Roofs around a Grade II* church and a listed forge in Knockholt.
Knockholt is a small Kent village whose Grade II* church and Grade II listed forge stand out. Each job starts with your roof and ends in one written total.
St Katherine's has carried its listing since 22 October 1971. Where a building is listed, the first job is working out which consent applies, and we help owners of neighbouring listed homes put the right questions to the council.
Old church roof with a stone tower
Rocks Forge sits on the national list. A listed house is judged on how its roof is made and how it looks, so we photograph the covering and its details before pricing any repair.
Older cottage roof with a chimney
Sevenoaks District Council can say whether a Knockholt house sits in a conservation area. For an unlisted house outside one, there is a control fewer, though we still confirm your address's listing status before we begin.
Tiled house roof and chimney
Map of Knockholt and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Knockholt is a Kent village whose planning and building control sit with Sevenoaks District Council. Parking and scaffold access get settled at the survey.
Knockholt field notes
Three short chapters on checking listing status, the approvals that apply once a repair grows, and how scaffold and wildlife checks work on a Kent job.
Stage 01 · Listing
Two listed buildings are on the national record here, so checking whether your own house is listed comes before any price.
Knockholt is a small place on the map, yet its buildings are far from identical. The National Heritage List for England carries St Katherine's church at Grade II*, listed in 1971, and Rocks Forge at Grade II. Neither entry says a word about the house you live in. They do show that listing is a live matter in this village, which is why the question of status comes up in our first phone call, long before anyone talks about tiles.
Planning the larger work
Search your address on the National Heritage List for England online, or ring the planning team at Sevenoaks District Council. The deeds and the legal pack from your purchase may also record it. The check takes minutes and it reshapes the whole job, because a listed house needs listed building consent for any work that touches its special character, and that consent is a separate permission from planning permission. It is far better to know before a scaffold arrives than to find out when a council officer calls round.
Frequently the physical repair is identical: a cracked tile comes off and a sound one goes on. The difference lies in how closely the new work has to match the old. On a listed house we photograph the covering, the ridge, the verge and the flashings exactly as they stand, record the tile or slate and the way it is laid, and price the work to put back what was there. Swapping to another covering, even one that looks close, is a step to raise with the council before anything is ordered. If the house is unlisted and outside any conservation area, a repair in matching materials is more straightforward, and our pitched roofing page explains which covers the tiles, battens and underlay we mend.
Sometimes the covering has simply worn out across the whole slope, and patching would be money wasted. When that is the finding, we show you the failing areas in photos and say so, whatever the size of the job. Wherever a chimney stands, we also look at the lead or cement flashing around its base and at the flaunching, which is the mortar collar holding the pot in place, since water usually gets in there first. Our chimney repairs page covers both in detail.
Stage 02 · Approvals
A repair in matching materials rarely needs paperwork; a bigger job brings in building control and sometimes the planning team.
Knockholt roof work mostly stays clear of forms. The trouble starts when a job grows: the old covering taken off a full slope, new materials picked, or a bigger share of the roof disturbed. At that point two separate systems come into play, building control and planning, and they ask different questions.
The Planning Portal's test for skipping building control is that under 25 per cent of the whole building envelope is affected and under 50 per cent of the roof. Regardless of area, approval applies if the replacement is 15 per cent or more heavier than what it replaces, or would react very differently to fire. A heavier covering is the likely trigger, and the Planning Portal would have a surveyor or structural engineer consulted before the work goes ahead. Sevenoaks District Council has its own building control service, so a larger Knockholt job goes through it, and the survey is where we flag that.
Terms you will hear
Section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 says work that leaves the outside of a building looking materially the same is not development. A re-roof in matching materials falls inside that, whereas a roof window being added, a dormer or a switch of covering might not. Rather than settle it in a few lines, we point you to our post on planning permission for roof work, and to Sevenoaks District Council's planning team for the answer at your address. Ask Sevenoaks about conservation area cover for your road; without it, that layer drops away for an unlisted house, while a listed one needs the consent described in the previous chapter.
Changing the type of covering also changes the load on the rafters, and a roof framed for one weight does not always welcome another. That is why a survey includes a look at the timbers from inside the loft, and why we would sooner ask a question early than discover a sagging slope halfway through the job.
Most Knockholt roof jobs stay below the point where a form is needed.
Our quote is a single total price on paper after the survey, and it records whether any approval has to be obtained before the start date is fixed. Should the survey show the entire covering has run its course, the roof replacement page walks through the sequence of a full re-roof, from stripping the old tiles to the last check of ridge, verges and gutters.
Stage 03 · On site
On Knockholt roads the highway authority is Kent County Council, whose guidance names the scaffolding firm as the applicant.
Scaffold is what the neighbours see first on a roof job, so we plan it early and tell you what to expect. Poles on the drive or the lawn stand on your own property, so the highway licence does not come into it. One on the pavement or the carriageway needs the highway authority's licence before it goes up, and that is a separate piece of paper from anything the roof itself requires. We also tell your immediate neighbours when it is going up and coming down.
Kent County Council puts the duty on the scaffolding firm: where a householder needs scaffold for work at their property, the firm is expected to be registered to apply on that person's behalf. Applications and renewals should reach the council 5 working days ahead of the intended start, and its 7-day permit for scaffolding placed on the highway costs £52 a week in 2026 to 27. We line the timing up with the scaffolder so the licence exists before the first pole arrives, and the start date you are given already allows for it.
Before the scaffold goes up
Roosting bats are legally protected, and official guidance counts re-roofing and repairs to the roof as work that can harm a roost. Birds are covered too: the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 creates an offence of intentionally damaging or destroying a nest which is occupied or half-built. So if we spot droppings, a nest or a bat at the survey or on the slope, that section of work stops, you hear about it, and the next move is settled with you before work resumes. Looking costs nothing, and it protects both the animals and you.
Gutters and fascias belong in the same conversation. With scaffold already at the eaves, it is the sensible moment to look at the boards, the soffits and every gutter joint, and to say whether any of it needs attention now or can wait. You see photos of each point we are talking about.
Away from the scaffold, materials get a stacking spot agreed with you, rubbish leaves the site by a set route and each evening we tell you what the next day holds. To begin, upload a shot of the roof taken from the lane or garden, mention whether the house carries a listing, and include your postcode.
Only if your house is itself on the list. The record names St Katherine's church at Grade II* and Rocks Forge at Grade II, and those entries apply to those buildings alone. Look your address up on the National Heritage List, or ask the Sevenoaks planning officers, before any price is agreed, because listed status changes which consent a repair needs.
Matching repairs are simple, and an unlisted home outside a conservation area has one control fewer; the council can confirm your road's status. Altering the look of the roof is another matter, and a heavier covering may also need building control, and the Sevenoaks planning officers are who to ask before you commit to a different covering or any new opening.
Often they can. When the battens and underlay below are still sound, refixing or replacing the damaged tiles and rebedding the ridge may be the better buy. We climb up, photograph what we find and show you the worn patches. If the whole covering is failing, we explain why another repair would not hold for long.
Kent County Council says the scaffolding firm should be the one to apply for the customer, with applications in 5 working days before the start. The dates are fixed with the scaffolder, so the pieces fit together. If your own drive or garden has room for the poles, no highway licence is needed, and the job can start sooner.
Upload a picture of the roof from the lane, say if the house is listed, add your postcode, and the survey gets booked.
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