Roof repairs and new roofs in Horsham
Working out of Surrey, Vision Roofing Services covers Horsham. The estimate costs nothing, and neither does the advice. Horsham has no single kind of roof. The stock is old and mixed, and much of it sits under trees.
Tile hung walls and gutters under trees
Horsham grew slowly, so nothing about its roofs is uniform. There are timber framed buildings in the old centre, Victorian brick streets around them, and estates from every decade since. Two houses on the same road can need completely different work.
The local habit worth knowing about is tile hanging. Plain clay tiles are hung down the face of a wall, usually on the upper floor. They sit on battens fixed to the brick or the timber behind. It is a Sussex, Surrey and Kent habit, and there is plenty of it here. Victorian builders here used it on gables and whole first floors.
Some older Horsham roofs are laid in heavy local stone slabs rather than tile. Those are a trade of their own.
The other Horsham fact is the trees. The town sits in the Weald and the older streets have big mature trees in them. Everything that falls off them ends up in a gutter.
What usually goes wrong here
Fascias and soffits rot from behind
The gutter is fixed to a board called the fascia, with a flat board called the soffit tucked under it. Under heavy tree cover that board is wet for most of the year. Timber soaks water up from the back, where nobody looks. By the time the front of the board feels soft, the wood behind it has gone. UPVC does not rot, so a roofline that has got to that point is usually replaced rather than painted.
Gutters fill with leaves, then with mud
Leaf fall is the obvious part. The part people miss is what happens next. Leaves rot down into a wet black mud that sits in the bottom of the gutter, holds moss and never dries out. That mud is heavy. It pulls brackets away from the fascia and puts a slow drip down the wall behind the downpipe.
Tile hung walls drop tiles like a roof does
A tile hung wall is a roof turned on its side. The tiles are nailed, and the nails rust. When one lets go, the course above it has nothing holding its bottom edge. Most people never look up at their own wall until a tile lands in the flower bed. A leaking gutter above one is worse, because the water gets in behind the tiles and stays there.
Flat roofs under trees hold everything
A lot of older Horsham houses have had something added at the back, and the addition usually has a flat roof. A flat roof under a tree collects leaf mulch in the corners and around the outlet. Water then sits on the covering instead of running off it. Standing water is what finishes a flat roof, not rain.
What we do in Horsham
- Roof repairs, leaks and slipped tiles
- New roofs and reroofs in tile and slate
- Flat roofs, repaired and replaced
- GRP fibreglass flat roofs
- Dry verge caps, fitted over the gable edge
- Dry ridge systems, fitted over the ridge line
- Fascias, soffits, guttering and downpipes in UPVC
- Gutter cleaning, from £30
- Painting the outside of a house
Nearby towns we also cover
- Roof repairs and new roofs in Crawley
- Roof repairs and new roofs in Dorking
- Roof repairs and new roofs in Brighton
Not sure yet what the roof needs? Our roofing advice answers the questions we get asked most, before anybody comes out to look.
Get an estimate
Roofing work in Horsham
Estimates and advice are free. Ring and describe the problem, or send a photograph of it, and you will get a straight answer about whether it needs a repair or a new roof.
All work guaranteed.
Want us to take a look at the roof?
Leave a name and a number and we will ring back to sort a time. Estimates and advice are free.