Roofs from the ninth and last of Crawley's planned neighbourhoods.
Gossops Green rose from 1958 as the final neighbourhood of Crawley's first plan, with an above-average share of private houses. We look at the roof you actually have, then give one written price.
Roads went in during 1956 and 1957, and the first houses followed from 1958. A roof of that age has seen many winters, so we check the nails, battens and eaves underlay as well as the visible tiles.
Tiled semi-detached roofs on a street
The Victoria County History records an above-average share of private houses here. Owners will have mended roofs in different ways over the years, so we read what is actually on yours rather than assume one build.
Patched tiles on a pitched roof
In 1972, 140 private houses and flats were completed in Gossops Green. A later roof may finish its ridge and verge differently, and a block of flats has a roof shared between households.
Low-rise flats with a pitched roof
Map of Gossops Green and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Gossops Green sits south-west of the ring road on ground that was once one of Ifield's commons, with a few houses near it by 1795.
Notes from the last neighbourhood
Three short chapters on the houses of 1958, the private homes and flats added by 1972, and the point where a repair grows into a whole-roof job.
Stage 01 · Background
Gossops Green was the ninth and last planned neighbourhood, regarded as complete by 1961, so its first houses are close in age.
Crawley's original plan had nine neighbourhoods, and Gossops Green was the ninth. The Victoria County History records roads built in 1956 and 1957, houses from 1958, and a neighbourhood regarded as complete by 1961. A house begun in 1958 is now 68 years old, which is reason enough for us to look closely at its roof, though age alone never decides the repair.
What we read on a Gossops Green roof
The house and the roof over it may not be the same age. Owners have patched, re-covered and re-roofed over the years, so the street name tells us little and the tiles in front of us tell us a lot. We read the covering first and the fixings second. If it is concrete tile, Marley's page on tile life puts it at around 60 years and adds that the figure promises nothing for any single roof. For clay, Marley cites the Building Research Establishment's floor of 60 years. Those are lifespans for the tile itself. What gives up sooner is usually whatever holds it on: the nails, the battens beneath and the mortar bedding along the ridge.
The eaves, the lowest edge of a slope, carry the run-off from the whole slope above them. The underlay should lie over the fascia board and drop into the gutter. When it has perished or slipped, rain finds its way behind the gutter board and soaks the boarding beneath, and the first sign is a stained bedroom ceiling or a rotten board. We lift a few tiles near the gutter line to see the state of the underlay, and we check that the gutter runs with a slight fall towards the downpipe instead of holding a pool. A sagging gutter can also tip water beneath the lowest row of tiles, which is why a stain inside is not always found below the fault outside.
Yes, because the loft shows what the slopes cannot. For a cold roof lined with non-breathable underlay, Marley reads BS 5250 as asking for a 10 mm opening along the eaves when the pitch is steeper than 15 degrees. Insulation packed hard into the eaves blocks that opening, warm damp air from the house then condenses under the tiles, and the battens darken and soften. Clearing the gap costs little and protects the timber. Our pitched roofing work starts with exactly this kind of look, and the photos we take go to you before any price is written.
Stage 02 · Mixed ages
Gossops Green mixed rented and private homes from the start, and 140 more private houses and flats arrived in 1972.
Gossops Green was not built in one go. The Victoria County History credits it with an above-average share of private houses, and adds that 140 private houses and flats were finished in 1972, fourteen years after the first houses were begun. That gap matters to a roofer. The early houses and the later ones were put up in different decades, and a short terrace round one corner can differ from a pair of semis round another in how the verge is finished, how the ridge is held and what lies under the tiles.
Because owners make their own choices over time. One roof may have been re-covered in new concrete tiles, the next patched with replacements in slightly different shades, a third given a freshly bedded ridge. As we work we record the profile and colour of the tile, so that new ones sit well beside the old, and if no exact match exists you see the closest option before anything is ordered. Our guide to matching old roof tiles explains how that choice is made. Where an edge needs work, the dry ridge and dry verge page describes the clip-fixed systems that now take the place of plain mortar.
