Roofers in Putney
Three kinds of roof sit on one hill in SW15: flat roofs at the river, Victorian and Edwardian slate above them, interwar tile towards the Heath, and none of them gives out the same way.
- Postcodes
- SW15
- Borough
- Wandsworth
- From our yard
- 5.4 mi
Roofs in SW15
River, hill, and heath.
The covering on a Putney house depends mostly on how far up the hill it sits. Near the Embankment there are boathouses, riverside blocks and long runs of flat roof. Between the Lower Richmond Road and the Upper Richmond Road the stock is late Victorian and Edwardian: Welsh slate main slopes, clay tile on the gables, valleys where the back addition meets the main roof. Above that, towards the Heath, interwar semis take over with shallow hips and sand-faced concrete tiles.
On the interwar roofs the tiles outlast what holds them. Battens then were ungraded, untreated softwood; after ninety-odd years they split along the nail line and let go. Concrete tiles are heavy. One slips, then its neighbour, then a course. Houses on the Heath side get the south-westerly across open ground, so they go first. The felt beneath has usually torn at the eaves, so water runs behind the fascia rather than into the gutter.
Access is decided here by the gradient and the kerb. Scaffold on Putney Hill has to be levelled down the slope before anything goes up, and a tower standing on the footway needs a licence from Wandsworth and suspended bays, booked in working days rather than hours. Edwardian houses with front gardens usually give the scaffold somewhere to stand. The Embankment gives none, and a spring tide puts water over the road there, so nothing sits at the kerb overnight.
What we do in Putney
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in Putney
01My 1930s Putney semi loses a tile every winter. Is a repair enough?
Once tiles slip in a different place each winter, the batten is the problem, not the tile. Lift a tile and look along the nail line: a split there, or a nail hole worn oval, means the rest of the batten is going the same way. Re-bedding buys a season. Stripping the slope, re-battening and re-laying the sound tiles is the repair that lasts.
02Do I need permission to re-roof a house in a Putney conservation area?
Like-for-like repair normally needs no planning permission. Changing the look does. Wandsworth guards front elevations in areas such as Putney Embankment and the Dover House Estate, so swapping natural slate for a concrete substitute, is the kind of change Wandsworth will want to see an application for. A flush rooflight is the exception: within 150 mm of the slope and below the ridge it is normally permitted development even on the street side, unless an Article 4 direction covers the road or the house is listed. Some of these areas also carry Article 4 directions, which remove permitted development rights.
03What covering suits a flat roof on a riverside block near Putney Embankment?
Wind off the river decides it, so the fixing and the detailing matter more than the material. A single sheet of EPDM suits a plain, open roof. A liquid system suits one broken up by upstands, outlets and plant. Sound old asphalt can often be overlaid rather than dug off. On a block the freeholder or managing agent has to agree the work and the scaffold first.
04Can the Welsh slate come off an Edwardian Putney roof and go back on?
Often, yes. Edwardian slate usually fails at the fixing rather than in the slate itself: the nails rust away until slates ride down the roof. Sound slates are sorted, re-holed and re-laid over new battens and a breather membrane. Expect a shortfall, made up with reclaimed slate of the same size and thickness, and expect the south-west slopes to have given up more.
05Do you cover Putney?
Yes. Putney is about 5.4 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SW15 is inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to Putney?
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 Putney.
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.