Roofs in a Weald village of stone slates, slate and clay tile.
On Warnham's Friday Street the council's appraisal records Horsham Stone slates, Victorian slate and clay roof tiles. We read each roof as it is, show you photographs and set the price out in writing.
The council's appraisal records Horsham Stone slates, slate on Victorian houses and clay tiles along Friday Street. Neighbouring roofs can need quite different repairs, so each one is surveyed separately.
Slate and tile roofs side by side
The appraisal finds many of Warnham's Georgian houses carrying hipped roofs, many in clay tile, above dark-blue burnt headers and rich-red stretchers. A hip adds sloping ridges that depend on sound bedding and fixings.
Hipped clay tile roof on brick
The brickworks west of the station, running by 1896, made bricks with a more purple hue than the usual orange. Where a gable or stack is in that brick, we raise repointing with you first.
Brick chimney stack above a roof
Map of Warnham and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Warnham stands on a flat platform between two Weald hills, with Weald clay beneath and outcrops of Horsham Stone.
The Warnham roof run-down
A Weald-clay village in three parts: the ground and brick beneath Warnham, the roofing materials its appraisal records, and the conservation area rules around larger roof jobs.
Stage 01 · Background
Warnham's ground gave it both bricks and roofing stone, and that local supply left its mark on the village's roofs.
Warnham sits in the Weald on a flat platform between two hills, on tributaries of the River Arun. Horsham District Council's conservation area appraisal says the ground is Weald clay, with Horsham Stone outcropping in places, a calcareous, flaggy sandstone used as a roofing material and for flooring. The clay supplied local brickmaking, and bricks from the Warnham brickworks, set up west of Warnham station by 1896, have a more purple hue than the usual warm orange. Stone for the roof, clay for the wall: the village was built from what lay under it.
It means a roof here can differ from the one next door in ways you cannot see from the road. The covering may be stone, slate or clay tile. The walls under it may be orange or purple-hued brick, with details that were repaired at different times by different hands. We therefore start with an open mind and a camera. From the garden or lane we look at the ridge line, the hips and the gutters. Then we go up to examine the tiles close to, and into the loft to see the roof from beneath, where daylight, damp timber and rusting nails give the game away.
On the ladder in Warnham
More than you would think. Mortar that holds a ridge or hip tile, the pointing around a chimney and the cement fillet beside a gable all meet the brick, and a patch in the wrong colour or the wrong strength shows from the lane for years. If your gable or stack is built in the purple-hued brick, we raise the pointing mix and the finish with you before anything is done, and we keep the existing look wherever it is sound. Our pitched roofing page describes the tile and slate repairs we carry out day to day.
At the foot of the slope we look at the gutters, which on an older village house can be a mixed collection of materials added over decades. A joint that weeps onto an old brick wall leaves a green stain and soaks the masonry, so we trace each leak back to its source. If the roof is behaving, you will hear that, and if the best answer is simply to clear a gutter, that is the answer you get.
Stage 02 · Materials
The appraisal says Friday Street roofs range from Horsham Stone slates to Victorian slate and clay tile, and each fails differently.
On Friday Street, the appraisal records roofs of traditional Horsham Stone slates, slate on the Victorian houses and clay roof tiles. Three coverings on one street means three different sets of faults, and a roofer who treats them alike will get at least one wrong.
Slate itself is long-lived; CoRC's materials guidance puts well-maintained slate at 100 years and more. What gives out first is the fixing: the nails rust and the slates slide down, a fault known as nail sickness. You may see a slate hanging low or a few lying in the gutter. Replacing the odd one is simple, but if slates keep slipping across a whole slope, patching is a waste of effort, and our page on nail sickness on a slate roof explains what a longer-term fix looks like.
