Roofers in Dulwich
Big Victorian and Edwardian slate roofs, complicated by valleys, tall stacks and, near the village, a conservation area and an estate scheme with a view on what goes back up.
- Postcodes
- SE21 · SE22
- Borough
- Southwark
- From our yard
- 2.1 mi
Roofs in SE21 and SE22
Slate, and its nails.
Dulwich is two kinds of roof. SE21 has the big ones: Georgian frontages at the village, then large Victorian and Edwardian houses along College Road and up towards Sydenham Hill, deep in plan, hipped and gabled, three or four valleys in a single roof. SE22 is tighter and later Victorian — bay-fronted terraces off Lordship Lane and the streets behind it. Both are mostly Welsh slate, with clay plain tiles on the bay roofs and lead in the valleys.
The failure is the same on both, and it is not the slate. The nail is. Original iron fixings corrode, the slate loses its grip, and a gale takes another one or two each winter. A tingle holds one slate and does nothing for its neighbours. From inside, the lime torching between the battens has usually gone to dust. Once a slope is patched every year, the honest answer is to strip it, sort the sound slate, re-lay, and renew the valley and stack leadwork while the scaffold stands.
Most of what shapes a Dulwich job happens off the roof. Around the village, a change of covering on a slope the street can see is the sort of thing the conservation area brings Southwark into, and a dormer is outside permitted development there altogether. Many freeholds here also sit under the Dulwich Estate scheme of management, which is a second consent, applied for separately. Vehicles pay at the College Road tollgate, so deliveries are planned around it. Deep front gardens help: scaffold often stands on your own ground.
Reviews from SE21 and SE22
What people here actually said.
Fibre Glass Roofing Installation10/10
“Vanslow and his team were very prompt, always on time and replaced a leaking, fibreglass roof that previous people had not been able to fix. The guys were very friendly, explained what they were doing every day and worked without fuss. Would recommend and will likely use for other jobs in the future.”
SE22 · 2023-11-24
What we do in Dulwich
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in Dulwich
01Do I need permission to re-roof a house on the Dulwich Estate?
Two permissions can apply, and the second catches people out. Repair like for like is usually fine, and a flush rooflight is normally permitted development even here. A dormer, or a covering the street can see changing character, is where the conservation areas around the village and up College Road bring Southwark in. Separately, many Dulwich freeholds are bound by the Dulwich Estate scheme of management, so external alterations need the estate's consent as well, whatever the council says. The deeds will say which applies to your house.
02Slates keep sliding off my East Dulwich terrace. Can they just be put back?
They can, and where a slope has lost a few that is the right call. The question is how many, and from where. Losses spread across the whole roof mean the nails have gone, and refixing one slate at a time buys a season each go. Losses around one flashing or valley are a repair. Worth counting before deciding.
03Is the original Welsh slate on my Edwardian roof worth keeping?
Usually. Welsh slate outlives its fixings by a long way, so on a strip and re-lay a good share of it goes straight back on. Slates get sorted on the scaffold: sound ones reused, thin or delaminated ones out, the shortfall made up with reclaimed slate in the same size and colour. Near the village that matching is not optional.
04Where does the scaffold go on a Dulwich re-roof?
It depends on the street. The larger SE21 houses have front gardens deep enough to stand a scaffold on your own ground, which avoids a licence. Terraces off Lordship Lane usually mean the footway, so Southwark wants a scaffold licence and often a parking bay suspended. Where there is no way through to the back garden, materials go up at the front and the rear slope is worked from the ridge.
05Do you cover Dulwich?
Yes. Dulwich is about 2.1 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SE21 and SE22 are inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to Dulwich?
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 Dulwich.
08Can I see work you have done in Dulwich?
Yes — the Checkatrade reviews on this page were left by customers in SE21 and SE22, and every review on the platform carries the postcode district of the job.
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.