Tiled & Slate Roofing across Thanet & East Kent

Tiled and slate roofing across Thanet and East Kent. Kent peg, clay, natural and artificial slate, concrete tile. Conservation work welcome. Free survey.

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Tiled & Slate Roofing

Pitched roofs are the traditional roof of this county and there's an enormous amount of variety in them. Kent peg tiles hung on oak pegs, handmade clay, Welsh and Spanish slate, artificial slate, and the concrete interlocking tiles that cover most housing built since the war. Each has its own gauge, its own fixing method and its own way of failing.

Getting it wrong is expensive and obvious. A slate roof laid to the wrong gauge, or a peg-tile roof made up with modern tiles that don't match, is something you look at every day for the next fifty years.

We've been laying tile and slate across East Kent for over twenty years, on everything from listed cottages to ordinary semis.

What we work with

Kent peg tiles — the traditional covering of this county. Small, handmade clay tiles hung on oak pegs. Common around Canterbury, Sandwich, Faversham and the villages, and often listed.
Clay tiles — plain and interlocking, machine-made and handmade. They weather beautifully and last a very long time.
Natural slate — Welsh and Spanish. Welsh slate is the traditional British material and is superb; Spanish slate is excellent value and stands up well to this coastline. We fit both, new and reclaimed.
Artificial slate — a sensible option where budget matters or where the roof structure can't take the weight of natural slate.
Concrete tiles — what most post-war housing in Thanet is covered with. Hard-wearing and straightforward.
Ridges, hips and verges — bedded and mechanically fixed to suit the exposure of the site.
Valleys — lead, GRP or tiled, formed properly.
Leadwork — flashings, soakers and abutments. Every pitched roof lives or dies by its lead.
Roof windows — VELUX and similar, fitted and flashed so they don't leak.

How we do it

We match what's there. On any older property, and always on listed buildings, the replacement has to match. That means salvaging what we can, grading it, and making up the difference with matched reclaimed stock rather than the nearest modern equivalent.

We set out before we lay. The gauge — how far each course laps the one below — has to be right for the pitch, the material and the exposure. Get it wrong on a slate roof and you'll see it in every course for the life of the building, and it will let water in when the wind drives.

We fix for exposure. A roof in Broadstairs or Deal facing open water needs considerably more mechanical fixing than the same roof inland at Canterbury. Clips at the verges, mechanically fixed ridge and hip systems, and more nailing where it's needed.

We spend the time on the lead. Chimney abutments, valleys, dormer cheeks and roof-window surrounds are where pitched roofs actually leak. Almost never in the middle of a slope.

We check the structure. Natural slate is heavy. If a roof is being changed from a lighter covering, or if the timbers have been carrying wet slate for a century, that needs assessing before anything goes back on.

One of our recent Broadstairs jobs was a full re-roof in Botany, and it's a good example of what doing the job properly actually involves.

A re-roof isn't just the tiles you can see from the street. We stripped it back, fitted a breathable membrane, sorted the timber, re-tiled, rebuilt the ridges and dealt with the lead detailing. The property also had a flat-roof dormer and a new VELUX roof window fitted, so the flat and pitched elements had to tie together cleanly and stay watertight where they meet — which is exactly where a lot of roofs let water in.

It's finished, and the home underneath it is protected for decades to come.

Tiled & Slate Roofing across Thanet & East Kent