Roofers in Wells

The cathedral's west front, carved in warm, yellow Doulting stone, shows what weather does to limestone over time. Weather works on it slowly and from the surface. At roof level, though, the stone is asked to do something more difficult than stand in a wall. It forms copings, parapets, gable kneelers and chimney heads, all places where rain lands on a horizontal face and has to be shed without soaking in.

That is where the trouble starts. A coping stone caps a wall and sheds rain from its head. The joints between coping stones are the weak points, because water enters a failed joint and travels down the wall beneath, sometimes to emerge as damp on an internal face months later. Where the wall is also the edge of a roof, the same water can reach the timbers. Called out to a top-floor ceiling stained beside a parapet, we start with the coping.

The right repair uses a mortar that suits the stone, softer and more porous than the masonry, so damp can leave through the mortar joint and not through the stone itself. Hard cement traps water, and the stone beside it decays. Where a block has lost too much of its surface to be saved, replacement in matching stone is a mason's job, and we can arrange it as part of the roofing work so that lead, stone and covering are dealt with together.

A parapet gutter, set along the base of such a wall and usually lined with lead, is often the actual source of a leak that seems to come from the wall itself. Sections that pond or are choked with debris wear out first. The chimney repairs service covers stacks, caps and the lead around them, and the same stone and lime principles apply to every masonry detail on the roof.

The Liberty of St Andrew, the walled enclosure around the cathedral, is entered through the Penniless Porch, the Bishop's Eye and Brown's Gatehouse, all built around 1450. That kind of fabric is exactly what the listing system exists to protect, and in a city with a Grade I cathedral, a street of ancient houses and a number of listed civic buildings, you should assume nothing about your own roof until you have checked.

Historic England keeps the National Heritage List for England, an official record of every listed building, and an entry takes a few minutes to look up. A listing protects the whole building, including its roof, and works that affect its character need listed building consent from Somerset Council before they start. Altering a listed building without consent is a criminal offence, so the check is worth making early. If you are in a conservation area, the question for roofs is different but real, and you should confirm with the council whether your street has any added restrictions.

What we can give you is a clear description of the work. For a listed roof, that means saying what covering would be used, how lead flashings would be formed, how the fixings would be done and what would be kept. The council has something specific to react to, and the answer comes back faster. Where an older covering is sound, repair is often the better path both for the building and the budget.

Separately from consent, Building Regulations apply in certain cases. A small re-covering usually needs no approval, while larger work, or a new covering much heavier than the old, does. Where the work is notifiable, the application is ours to make, through Somerset Council's own building control or else a registered building control approver of your choice. For anything involving a stack, the chimney repairs page is a useful starting point.

Birds and bats use old roofs and gatehouse voids. Both are protected, so if we find evidence of either, we stop and talk to you.