Roofers in Clapham
Most SW4 roofs are late Victorian slate with a loft conversion sitting on the back of them, and the join between the two is where the water gets in.
- Postcodes
- SW4
- Councils
- Lambeth & Wandsworth
- From our yard
- 2.4 mi
Roofs in SW4
Slate, and a loft on it.
Clapham filled up in the late Victorian and Edwardian decades, and the roofs still say so. Two-storey terraces in London stock brick, front slopes in Welsh slate, a back addition running down the garden under its own low slope or a small flat roof. Clay plain tiles turn up on the later streets. Around the Old Town and Rectory Grove the houses are older and taller, with butterfly roofs draining to a hidden valley behind a parapet rather than open eaves.
The loft conversions came a century after the houses, and the box dormer on the back is now where a Clapham leak usually starts. Two details cause most of it. Lead cheeks run as one tall sheet, with no welt or joint to take the movement, split along the fold within a few winters. And the flat top is often laid nearly level, so water stands behind the front upstand and works into the seam.
Access is the other thing that sets the price. A mid-terrace off Abbeville Road has no side passage, so materials go through the house or over the front, and a pavement scaffold means a licence and usually a suspended parking bay. Check which borough you are in first. The Old Town, North Side and the Abbeville streets are Lambeth and sit in conservation areas; the west side of the Common runs along the Wandsworth boundary.
What we do in Clapham
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in Clapham
01Why does my Clapham dormer only leak in driven rain?
Because the water is not coming through the top of the roof, it is being pushed sideways into the cheek. Wind-driven rain gets behind a short apron, or behind a soaker that was never dressed properly where the dormer cheek meets the slate. In light rain it runs away. In a south-westerly across the Common it does not, and the ceiling under the dormer shows it.
02Do I need planning permission for a dormer in a Clapham conservation area?
Usually yes. A roof extension is not permitted development in a conservation area, and the Old Town, Common North Side and the Abbeville streets are all covered, so a dormer there needs an application to Lambeth. A rooflight is different: a flush one, within 150 mm of the plane of the slope and no higher than the ridge, is normally permitted development even here. What removes that right is an Article 4 direction over your street, or a listing. Flats have no permitted development rights at all, wherever in SW4 they sit.
03I own the top flat in a Clapham conversion. Am I responsible for the roof?
Almost always the freeholder is, with the cost coming back to the flats through the service charge. Your lease is the thing to read, because conversion leases in SW4 vary and the top flat can end up carrying the dormer or the rear flat roof alone. Settle who is paying before the scaffold goes up, not after.
04Slates keep slipping off my SW4 terrace. Patch or re-roof?
Count them. One or two after a gale is weather. A handful every winter, coming from all over the slope, is nail sickness: the original nails have rusted through while the slate itself is still sound. Patching then buys a season at a time. Check the battens while you are up in the loft, since these roofs were built without felt and the timber usually splits around the old nail holes.
05Do you cover Clapham?
Yes. Clapham is about 2.4 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SW4 is inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to Clapham?
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 Clapham.
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.