Roofing in Norwich

Norwich covers a lot of different roofs in a small area. The Golden Triangle and the streets off Unthank Road are largely Victorian terraces with slate and clay pantile, often with valley gutters between them that back up and leak into the bedroom below. The estates further out are almost all concrete interlocking tile from the 1960s onwards, now at the age where the felt underneath has perished even though the tiles look sound.

We work right across NR1 to NR7, on terraces where access is tight and there is nowhere to put a skip, and on the larger detached properties out towards Eaton and Thorpe.

Why the terraces are a mix of slate and pantile

The city council's appraisal of Heigham Grove, a largely 19th century area of terraces and villas just west of the city centre, puts it down to the railway. Once trains reached Norwich in the middle of the 19th century, Welsh slate could be brought in cheaply and became the fashionable covering, but clay pantile never went away, so the same street can carry both. The walls changed at the same time, from Norfolk red brick to the pale Costessey and Somerleyton bricks known locally as cossey whites.

For a roofer that matters in two ways. Slate of that age usually fails at the nails before the slate itself, so a careful strip and relay can save most of it. Pantile on the same terrace wants its own treatment, and the two meet at valleys, abutments and party walls where the leaks tend to start.

Conservation areas across the city

Norwich City Council manages seventeen conservation areas. They include the City Centre, Heigham Grove, Unthank and Christchurch, Eaton, Thorpe Hamlet and Thorpe Ridge, which between them cover a good share of the older housing we are asked to look at. Parts of Heigham Grove also sit under an article 4 direction, and one of the rights it removes is taking down a chimney stack without permission.

So before we quote to remove a stack, change a covering or alter anything on a street elevation, we check which area the house is in and whether consent is needed. We would rather tell you that at survey than find out once the scaffold is up.

Where to go next in Norwich

We have written separate pages for the jobs we are asked about most here. See new roofs in Norwich if the covering is at the end of its life, roof repairs in Norwich for leaks, slipped slates and valleys, and flat roofing in Norwich for dormers, rear extensions and garages. If a buyer's surveyor has flagged foam in the loft, read spray foam removal in Norwich. Not sure whether to patch or replace? Our guide to repairing or replacing a roof sets out how we decide.