Roofing in Diss

Diss sits on the Norfolk side of the Waveney with a good deal of Georgian and Victorian property around the Mere and the market place. Roofs are steep, chimneys are tall, and slate and pantile are both common.

We cover IP22 and the villages either side of the county boundary. Chimney re-pointing and re-leading is the job we are called to most here, because stacks of that height on buildings of that age take weather from every side.

What South Norfolk says about the roofs

Diss has been a conservation area since 1974, and South Norfolk Council's appraisal of it is unusually direct about roofs. Most of the older ones are steeply pitched clay pantile, in red and in black. A few are peg tile. Slate turns up more on the lower pitched hipped roofs of 18th and 19th century houses. Many roofs would once have been thatched, but only three thatched buildings remain in the conservation area.

The appraisal also picks out the chimneys, many of them tall and elaborately detailed, as features that should be kept. A stack that has lost its pointing, flaunching or flashings can nearly always be repaired or rebuilt to match, and in a conservation area taking one down is the kind of change we would check with the council before starting.

Timber frames behind brick and render

Much of central Diss survives from the 16th and 17th centuries, after the wool and linen trades had made the town wealthy. Later owners refaced a lot of those timber framed buildings in brick, and the appraisal notes that most of the render in the town, along Mount Street and Fair Green in particular, covers timber frame. The front of a building here does not always tell you what holds the roof up.

Old frames move over the centuries, and a roof line with a gentle dip in it is common. That is why a survey on one of these buildings needs to take in the structure as well as the covering. Old movement that has stopped is a different thing from a split rafter or a rotten wall plate, and whatever we find is photographed so you can see it for yourself.

Where to go next in Diss

For stacks, see our chimney repairs page, and if there is a damp patch on a chimney breast inside, our article on what causes a damp patch on a chimney breast explains how we trace it. Pantile and plain tile work is on our tiled roofing page, and slate on slate roofing.