A high, open downland site
The parish is high, downland country east of Warlingham. A roof on high ground can take more wind across the ridge, hips and verges, so we pay close attention to how each one is held down.
Ridge tiles on an exposed roof
Roofers in Chelsham
Roofs on a high Surrey downland parish above Warlingham.
Chelsham is a high downland parish on the Kent border. We check what the weather has done to your roof, then quote one total in writing.
What Chelsham roofs have to put up with
Water from the sky, not the tap
In 1912 water here came from deep wells and dew ponds. Rain still matters to a Chelsham house, which is why we check gutter falls, joints and downpipes along with the tiles above them.
Gutter and downpipe at the eaves
A listed water tower nearby
The parish lists the Warlingham Park Hospital Water Tower at Grade II, first listed in 1994. It shows that listed roofs in this part of Surrey need the council involved before any work begins.
Brick tower with a tiled roof
Chelsham, east of Warlingham
Map of Chelsham and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Chelsham is a roughly triangular parish on the Kent border, crossed by the Croydon to Westerham road. The 2021 Census counted 840 people in Chelsham and Farleigh parish.
- Distance
- 20.7 road miles from Crawley, to the north-east
- Drive
- About 29 minutes
- Council
- Tandridge District Council and Surrey County Council
- Planning authority
- Tandridge District Council
- Building control
- Southern Building Control Partnership
- Listed neighbour
- Warlingham Park Hospital Water Tower, Grade II
Notes on Chelsham roofs
Roofs on the high ground above Warlingham
Three short chapters on weather on a high parish, how rain leaves a roof, and the Tandridge checks that come in once a job grows.
Stage 01 · Setting
A high parish on the Kent border
Chelsham is high downland, so wind asks more of a ridge, a hip or a verge than it does on a sheltered street.
The old county history describes Chelsham as a high, roughly triangular downland parish on the Kent border, east of Warlingham and crossed by the Croydon to Westerham road. It records a soil of clay with flints and gravels lying on the chalk. Nothing in that description tells us what your roof is made of, and we will not pretend it does. What it does tell us is about the weather. Height on an open downland parish means a roof sees more wind than one tucked into a valley street, and wind is hardest on the parts of a roof that stand proud: the ridge, the hips and the verges.
Checks on a high roof
- Ridge
- Caps clipped or bedded and pinned
- Hips
- Tiles held and bedding intact
- Verge
- Edge tiles fixed against lifting
- Tile edges
- Nibs whole, clips present
- Underlay
- Free of tears and flapping
What does wind do to a tiled roof?
It works at the edges first. A ridge cap held only by old mortar can crack and lift, a verge tile can loosen, and an underlay with a small tear at the eaves can flap enough to wear itself through. Marley's reading of the 2014 revision of BS 5534 is that every bedded tile or ridge fitting needs a mechanical fixing too, since mortar alone is no longer counted on for grip. Following that standard is not a legal requirement, but it is the accepted benchmark, which is why we add fixings whenever we rebed a ridge or a hip. A roof finished before 2014 may well have mortar and nothing else holding the ridge, and there is nothing wrong with saying so.
What does a Chelsham survey look at?
We go along the ridge and each hip from a ladder or a roof ladder where it is safe to do so, press on the verge tiles, and note any tile that rocks when touched. From inside the roof space we look for daylight, damp patches and a flapping underlay. Every finding is photographed and added to the survey so you can follow the reasoning. Where a repair will hold, we price the repair. Where the same fault shows up along most of a slope, we explain why a longer-term fix makes more sense, and what it would involve for the ridge, the battens and the covering together.
Keep reading
If the ridge or verge is the worry, our dry ridge and dry verge page explains the clipped alternative to mortar and when it suits a roof like yours.
Stage 02 · Rainwater
From dew ponds to downpipes
A parish once short of water now faces the reverse on a wet day, so how rain leaves a roof deserves a proper look.
The same history notes that the soil is clay with flints and gravels over chalk, and that in 1912 water was generally only available from deep wells and dew ponds. Today a tap solves the supply, but rain still lands on the roof exactly as it did, and what happens to it next decides whether a house stays dry. A gutter that sags, a joint that weeps or a downpipe blocked with moss can send water down a wall, behind the fascia and into the soffit, where it soaks timber out of sight for months before anyone notices a mark inside.
How do I tell if my gutters are failing?
Look at them in the rain, or run a hose along the roof edge on a dry day with a second person watching from below. Water pouring over the front lip, dripping from a joint, or stains running down the brickwork below a corner all point to a fault. Staining on the wall beneath the eaves and green growth in the gutter are further clues. Brett Martin's guidance gives a fall of 1mm for every 600mm, which is a gentle slope, so a gutter that has slumped between two brackets can hold a puddle even when it looks level from the ground.
