Roofers in Winford

Old farmhouses were rarely built to a single plan. Court Farmhouse, Kentshare, Regilbury, Yew Tree and Felton House are all listed at Grade II, and Beech Court and Powdermill Farmhouse are Grade II* listed, which puts them in the smaller group of more important buildings. The usual story is a core of one period, with rooms added on and the roof extended or re-pitched to cover them.

Every join gives water a way in. Where a lower roof runs up to a higher wall, a lead flashing should cover the line. Where two roofs meet at a corner, a valley carries the water of both. Where a lean-to sits against a gable, the verge of the main roof finishes above it. On an old building all three are made of different materials at different dates, and the lead may be much younger than the slates.

The timbers need as much attention as the covering. Old roofs were framed from whole timbers, with purlins running along the slope to carry the rafters and wall plates bedding the whole frame on the masonry. If a gutter has leaked into a wall plate for years, the end of the timber goes soft, and the roof can drop at the eaves long before any slate slips. We look for dark staining on the timber, soft spots when probed, and any sign that an earlier repair has hidden the evidence.

On a listed farmhouse the covering is kept in the material it has always had. If it is natural slate, the replacement is natural slate, in a size and colour that fits the courses. If clay tiles or stone slates are there, the same goes. Listed status means a job beyond a straight like-for-like repair goes to North Somerset Council as a consent application first, and its planning team can tell you where your plans fall. Our pitched roofing service covers the re-covering work itself.

On Felton Common stand the church of St Katharine and the Noble Army of Martyrs, built around 1868, and the remains of a windmill that has been converted into a private house. Neither is a standard roof, and neither suits a standard approach.

A windmill conversion is a tower, so its roof, if it has one, is circular or tapered. Every course of covering has to be cut to fit a changing radius, and the rafters fan out from a central point rather than running parallel. Lead or copper over a curve is cut from patterns and fitted piece by piece, and the seam where the cap meets the masonry is where rain is likeliest to get in. These details reward patient work, and they punish a quick fix with sealant, which fails within a season on a curve that moves a little with every change of temperature.

A church of 1868 has the lead gutters and flashings of its period, whatever covering it wears, and a roof of that age has been through many winters, and the places to inspect are the valleys, the lead behind any parapet and the junction between the nave and the chancel. Rainwater goods matter here too, because a leaking cast-iron gutter drips against the wall and works at the stone.

Bats and nesting birds use old church roofs and old farm buildings alike, and both are protected by law. Should we see signs of either, we pause, tell you, and settle the next step with the proper authority before carrying on.

Both kinds of job begin with a survey, so we can describe what is needed in specific terms. The inspection includes photographs of the covering and, where access allows, of the timbers beneath. After that comes a fixed price, in writing.

Figures: Winford entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026