Roofers in Wimbledon
Wimbledon roofs are mostly clay: plain tiles on the large Edwardian hips near the Common, interlocking tiles on the interwar semis below the hill, and almost all of them too big and too steep to work off a ladder.
- Postcodes
- SW19
- Borough
- Merton
- From our yard
- 6.2 mi
Roofs in SW19
Clay tile, big roofs.
The stock here splits three ways. Around the Village and the Ridgway there are large late Victorian and Edwardian houses with hipped and gabled roofs, clay plain tiles, deep overhanging eaves and tile-hung upper storeys. Below the hill, towards Wimbledon Chase and Raynes Park, the interwar semis take over: shallower hips, clay plain tiles or concrete interlocking tiles, and mortar-bedded verges. Merton Park adds Arts and Crafts roofs with swept valleys and tile-hung gables.
On the clay plain tile roofs the tiles outlive everything holding them up. Only every fourth or fifth course is nailed. The rest hang on two nibs over softwood battens, and on the older Village roofs there is often no felt beneath them, or a later bitumen layer torn at the eaves. Water tracks back, the batten softens, and tiles creep down the slope. From the pavement that reads as a few slipped tiles. On the roof it is a re-batten, and most of the old tiles go back.
Access is the number that moves a Wimbledon quote. A hipped roof wants scaffold on all four elevations, and eaves this deep push the standards off the wall, so the structure grows before a tile is touched. Scaffold standing on the footway needs a licence from Merton, and bay suspensions on Wimbledon Hill Road are booked in advance. Conservation areas over the Village, the Ridgway and Merton Park govern what the front slope may look like, and that check belongs before the scaffold, not after.
What we do in Wimbledon
The five these roofs ask for.
Questions
What people ask
in Wimbledon
01There are slipped tiles on my Edwardian roof near the Common. Is that a repair or a re-roof?
Usually neither, in the simple sense. A handful of slipped clay tiles on one slope is a repair. The same thing on several slopes, with tile grit in the gutters and daylight along the battens at the eaves, means the fixings and battens have gone and the slope wants stripping. The tiles themselves are often sound, so a survey worth having counts how many will go back.
02Do I need permission to re-roof a house in Wimbledon Village?
Like-for-like repair normally does not, but the Village, the Ridgway and Merton Park sit in conservation areas, so anything that changes what the street sees is worth checking with Merton first: a different tile, a new front-slope rooflight, a dormer. If the house is listed, listed building consent is a separate matter from planning and applies to work most people would call maintenance.
03Why does a Wimbledon roof always seem to need scaffold?
Height, shape and the eaves. A hipped roof has no gable to stand a ladder against, so every elevation is a sloping tiled face and there is no safe line to the ridge. The overhang carries the tile edge well outside the wall, so the scaffold is set out and boarded wider than the house. On the hill, the lorry needs a suspended bay to load and strike.
04Can the concrete tiles on a 1930s Wimbledon semi be reused in a re-roof?
Often, though it depends what has failed. On the interwar stock towards Wimbledon Chase and Raynes Park the tiles are usually sound and the battens and felt under them are not, so the covering comes off, gets sorted, and goes back on new timber. The catch is matching. Many interlocking patterns from that period are out of production, so breakages come from reclaimed stock, and the verges are re-bedded rather than reused.
05Do you cover Wimbledon?
Yes. Wimbledon is about 6.2 miles from our yard in Camberwell, and SW19 is inside the area we quote in.
06How quickly can you get to Wimbledon?
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 Wimbledon.
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.