Gutter words explained
- Fall
- Slight slope that carries water along
- Bracket
- Clip holding the gutter to the fascia
- Downpipe
- Vertical pipe taking water to the drain
- Fascia
- Board running along the roof's lower edge
- Soffit
- Panel under the overhanging eaves
A roof on high ground sheds its rain quickly and the gutter must cope with all of it.
Is it the gutter or the roof edge?
Sometimes both. If the first course of tiles stops short of the gutter, rain can run behind it and into the fascia, and if the fascia board behind has gone soft the bracket loses its hold. We lift an eaves tile or two where needed to check that the underlay laps into the gutter properly and is not trapped behind the fascia, and we press the fascia and soffit boards to see whether the timber is sound. A repair to a cracked joint is a small job. Renewing a rotted fascia and soffit is a bigger one, and we show you which of the two you have before we quote. When whole runs are tired we price the full length as one figure, so you see the total, not a string of small repairs.
Our gutters, soffits and fascias page explains repair against renewal, and how we work out the length and the number of downpipes for a written price.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Tandridge rules and the Article 4 question
Tandridge District Council deals with planning here, and one planning map entry makes it worth checking before a roof changes appearance.
Replacing a cracked tile with a matching one needs no paperwork, and neither does re-fixing a loose ridge cap. Questions come up when a job takes in a big share of the roof, when the covering is a different material, or when something about the address brings in extra rules, such as a listing or a planning direction.
Does Chelsham have a conservation area or an Article 4 direction?
Tandridge District Council has designated the Great Farleigh Green Conservation Area, which lies within a kilometre of Chelsham's centre, so a house near the green should be checked against its boundary. The government's planning data service records an Article 4 direction area here as well, and a direction like that can withdraw specified permitted development rights from a defined area, and only its notice says which rights it takes away. Which rights it removes, and whether it reaches your address, is for Tandridge District Council's planning team to say. Ask them before you plan a change of material or a new roof window. Our post on planning permission for roof work covers the wider picture.
Checks as a job grows
- Planning
- Tandridge District Council
- Approvals
- Southern Building Control Partnership
- Conservation area
- Great Farleigh Green, close by
- Article 4
- Direction area mapped here
- Road scaffold
- £208 per 28 days
Who checks the work on a bigger re-roof?
Southern Building Control Partnership acts as the building control team for Tandridge, sharing its work with Mole Valley and Reigate and Banstead. On re-roofing, the Planning Portal draws its line at under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, and treats a covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier as needing approval. Crossing either line brings the partnership in, and a short call before the start date is usually all it takes to confirm what they need to see. We go through both at the survey and put what we find into the written price.
What about a listed neighbour and the road?
The Grade II water tower is a reminder that listed building consent governs works that affect a listed building's character. If your own home is listed, the council's answer comes before our start date, and we will not book the scaffold until you have it. The same goes for any plan to swap the covering for a different material, because a change of look is where planning questions tend to start. For scaffold, Surrey County Council licenses structures on a road or pavement at £208 per 28 days and asks for at least 10 working days' notice. Scaffold standing wholly within your boundary is not on the highway, so where the garden or drive allows, that is where we aim to put it, with a clear route for materials down the side of the house.
What we can do for your Chelsham roof
Roofing in Chelsham: your questions
Does a high position make a Chelsham roof wear faster?
It can put more strain on the ridge, hips and verges, where wind catches the edge of the covering. No one can put a figure on the extra wear, so we check how each part is fixed. Marley reads the 2014 revision of BS 5534 as calling for mechanical fixings on bedded fittings, so we add them whenever we rebed.
Does the Article 4 mapping affect a Chelsham roof?
The Great Farleigh Green Conservation Area lies close to Chelsham, so first find out which side of its boundary your house falls. The planning data service also maps an Article 4 direction area here, and which rights it withdraws is something only Tandridge District Council's planning team can confirm for your address. Ask before changing the covering, and we will wait for the answer before fixing a date.
Who does building control for Chelsham roofs?
Southern Building Control Partnership acts as the building control team for Tandridge District Council. Refitting matching tiles where the old ones sat rarely needs approval, while a big re-roof or a heavier covering may. We raise this at the survey, so the written price shows whether any approval is part of the job and who will deal with it.
Will my Chelsham house need a scaffold licence?
Just when the poles would stand on the road or the footway. Surrey County Council charges £208 for each 28 days and wants at least 10 working days' notice. Framework kept inside your garden or drive falls outside the licence rules altogether. We check where it can stand at the survey and arrange the application with the scaffolder if the road is the only place.
A written price for Chelsham
Tell us which part of the roof is troubling you, your postcode and where a scaffold could stand, and the survey gets booked.