Roofing in Cromer

Cromer is exposed, and the Victorian and Edwardian villas along the cliff take the full force of a north easterly. Slate is common here and so is nail sickness, because salt air gets through fixings faster than anything inland.

Chimney stacks are the other regular job in NR27. They stand well proud on properties of that age and the pointing takes weather from every direction, so the lead and the mortar go long before the roof does.

Pantile in the old town, slate after the railway

Cromer was a fishing village before it was a resort. North Norfolk District Council's appraisal of the conservation area describes the cottages around the church and on the cliff as simple brick and flint buildings under locally made orange clay pantiles, and builders kept using red pantiles through the 19th century on flint cottages and new stucco houses alike. Black glazed pantiles appear on some of the grander late Georgian fronts. Welsh slate was costly to bring in, so it was kept for the most prestigious buildings.

That changed when the railway arrived from North Walsham in 1877. The building boom that followed brought in cheap, mass produced materials, and the red brick terraces, the cliff top hotels and the villas around them mostly date from the last quarter of the 19th century and the Edwardian years, roofed in slate and machine made pantile. A roof in Cromer can be any of these, and the first job at survey is working out which one it is and how old.

Replacing a roof in Cromer

On the Victorian and Edwardian houses, replacement is usually decided by what is under the covering rather than by what shows from the street. Once the fixings across a whole slope have gone, refixing slate by slate stops being good value. A new roof means stripping, checking the timbers, new breathable membrane and battens, and fixings specified for a cliff top rather than a sheltered street. Sound slate can often be reused. Where it cannot, we replace it and say so on the quote.

Flat roofs

On property of this age the flat roofs are usually on later additions: rear extensions, dormers and bay tops. On the coast a flat roof has to cope with wind lifting its edges as well as with standing water, so the upstands, edge trims and fall matter as much as the membrane on top.

Where to go next in Cromer

The seafront and historic core have been a conservation area since 1975, extended in 1993, and the council's appraisal proposes Article 4 Directions to remove some permitted development rights, so we check a building's status at survey. For leaks and slipped slate see roof repairs in Cromer, and for stacks see chimney repairs in Cromer. Replacements are covered on our new roofs and slate roofing pages, flat roofs on our flat roofing page, and if a gale has just been through, read what to photograph after storm damage.