Tile-hung walls, gabled roofs and old brick chimney stacks.
The Victoria County History called tile-hanging the characteristic feature of Haslemere's houses. Our surveys follow it down the wall to the roof, the flashings, the brick stacks and the gutters.
The county history of 1911 calls tile-hanging the characteristic feature of the town's houses. At the foot of a hung wall we look for slipped tiles and for lead that has lifted from the joint.
Tile-hung wall meeting a tiled roof
The same record notes gabled houses with fine brick chimney stacks. A stack is open to weather on all four faces, so we read its pointing, the mortar collar round each pot and the lead around its base.
Brick chimney stack on a tiled roof
The record describes many low-pitched gabled houses along the High Street. Shallow slopes clear water slowly, so tile laps, underlay and valleys get a slow look, and we match the covering to the pitch.
Low-pitched gable on a tiled house
Map of Haslemere and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Haslemere is a market town in the south-west corner of Surrey, set on Lower Greensand soil that also reaches into Atherfield Clay and Wealden Clay.
Notes from Haslemere
Where walls meet roofs, what an old brick stack asks for, and which consents matter near the town centre, in three chapters.
Stage 01 · First look
On an older Haslemere house the weatherproofing runs up the wall as well as across the roof, and trouble tends to gather where they meet.
Many of Haslemere's older houses are waterproofed on two planes at once. The Victoria County History, writing in 1911, called tile-hanging the characteristic feature of the town's houses, which it described as gabled and built of brick, or of timber and plaster, under tiled roofs. It singles out Shepherd's Hill for old half-timbered houses with tile-hanging on the upper storey. For a roofer that means one surface running down and another running across, with a seam between them.
Rain that runs down tile-hanging has to be handed over to the roof, and the hand-over is done by flashing, sheet metal (usually lead) that bridges a joint, together with soakers, small folded pieces of lead tucked beneath the edge of each course of tiles. Once either gives up, water creeps behind the hung tiles or under the roof tiles and surfaces as a damp patch on an upstairs ceiling a metre or two from the wall. Finding it is slow work along the seam. We lift a few tiles, check the lead, and look at the battens, the sawn timber strips each tile hooks over. You get photos of your own seam, so the diagnosis can be checked by eye.
Where a hung wall meets a slope
They can be different products, provided the colour and texture sit together and the repair looks as though it belongs. Old hanging tiles are often a different size from today's, so we compare a sample with suppliers' ranges before promising a match, and a difficult match goes into the written price. BS 5534, the slating and tiling code of practice, accepts that its advice might not suit some old roofs, particularly those using traditional or reclaimed materials. That is why we read an old roof for what it is before we think about a modern specification.
One written total follows the survey. Reaching a tile-hung gable end can be the largest variable, because it may need a tower or scaffold where a ladder would do elsewhere. For slipped or broken tiles, Checkatrade's roof tile replacement guide (October 2026) gives a typical UK range of £170 to £500 for up to five tiles, running from a plain ladder job to one with scaffold. Our pitched roofing hub covers the tile, batten and underlay side of the work in full.
Stage 02 · The stacks
Haslemere's gabled houses are recorded with fine brick chimney stacks, and a stack takes more weather than anything else on the roof.
The county history picked out fine brick chimney stacks on Haslemere's gabled houses, and brickwork of that kind has stood through a great many winters. Nothing else on the house stands so far into the weather. Rain strikes all four faces, frost gets into the joints, and the mortar slowly lets go. Quite often the brick is perfectly sound and only the pointing has gone, which is a modest job. Sometimes the faces of the bricks have begun to flake, and then the extent of the damage matters before anyone talks about a rebuild.
From the top down. Flaunching, the mortar collar bedding each pot, cracks with age, and a cracked collar lets rain run in beside the flue. Next comes the pointing on the shaft, then the leadwork at the base where the stack leaves the roof. That lead is several pieces rather than one: an apron across the front, stepped flashings up the sides and sometimes a small gutter behind. Each piece can fail by itself. Our chimney repairs hub shows what each repair involves, and the lead work hub goes further into the flashings.
