Roofs in a chalk-valley village on the old Brighton road.
Hooley sits on the Brighton road in a chalk valley south of Coulsdon, and the Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies close by. We check each roof first, then quote one price.
The Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies close to Hooley. If your house is inside its boundary, we photograph the tiles, ridge and flashings first and keep any repair to the same look.
Tiled roof on a village house
Court Lodge is a Grade II listed building. A house with that status needs the council consulted before a covering, a valley or a lead flashing changes, so we write the survey up for you to pass on.
Older house with a pitched tiled roof
Hooley Lane was on the road from Croydon that took over as the usual way to Brighton in 1807. On a house that fronts a main road there may be little room for a skip or scaffold, so we plan access at the survey.
Terraced homes with tiled roofs
Map of Hooley and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Hooley lies on the Brighton road in a chalk valley south of Coulsdon, and the Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies close by.
Hooley on site
Three chapters on getting scaffold and materials to a road-side house, the listed and conservation-area addresses near Chipstead, and the Surrey and Southern Building Control rules for a bigger job.
Stage 01 · Access
Hooley Lane was part of a road made in 1807, so scaffold and deliveries are the first thing to plan on a house here.
The road from Croydon by Hooley Lane and Merstham to Reigate was made in 1807, and it took over from the Sutton route as the usual road to Brighton. Hooley sits on that line in a chalk valley, and the Brighton road still runs through it. For a roofing job, a village on a through route raises practical questions before it raises roofing ones: where the scaffold stands, where the skip goes and how tiles get from the lorry to the ridge.
Surrey charges £208 for each 28 day period of scaffold licence, and a renewal costs the same; it asks for applications at least 10 working days before the frame goes up. The paperwork is shared between the scaffolder and us; if you are weighing up quotes, ask who is applying and whether the price covers scaffold and VAT. A drive wide enough to hold the frame takes the question away, since private ground needs no licence. We settle which suits your house at the survey, because it moves the start date.
Access on a road-side survey
The same short list on any pitched roof, whatever its age. Are tiles slipped, cracked or loose at the nibs? Is the underlay torn or rotten where it drapes into the gutter? Is the ridge or verge mortar sound, and are the flashings tight against the chimney or wall? Do the gutters fall towards the downpipe, and do the joints hold water? A roof that has been patched before can carry a mix of details, so we photograph each slope and each junction and show you the pictures before the price is written. For a leak, the first job is to make the roof safe, and after that we explain what a lasting fix involves and what it would cost to leave it.
Age alone does not settle it. Marley's figure for concrete tiles is around 60 years, though Marley stresses it is not a promise, and 60 years is the least the Building Research Establishment expects from clay. The detail around a tile, such as nails, mortar and felt at the eaves, can wear out sooner. If those can be put right, a repair is the better buy.
Send a clear photo of the stretch that worries you, plus a note of how the house faces the road, and we will use both to plan the first visit. Our pitched roofing page sets out where a repair stops being the sensible choice.
Stage 02 · Protected buildings
The Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies beside Hooley, with Grade II and Grade I listings close by.
The Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies close to Hooley. Nearby, the National Heritage List records Chipstead's Church of St Margaret as Grade I, with Court Lodge and the Chipstead War Memorial both at Grade II. A house near any of them is likely to raise a question or two before a roof comes off, and the council holds the answers.
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is the planning authority, and it publishes character appraisals for its conservation areas, including this one in draft. Start there, with your address and the job in a sentence. Swapping tiles for the same tiles is a smaller matter than changing the material, ridge line or outline, and the council can tell you which side of the line your plan falls on. We help by describing the existing roof precisely: tile type, colour, how the courses run, and the ridge and verge detail. If a match needs reclaimed tiles instead of new stock, the written price says so. Our re-roofing in a conservation area guide covers the questions to put to your planning team.
What the photos show in Hooley
Describe the roof you have now in detail, and the council can tell you quickly what is allowed.
Works that would alter a listed building's character need listed building consent, and a good photographic record makes that conversation shorter. Lead is where we slow down on older properties. Flashings, soakers and valleys carry water off the junctions that fail first, and a sheet that is too thin or badly fixed will let go early. Our lead work page walks through the sheet codes and how we choose one for each position. When we quote, we say whether lead is being renewed or only repaired, so you know what the single total covers.
St Margaret's in Chipstead is in use as a Church of England church. Its own works go through the Church's faculty system, which the ecclesiastical exemption provides for, instead of through listed building consent. The parish and its advisers handle that. Other buildings in the village, sheds and garages included, follow the council's ordinary process, and the planning team can say whether a given outbuilding needs anything at all. A homeowner who is unsure which category applies should ask early, as an answer in writing is worth having before materials are ordered.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Reigate and Banstead's building control comes from the Southern Building Control Partnership, which counts when a patch turns into a full strip.
Hooley falls under Reigate and Banstead Borough Council. Its building control comes from the Southern Building Control Partnership, a shared service that the council calls its Local Authority Building Control team. A routine repair needs none of this. Stripping a whole slope or changing the covering is where paperwork begins.
Re-roofing generally stays outside building control when the work touches under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, on the Planning Portal's test. It names two exceptions: a covering that makes the roof 15 per cent heavier or more, and a covering that would behave significantly differently in a fire. Before a heavier covering goes on, the Planning Portal recommends taking advice from an engineer or surveyor. If your survey points towards a full strip, we contact the partnership before we fix a date, and the one written price reflects the plan. Our roof replacement page shows the whole job, step by step.
Before a re-roof begins
Since the 2014 revision of BS 5534, Marley notes, mortar on its own has not been enough to hold ridge and hip tiles; bedded tiles should be clipped or screwed as well. On a rebed we add those fixings. Dry systems tested to BS 8612 are the alternative, and you can read about both on our dry ridge and dry verge page. Neither is the law. Marley is clear that installing to BS 5534 is not a legal requirement; it is the good-practice benchmark we work to, and the written price states which method we have chosen for your ridge.
The law fully protects every bat species and the places they breed and rest, and a roof is exactly the kind of spot they pick. A nest in use is covered by the Wildlife and Countryside Act. If the survey turns up a sign, we hold off, talk you through your options and plan around it. In the loft, we want daylight at the eaves. Where the underlay is the old non-breathable kind, BS 5250 expects a 10 mm opening along the eaves above a 15 degree pitch, and loose insulation can plug it. For a first look, photograph the worrying part of the roof from the garden, then email or WhatsApp it to us with your Hooley postcode and a note of which way the house faces the road.
The tiles are no different, but access can be. A house on a through road may have a narrow frontage, a busy pavement or nowhere obvious for a skip. We plan the scaffold, the deliveries and the waste route at the survey, so the price in writing already reflects how the job will physically run.
No, but it adds a conversation. The Elmore Road Chipstead conservation area lies beside Hooley, so ask the borough council's planners to look at your address before you order materials. Re-laying the same covering is the simplest case, and a listed house is a separate question again. We describe your roof in detail, which helps that discussion move faster.
Surrey's published guidance leaves the applicant unnamed, so ask the scaffolder or us who is applying before you agree a date. Allow at least 10 working days before the frame goes up. Scaffold set up entirely on private ground escapes the highway licence, which can save time if the space is there. We check the width of your drive at the survey.
Mortar can still do the job when it is sound, but since the 2014 revision of BS 5534 bedded ridge and hip tiles should also be held by mechanical fixings. If your ridge is cracked, we rebed it with fixings or replace it with a dry system. Both are described on our ridge and verge page, so you can choose.
Send us a picture of whichever ridge, slope or gutter worries you, with your Hooley postcode, and we will arrange a visit.
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