Horsham Stone slates are heavy flags of sandstone, and a stone roof is looked at slowly. We study the slabs one by one, note those that have shifted or split and consider what the timbers below are carrying. Clay tiles in the Georgian roofs have a different weakness, which is the edges and hips. The appraisal describes the roofs of many Georgian houses here as hipped, a good number of them in clay tile. On a hipped roof the angled joints running down from the ridge are capped with tiles that were once held by mortar alone. Mortar can crack and drop out, so we check the bedding and fix ridge and hip tiles mechanically when we rebed them.
A ridge bedded in nothing but mortar is now treated as short of current practice. Marley explains that the 2014 revision of BS 5534 stopped mortar's grip being relied on by itself at ridge and hip, so each bedded piece now wants a screw or clip too. BS 5534 is a code of practice and not a law, and a sound old ridge may stay as it is, but any Warnham ridge we take up and rebed goes back clipped or screwed, and the photographs show it.
Warnham roofing terms
Chimney stacks and the lead flashings that seal them to the roof need the same patience. A flashing that has lifted lets water in beside the brickwork, and the stain appears on a ceiling far from the cause. Our lead work page explains how soakers and flashings are renewed.
Whatever covers your roof, the written price is for the job we describe after the survey, with the photographs to back it. If the right answer is a small repair, you will hear that first.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Warnham's conservation area dates from 1976, so a bigger roof job begins with Horsham District Council.
The Warnham Conservation Area was designated in November 1976, and its boundary was reviewed in the council's September 2020 appraisal and management plan, which also lists the Parish Church of St Margaret at Grade I. Replacing like with like leaves the roofline untouched. The rules matter more when the covering, colour or shape is going to change.
That is exactly the sort of question to settle with Horsham District Council before it is a quote. Inside Warnham's boundary the council weighs how a new covering would sit among its neighbours, and a new material also changes weight and minimum pitch. Heavier coverings can trigger Building Regulations approval, which the Planning Portal says is needed when the weight rises by 15 per cent or more. Replacing like with like is far simpler. Our roof replacement page describes how a complete re-roof is run, survey to sign-off.
Horsham District Council sells its building control under the Sussex Building Control name. The Planning Portal sets two tests, under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, and staying below both means an application is not normally needed. A job that goes beyond those lines is one we raise with the team before pricing it.
Checks for a larger Warnham job
To start, we need an address, a few photographs taken from the ground and a short note of the symptom: a stain, a slipped tile, a gutter that overflows. Tell us whether the building is a house, a flat or part of a shared block, and mention any earlier repairs you know about. With that we can plan the survey visit and check the council side beforehand.
West Sussex County Council licenses scaffolding that stands in the road or on the pavement: 10 working days between application and erection is the minimum, and a month costs £266. The county's licence is about the highway, so a frame on a Warnham drive is checked at the survey. A roost found in a Warnham loft puts the work on hold until we have spoken with you, since bats have full legal protection. St Margaret's is a Church of England church, and a church in use follows the diocesan faculty system, so a parish with a roof problem starts there. For a house, send a photograph of the worry and your postcode.
A repair is worth weighing first. Well-kept slate lasts, and the usual fault is corroded nails letting a few slates slip. If the survey shows slipping across a whole slope, a longer-term fix is better value than endless patching. The photographs show which situation you are in, and Horsham District Council should be told before any change of material.
Putting back matching materials keeps the roof's appearance unchanged, so work goes ahead. The designation matters when you want a different covering, colour or shape. Before planning a visible change, put your address to Horsham's planners and ask if an Article 4 direction or other extra control reaches it; they can also confirm the boundary line.
Horsham Stone occurs in outcrops near the village, and the appraisal records stone slates on Friday Street. We cannot promise a perfect match for every slab, which is why the survey marks exactly which ones have failed. Where a few have, we discuss options with you, and in a conservation area we involve the council early.
Very likely, since a frame on the footway stands on the highway, and the county then issues a licence, asks for 10 working days' notice at least and charges £266 for one month. At the survey we measure the frontage, agree with the scaffolder who is applying and tell neighbours which days the poles go up.
Photograph the stone, slate or tile that concerns you, add your Warnham postcode, and we will arrange the visit.
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