Roofers in Balham
Most of SW12 was roofed between the 1880s and the First World War, and the mortar holding those ridges down has had a long time to fail.
- Postcodes
- SW12
- Councils
- Wandsworth & Lambeth
- From our yard
- 3.3 mi
Roofs in SW12
Ridge mortar goes first.
Balham filled in after the railway, and most of SW12 is terraced housing from the 1880s through to the years before the First World War. Two storeys, a bay at the front, a back addition running down the garden. The older streets are Welsh slate; the Edwardian ones are plain clay tile, with clay ridges, the odd terracotta finial on a gable, and lead in the valleys.
Ridge and hip tiles on those roofs were bedded in mortar. Mortar is rigid, the timber under it moves with heat and cold, and after a few decades the bed cracks and washes out in strips. The tile begins to rock, wind gets under it, and water runs into the top course of slate or tile. Since BS 5534 changed, mortar on its own is no longer enough: it is re-bedded with mechanical fixings, or a dry ridge. Either costs a fraction of what the ceiling below costs.
Very little of this stock can be reached from the side. The terraces run in unbroken rows, so a scaffold stands in a shallow front garden or out on the footway, and a footway licence from Wandsworth usually brings a parking bay suspension with it. Balham High Road is the A24 and a red route, so a frontage there is slower to arrange than a side street off Bedford Hill. Back additions are often reached over next door's slope, and that starts with the neighbour.
What we do in Balham
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in Balham
01What are the decorative ridge tiles on Edwardian Balham terraces, and can they be saved?
They are terracotta crested ridges, often with a finial at the gable end. In most cases the tile itself is sound and only the mortar under it has gone, so it lifts off, gets cleaned up and goes back on a fresh bed. Matching a broken one means a salvage yard rather than a merchant, so the damaged ones get counted before a price is given.
02Do I need permission to change the roof on a house in Hyde Farm or around Nightingale Lane?
Both are conservation areas, but not the same council's: Hyde Farm is Lambeth's, with a Lambeth Article 4 direction over it, while the Nightingale Lane area is Wandsworth's. An Article 4 direction is what takes permitted development away from a street-facing elevation, so where one applies a new covering or a front rooflight needs an application. A dormer on a front slope needs one either way. Like-for-like repair is normally fine.
03The leak is where my back addition meets next door's. Whose roof is it?
Back additions here were built in facing pairs, and the two slopes drain into one lead-lined valley or a shared parapet gutter sitting on the party wall. The lead is a single run serving both houses, so a repair to your half alone rarely holds. Access is needed from both sides and both owners have to agree. Splitting the cost is normal, and the alternative is patching the same joint twice.
04Can I re-roof a Balham terrace in concrete tile instead of slate?
You can, but check three things first. Interlocking concrete is heavier than Welsh slate, so the rafters and the wall plate want looking at first. The battens come off either way, since the originals rarely meet current sizes or spacing. And on a terrace where every other roof is still slate, the front elevation is what planning will look at.
05Do you cover Balham?
Yes. Balham is about 3.3 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SW12 is inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to Balham?
For an active leak we aim for the same day — the call-out line runs 24 hours. For a survey we are usually with you within a few days.
07Do you charge to come and look?
No. The survey and the written quote are free, and there is no call-out fee for pricing a job anywhere in Balham.
08Can I see work you have done nearby?
Every review on Checkatrade carries the postcode district of the job, so you can see the areas we work in and read what those customers said. Ask when you ring and we will send photographs of a roof like yours.
Free quote
Get a price for your roof.
We will come out, photograph what we find and give you a fixed price in writing. No call-out fee and no obligation.