do not assume what covering sits on a house of that age, because the roofs on a large development can vary from street to street. We look at the roof itself. The usual early faults are at the edges and at the penetrations. Mortar-bedded ridge and verge tiles crack as the roof moves with the temperature. Flashings round vent pipes and roof windows open up if the sealant has been relied on over the metal. Gutters sag where a bracket has been set too far apart.

There is one fault that is specific to young roofs: a tile that was never properly fixed. In a high wind a loose tile slides, and the gap lets rain reach the batten. Where we find loose tiles in a row, we refix them with the right clips and check that the courses either side are held.

The main point is that a new roof's problems are cheap to mend and expensive to ignore. A slipped tile mended now is a short job. A slipped tile left for three winters becomes a rotted batten and a damp stain on the landing ceiling.

If you have just bought one of these homes, a survey of the roof is a sensible first purchase. Our photographs and written findings show the condition as it stands, and where something looks like a defect that your builder or warranty provider may answer for, we note it and leave that conversation to you. Repairs to ridges and verges are described on the ridge and verge repairs page.