Roof edges worth knowing
A roof from 1958 and a roof from 1972 can sit on the same street.
A flat in a block from the 1972 batch adds a question the houses never raise: who owns the roof overhead? Your lease answers it, not the position of the stain. Often the freeholder holds the roof and spreads the cost across the flats through the service charge, with a managing agent in between, which means a top-floor leaseholder normally starts by reporting the leak to that agent. Owners who hold the freehold between them can instruct us directly. Whoever orders the work receives a single total price in writing, plus survey photos that neighbours in the block can look at too, and every household is told the days the scaffold goes up and comes down.
Where houses join as a pair or a terrace, the ridge, the valleys and the line of the party wall can run across both, so mending one side may touch the other. We tell you before work starts and leave both halves watertight. Paths, parking bays and bin stores decide where ladders and skips go, and any small flat roof over a stairwell or store is checked as well, since its leak can surface in a home some distance away.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Matching repairs seldom involve forms; a larger job can bring in Crawley Building Control and a highway licence.
Resetting a few loose tiles, bedding a ridge afresh or relining a worn valley leaves the house looking unchanged. Work that leaves the outside appearance unchanged is not counted as development, so a like-for-like repair rarely means a form. Things change once the job grows into a re-roof, once the covering itself is different, or once poles must go up on the public footway.
In Crawley Building Control's own list, work on more than 25% of a roof's surface, repair or replacement, is something it must approve, and Gossops Green falls under that service. The Planning Portal frames the national test another way: normally no application if less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Extra load is its own trigger: a covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs approval, and the Planning Portal advises checking with a surveyor or structural engineer beforehand. When a survey points towards a whole slope, Crawley Building Control hears from us before any date is fixed, and their reply is noted on the written price. Our roof replacement page sets out how a complete re-cover is staged.
Questions before a bigger job
Crawley designated the Gossops Green Neighbourhood Centre Conservation Area in November 2022, so check your address; elsewhere, matching tiles raise no heritage issue. A change to the shape or look of the roof, or any work on a flat, is one to put to Crawley Borough Council's planning team first, since different rules can apply.
Only scaffold that occupies the public highway needs one, pavement included. West Sussex County Council licenses highway scaffolding across Crawley, asking for 10 working days' notice and £266 for a month. A frame that fits on your own drive or lawn falls outside that. Any licence is arranged by us with our scaffolder, and your start date waits for it. Should a bat or droppings turn up when tiles come off, we pause the job and talk to you first, because the law protects the animals and their roosts. To begin, send us a photo of whichever eaves, ridge or verge concerns you, plus your road name.
Not on age alone. The first houses here date from 1958. Marley puts concrete tiles at around 60 years and adds that this promises nothing for any single roof. At this age the nails, battens, ridge bedding and eaves underlay can want attention ahead of the tiles. Photos from a survey show whether a repair will do or a new covering would be the better buy.
Start with your lease. Where the freeholder owns the roof, the service charge usually pays for repairs and a managing agent may arrange them, so a leaseholder reports the leak there first. Owners who hold the freehold themselves can instruct us directly. We then give whoever orders the work one total price in writing, with photos the other flats can see, and plan access with everyone in the block.
We record the profile and colour of the tiles already on your roof and look for the closest one. If nothing matches exactly, you see the nearest options before an order goes in. Sometimes the neater answer is to move sound tiles from the rear slope to patch the front and put the new ones out of sight, and we talk through that at the survey.
More than a quarter by area. Crawley Building Control wants to approve any repair or replacement covering more than 25% of a roof's surface, and a covering 15 per cent or more heavier may need it too. A few tiles or a rebedded ridge sits outside that. Where a survey shows a larger area, we contact Crawley Building Control before agreeing the start date and note the outcome in your written price.
Send a photo of the eaves, ridge or verge you are unsure about, with your Gossops Green road name, and we will arrange the survey.
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