Service
Period Property Roof Restoration
Older roofs were built to breathe and to move. Restoring one well means resisting the urge to modernise every detail — and knowing which modern products genuinely help.
- Natural slate and handmade clay
- Traditional leadwork to correct codes
- Sympathetic verge and ridge detailing
- Careful reuse of sound original material
- Breathable membranes where appropriate
- Specification suitable for consent applications
Keep what works
On a Victorian slate roof, a large proportion of the slate is usually still perfectly serviceable — it's the nails and the battens that have gone. We sort and reuse sound original slate on the visible elevations and use matched new material where we're short, which keeps the roof's character and reduces cost at the same time.
Details that give period roofs away
Plastic dry verge on a Victorian gable, oversized modern ridge, or a chunky machine-made tile on a handmade clay roof all read wrong from the street. So does mastic where lead should be. We keep the original detailing language: bedded verges with slate slips, correctly proportioned ridge, soakers and step flashings rather than a single dressed sheet.
- ▸Bedded verges rather than plastic units
- ▸Soakers and step flashings at abutments
- ▸Correctly proportioned ridge and hip
- ▸Cast iron or heritage-profile rainwater goods
Breathability and modern membranes
Sealing an old roof tight is how you create a condensation problem in a loft that never had one. Where we install a membrane on a period reroof, it's a breathable type with proper ventilation at eaves and ridge so the structure can still dry. On listed work we agree the build-up before we start rather than after.
FAQs
Do you work on listed buildings?+
Yes. We provide the specification and material details you'll need for listed building consent and work to what's agreed with the conservation officer.
Can you source matching handmade tiles?+
In most cases, either from current handmade producers or reclaimed stock. We bring samples to the survey where a match is critical.
Is reclaimed slate as good as new?+
Good sorted reclaimed Welsh slate is excellent. Unsorted mixed pallets are not, and we won't lay them.
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