New roofs in Wells-next-the-Sea

A roof in Wells does not usually wear out the way an inland roof does. The tiles or slates are often still sound. What goes first is everything holding them on: nails, clips and the lead at every junction, corroded by salt air years ahead of the same materials twenty miles south. By the time a roof here needs replacing, it is usually because the fixings and the felt have failed together across the whole slope, and repairs have started to cost more each winter than the last.

Tight streets and the quay

Much of the older town is brick and flint property packed closely around the quay and the yards behind it, and a lot of it is reached down a narrow lane. That shapes a re-roof before any tiles come off. Scaffold has to be designed for the plot, there may be nowhere for a skip, and a roof sharing a party wall with the house next door needs the neighbour spoken to first. We look at all of that at survey and it is in the written price, not added once we are on site.

Conservation area and listed buildings

Part of Wells is a conservation area, and Historic England lists 185 listed buildings in the parish. On those properties the first question is what you are allowed to put back, and usually the answer is like for like: clay pantile or natural slate rather than a concrete substitute. We establish the consent position with you before anything is ordered. Reclaimed pantile is often the right match on an older roof, and sound tiles from your own roof can be sorted and relaid where they are good enough.

Specified for the coast

A new roof here is fixed for exposure rather than for a sheltered street. That means dry ridge and dry verge instead of mortar that the wind will work loose, a breathable membrane under the covering, and lead flashings formed new rather than reused. Fixings that resist corrosion matter more on this coast than almost anywhere else in the county.

If you are not in Wells all year

More than one in five homes in Wells is a second home, according to North Norfolk District Council. If that is yours, we can survey without you there and send the photographs, and you get the quote, the progress and the finished job in writing and in pictures rather than having to stand in the garden and look up.

What is in the price

• A fixed written quote with the specification set out
• Timbers exposed, checked and repaired before the new covering goes on
• Breathable membrane, treated battens, dry ridge and dry verge
• All leadwork renewed while the scaffold is up
• Scaffold, disposal and clear up included

If the roof might only need a repair, see roof repairs in Wells-next-the-Sea. For the stacks, see chimney repairs in Wells, and there is more about the town on our Wells-next-the-Sea area page.