Roofers in Sandwich

Medieval roofs need a different approach

On Strand Street and the streets around it you're working on buildings that predate almost everything a modern roofer normally encounters. Timber frames have moved and settled over centuries, so ridges undulate, planes twist, and what looks like a simple pitched roof from the street turns out to be three different roofs joined together at odd angles.

Clay peg tiles are common, hung on oak pegs rather than nailed, and often the originals are worth salvaging and re-laying. Where tiles need making up, they need matching — both because a modern tile looks obviously wrong on a medieval roof, and because listed building consent generally requires it. This isn't work to hurry, and it isn't work for someone who has only ever laid concrete interlocking tiles.

Valleys and junctions are where Sandwich roofs leak. With so many roof planes meeting at irregular angles, there are a great many junctions, and each one is a potential entry point. Historic lead work in these valleys has usually been repaired several times over, sometimes badly, and water can travel a considerable distance through an old timber frame before it appears on a ceiling. Finding the actual source is often most of the job.

Out at Sandwich Bay and the villages the picture is more conventional — larger properties, better access, and the usual flat roofs on extensions and outbuildings.

What we do in Sandwich

• Tiled & slate roofing — Kent peg and clay tiles, salvaged and matched for listed work.
• Roof repairs — valleys, junctions and historic lead work, including tracing leaks that travel.
• Re-roofing — sympathetic full replacements on older buildings.
• Chimney repairs & repointing — old stacks, soft mortar, careful work.
• Flat & fibreglass roofing — extensions and outbuildings, 20-year guarantee.
• Guttering, fascias & soffits
• Drone roof surveys — lets us inspect a fragile historic roof without putting weight on it.