Roofers in Dover

The wind is the first thing to understand. Dover sits at the narrowest point of the Channel with the valley acting as a funnel, and gusts here regularly exceed what the same weather system delivers a few miles inland. Roofs lose ridge tiles, hip tiles and verge courses more often than almost anywhere else we work. Anything at an edge or an exposed corner needs to be mechanically fixed rather than simply bedded, and a lot of older Dover roofs were never detailed for the wind they actually get.

The topography makes the work harder too. Properties on the valley sides often have restricted access, steep approaches, retaining walls and neighbouring roofs at completely different levels. Scaffolding on a Dover hillside terrace takes planning. It's another reason getting the roof properly inspected is often the sensible first move — you find out what you're dealing with before anyone commits to access costs.

The building stock splits fairly clearly. There are Victorian and Edwardian terraces with slate and clay tile, particularly on the hillsides and around the older centre. There's also a significant amount of post-war housing, because Dover was heavily damaged during the war and much of the town was rebuilt afterwards. That later stock tends to be concrete tile with shallower pitches, plus the flat-roofed additions of the sixties and seventies now due replacement.

Being on chalk downland, exposure to salt is high near the front and drops off quickly inland — a house up at Whitfield has a considerably easier life than one on the seafront.

Barham sits between Dover and Canterbury, and this is the closest published example of our work to Dover itself.

The project used reclaimed Welsh slate. Working with historical slate is slower and more demanding than laying new — every piece has to be sorted and graded so the finished roof reads evenly — but the result sits properly on an older building in a way modern substitutes never quite manage.

It also makes sense on this coast. Slate that has already survived a century of Kent weather has proved it can do it again.