Roofers in West Norwood
Late Victorian slate on the streets that climb out of the valley, inter-war tile at the top of them, and a street pattern that sets the scaffold price before anyone looks at the roof.
- Postcodes
- SE27
- Borough
- Lambeth
- From our yard
- 3.4 mi
Roofs in SE27
Steep hills, steep roofs.
West Norwood was built out after the railway came, so most of the older stock is 1870s to 1890s: two-storey bay-fronted terraces and paired villas in London stock brick, roofed in Welsh slate at a steep pitch with clay ridge tiles and a lead or asphalt top to the bay. Towards the top of the hills the streets turn inter-war, with hipped semis in clay plain tile or concrete interlocking tile and a felted flat roof over the back addition.
Slate roofs here fail at the nail long before they fail at the slate. The fixings rust thin, the lime torching under the courses crumbles, and a slate lets go. On a pitch this steep it does not sit where it was — it slides the whole slope and lands in the front garden or on the footway. One or two can be re-hung on copper tingles. Finding slates on the path every windy week means the nails have gone across the slope.
Access is what moves the price in SE27. The ground falls hard off Knight's Hill and Gipsy Road, so a scaffold wants stepped sole plates and tying into the wall rather than a flat run. On the narrower terraces there is no side return, so everything goes up the front and out over the pavement: a footway licence from Lambeth, and a parking suspension booked ahead where the bays are controlled. Where the garden drops away behind, the rear scaffold gains a lift over the front.
What we do in West Norwood
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in West Norwood
01Why does my roof leak at the party wall where the houses step down the hill?
Because the terrace is stepped, the party wall stands proud of the slope and the roof meets brickwork at every house. That junction should be lead: soakers under the slates and a stepped cover flashing chased into the joints. Plenty were patched with a sand and cement fillet instead. Cement moves differently to brick, cracks along its top edge and feeds water straight in.
02Can a West Norwood roof be done off a ladder, or does it need scaffold?
The older slate here is pitched too steeply to be worked off a ladder. On the flat ground along Norwood Road a tower will do for a stack or a handful of slates. On the hills the ground under the base falls away, so the scaffold has to be levelled and tied into the wall first. That is why two similar roofs quote differently.
03Can I re-roof in fibre cement slate instead of natural Welsh slate?
For a rear slope nobody sees, often yes. On the front it depends where you are. The streets around West Norwood Cemetery fall inside a conservation area, and Lambeth takes an interest when a covering changes what the street looks like. Even outside it, fibre cement reads flat and thin on a Victorian front elevation next to slated neighbours, whatever the specification says.
04My 1930s tiled roof looks sound but it still leaks in driving rain. Why?
Usually nothing to do with the tiles. Inter-war roofs on the upper streets were laid on thin sawn battens over bitumen felt. The felt goes brittle, tears at the eaves and drops back out of the gutter, so anything blown under a tile runs onto the ceiling instead of outside. Once the battens have gone with it, the slope needs stripping and relaying, not another tile.
05Do you cover West Norwood?
Yes. West Norwood is about 3.4 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SE27 is inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to West Norwood?
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 West Norwood.
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.