Roofers in Temple Cloud

When the Old Court was built in 1857, baronial style gave public buildings a solid, stern appearance. For a roofer that style brings a recognisable set of details: stone parapets round the roof edge, projecting corners and slopes that stop short of the walls. Each of those details needs a waterproof junction.

The lead gutter behind a parapet is the clearest example. A parapet gutter is a lead-lined trough set behind the wall that rises above the eaves; it collects the run-off from the slope and passes it to an outlet. Lead is the traditional lining. It moves with temperature, expanding when warm and shrinking when cold, and a sheet fixed too tightly will crack along its folds over time. The cracks usually appear at the laps (where one sheet overlaps the next) and at the steps where the gutter changes level.

The coping, the stone cap on top of the parapet, matters as much as the lead. Joints between coping stones open as the mortar weathers, and water enters the wall below the lead, where it is hard to see. A stained wall inside the building is often the first sign. We check the coping joints, the pointing under them and the lead flashing that turns up the back of the parapet.

Repair depends on the extent of the damage. A single split can be cut out and welded or patched with a new section of lead, properly dressed. A gutter with many splits, or one that has lost its fall, is better re-laid, with new rolls and drips to carry the water cleanly. The lead roofing page describes the options in more detail.

The Old Court is listed, so any work to a roof of its kind begins with the council. We write the scope in specific terms for that conversation, naming the lead, the stone and the method, and we do not start until the consent position is clear.

The village church in the centre of Temple Cloud was built in the 1920s and dedicated to St Barnabas in 1926. That makes it a much younger building than the Old Court, but a roof of nearly a century has its own concerns. Whatever the covering, the things that hold it on were fitted when the building was new.

Nails corrode, battens soften and mortar fillets crack. We check these first because they decide whether the covering can stay. A tile or slate that is sound on its face but held by a rusting nail can be reused on a new set of battens; a covering that has itself decayed cannot. The two outcomes cost differently, and a survey that tells them apart saves money.

Underneath, the question is the lining. Older roofs may have no underlay, or an early bitumen felt that has hardened and cracked, especially along the eaves. Where the lining has failed, the roof can look fine from the ground and still admit damp air and wind-blown rain. We look for light and stains from inside the roof space, and we note where the felt has failed.

The gutters of an older church carry a lot of water and are often hard to reach. A box gutter, a lined channel set into the roof between slopes or behind a wall, is difficult to inspect from below, so we survey it from a safe working platform. If a church committee needs to decide whether to repair or renew, the written report sets the two out side by side.

That choice is rarely about age alone. A well-built roof of a century can have many more years of service in it if the fixings and timbers are sound, while a poorly fixed one needs attention early. Our commercial roofing work covers surveys and repairs on community buildings of this kind.