Roofs on a sandy rise above the Mole, from Waynflete to Claremont.
Esher grew on a dry rise of Bagshot sand, with a Grade I church, listed houses on the High Street and a conservation area. Each Esher roof gets its own survey and written price.
Numbers 136 and 138 High Street carry a Grade II listing, and the Esher conservation area covers part of the village. For a roof near them, the first job is asking which consents apply.
Terraced homes with tiled pitched roofs
Numbers 76 and 78 Milbourne Lane are also Grade II listed. Repairing in the same materials is one conversation with the council, changing the covering is another, and we tell you which one you are in before booking.
Older brick house with a tiled roof
The village stands on a rise of Bagshot sand east of the Mole valley, with Esher Common to the south. Whatever covers the roof, we trace the gutters and downpipes first, since trapped rainwater finds its own way in.
Gutter and fascia at the eaves
Map of Esher and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Esher is a village on the London to Portsmouth road, about four miles south-west of Kingston, with Esher Common to its south.
Esher site diary
Three short chapters: the Esher setting, the listed buildings and church that decide who must say yes, and what Elmbridge and Surrey ask of a larger job.
Stage 01 · First look
Esher has a long recorded history, and its roofs run from everyday houses to listed ones, so each gets read on its own merits.
Esher stands on the only considerable rise of Bagshot sand east of the Mole valley. When the Victoria County History described the parish in 1911, it called the site dry and a favourite one for houses. Bishop Waynflete built a stately brick mansion on the river bank, and his gatehouse still stands. Sir John Vanbrugh bought Claremont, built himself a small house there and began laying out the grounds. Four miles from Kingston on the London to Portsmouth road, the village has been somewhere people chose to live for a very long time, and that shows in the variety of houses we are asked to look at.
A walk over an Esher roof
On the ground, with the covering, the ridge and the gutters, and then up the ladder for a closer look at whatever needs it. The photos we take of your tiles and flashings are sent to you, so you are looking at the same evidence we are. A slipped tile, a lifted flashing or a run of crumbling pointing is easy to point at on a phone screen, and it makes the written price easier to follow. Houses in Esher went up in different periods and in different ways, so we read what is there instead of guessing from the postcode. That means checking tile fixings, the battens, any underlay we can get eyes on, and the loft from underneath.
Age is a clue, never a verdict. Marley gives concrete tile a life of around 60 years and warns that the figure is no warranty. Clay tile has a Building Research Establishment minimum life expectancy of 60 years, and CoRC's guide to roofing materials says a well-maintained natural slate roof can last 100 years or more. What tires first is usually the detail around the covering: ridge bedding, verge mortar, lead at a chimney, felt at the eaves. A roof finished before the 2014 revision of BS 5534 may hold its ridge with mortar alone, and Marley says mortar can no longer be relied on for that. We rebed with mechanical fixings, or suggest dry-fix, and explain which suits yours. For how a tile, batten or underlay repair goes, see our pitched roofing page, and the dry ridge and dry verge page covers the clip-on systems.
Stage 02 · Consent
Esher has Grade I and Grade II listed buildings and a conservation area, so some roof jobs begin with a question to the council.
The Church of St George is listed Grade I, while 136 and 138 High Street and 76 and 78 Milbourne Lane are each listed Grade II. Part of Esher also lies inside the Esher conservation area. None of that blocks roof work. It decides who must agree first, and we would rather learn that before a date goes in the diary than after access has been set up.
The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 forbids alterations that affect a listed building's special character unless the works are authorised. So the test is whether the job changes what makes the house special. Refitting a few failed tiles with matching ones may not. Swapping the covering, cutting in a rooflight or taking a stack down is likelier to. Name the tile profile, colour and fixing method in the written price, so the council reads the same description we do. A listed house keeps its permitted development rights but needs consent as well, which is why planning questions about roofs have their own post: do you need planning permission for roof work. Before changing how a roof looks, put the question to Elmbridge Borough Council; with your say-so we hand your survey photos to its planning team.
Words you may hear
Before any listed roof is touched, someone has to ask the council what it needs to see.
St George's is in use by the Church of England. For that denomination, works are approved through the Church's own faculty system and not through listed building consent. The exemption is narrower than people assume: it covers consent for the listed building, while planning rules still reach exterior alterations to a church. A parish or church-hall committee should start with the diocese, and we can set out the survey so it can be handed on.
We repair in the covering and details already on the house unless you have agreed something new with the council. If the house sits near the edge of the area, the council's mapped boundary settles it, not the postcode. Ask Elmbridge whether an Article 4 direction touches your road. Government guidance describes such a direction as withdrawing named permitted development rights across a defined area, and nothing on the street tells you one exists.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Like-for-like repairs ask nothing of the council; a bigger re-roof reaches building control, and scaffolding on the road needs a licence.
Small repairs are quick and sit outside every rulebook. A re-roof is another matter, and an Esher job can involve three different bodies. We work out at the survey which of them apply, so the written price already reflects it.
Elmbridge Building Control Services provides the building control service on behalf of Elmbridge Borough Council. The Planning Portal says an application is normally unnecessary where less than 25 per cent of the building envelope is affected and less than 50 per cent of the roof. Building control approval also becomes necessary if the new covering would add 15 per cent or more to what the old one weighed, or would behave in a fire very differently from it. A switch to a heavier material can trip the weight test, so we raise it early, and the Planning Portal wants an engineer or surveyor brought in to judge the structure before a heavier covering is chosen. If your survey points to a full renewal, our roof replacement page explains how that job runs.
Esher inspection notes
Section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 bars scaffolding that obstructs a highway unless the highway authority has licensed it, and for Esher that authority is Surrey County Council. Its page asks for 10 working days between applying and the date the poles go up, and quotes £208 for each 28 day period. It leaves out who must apply, so we ask the scaffolder and agree the paperwork together. A frame that stays within your own plot sits outside the licence altogether, and we check the path for carrying materials and waste before the first lift. Where poles do stand on the road, your neighbours hear the dates from us and the footway stays usable.
GOV.UK treats bats, together with their breeding and resting sites, as fully protected, and lists roof repair or replacement as work that can harm them. If a droppings trail shows up in the loft, work halts the moment we see it and we talk the next step through with you. After the survey you get one written price. To start, send your Esher postcode and a picture of whichever stretch of roof is bothering you.
That turns on the house. Numbers 136 and 138 High Street are Grade II listed, and a conservation area covers part of Esher. Mending in matching materials is a lighter question than changing the covering. Elmbridge Borough Council's planning team is the right first call, and we can send it the survey photos once you agree. Whatever it says shapes the written price.
The Church of England uses St George's for worship, so roof works there go through the Church's faculty process in place of listed building consent. The diocese is the starting point. Exterior changes to a church can also bring in the planning rules. We can supply a survey and one written price for the parish.
Surrey County Council asks for 10 working days between applying and the start date, and charges £208 for each 28 day period. Its page does not name the applicant, so who applies is something we settle with the scaffolder before the date is fixed. A frame that stays within your own boundary needs none, and the survey tells you which case yours falls into.
It adds a step, not a stop. Keeping the same covering and details is the simplest route, and any change of look is worth raising with Elmbridge before you book. Ask whether an Article 4 direction covers your road, since it can withdraw permitted development rights there. The survey shows where your roof stands, and the written price follows from it.
Give us your Esher postcode and show us the ridge, flashing or slope giving you doubts; the survey gets booked from there.
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