Chimney words, plainly
A brick stack faces wind and rain on every side, so it tires before the tiles round it.
Repointing costs less, and where the bricks are sound it is often all a stack needs. Checkatrade's chimney repointing guide (October 2026) gives an average of around £750 across the UK and £1,000 to £3,500 for a rebuild above the roofline. Those are national figures, and in Haslemere the reach for scaffold, the height of the stack and the state of the brick will move the price. A leaning stack or crumbling bricks get explained to you with the photos. Sound brick with tired mortar gets the smaller price. If a stack serves a fireplace you still use, say so at the survey, because that changes how we approach the flue and the pots. Where a stack is shared with next door, the repair touches both roofs, so we tell both households before anyone goes up.
A disused stack still needs air moving through it, or damp can collect in the breast inside the house. When a flue is capped we leave a vent. Taking out a chimney breast is a separate step, and the Planning Portal says Building Regulations approval will always apply because chimney breasts are part of a building's structure.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Haslemere has a town-centre conservation area, a Grade II* town house and a parish church, each with its own route.
Putting a roof back exactly as it was seldom involves forms. Questions begin once the covering changes, the roof shape is altered, or the property carries heritage status. Haslemere's conservation area takes in the town centre. Town House holds a Grade II* listing dating from 3 December 1953, and the parish church of St Bartholomew is Grade II. Between them they show the two routes that heritage buildings follow, and a house of your own may sit on either.
Section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 treats building work that leaves the outward appearance of a building materially unchanged as falling outside the definition of development, which is why an exact like-for-like re-tile rarely meets an application form. A different covering is another question, and a conservation area gives it extra weight. Our page on re-roofing in a conservation area sets out the usual points. For anything particular to your street, ask Waverley Borough Council's planning team. A listed house needs listed building consent for work that would alter its special architectural or historic character.
Haslemere consents at a glance
St Bartholomew's is the town's Church of England parish church and still used for worship, so the ecclesiastical exemption applies. Roof work there goes through the Church's own faculty system and not listed building consent, although planning permission remains necessary for development that affects the exterior. The county history records a grey stone tower with a stone-slated roof, and stone slating is specialist work that rightly sits with the church's own advisers.
Haslemere's building control comes from Waverley's own service, which lets applicants book next-day inspections if the request reaches it by 4pm the day before. Planning Portal guidance draws its line at less than 25 per cent of the building envelope together with less than 50 per cent of the roof, and a job under both limits does not normally need approval. We check where yours falls before a date is fixed. Surrey County Council licenses scaffolding that blocks a pavement or carriageway: the application goes in at least 10 working days before erection, and the fee is £208 per 28 day period. Inside your own boundary, no council licence is involved. Roof repairs are one of the jobs the government flags as capable of disturbing bats, so a sighting under a tile stops work until we have spoken to you.
The craft is the same, but the seam between hung wall and roof slope deserves extra attention because water runs down one onto the other. The flashing or soakers at that seam carry the load. Our survey lifts a few tiles there, checks the lead and battens, and records what is found in photos before any price is written.
An exact like-for-like re-tile does not materially change how the building looks, so it is generally not development. A different covering, an altered roof shape, a conservation area or a listing can change the answer. Waverley Borough Council's planners can confirm the position first; let us know which of those apply when you send your photos.
A licence is a matter for the highway authority, here Surrey County Council, and it applies to scaffolding that occupies a public pavement or road. Allow at least 10 working days and expect a published fee of £208 per 28 day period. Ask any roofer whether the price covers it and who files. Scaffolding inside your boundary sits outside the scheme.
Where the bricks are sound, repointing is usually enough. Checkatrade's October 2026 guide gives a UK average around £750 for repointing and £1,000 to £3,500 for a rebuild above the roofline. A survey shows whether the brick is flaking or only the mortar has tired, and the single written price follows that finding, with photos of the stack to back it up.
Send a photo of the seam, stack or roof edge that worries you, with your Haslemere postcode, and we will survey that spot first.
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