Roof repairs and re-roofing in Ashley Green

Housing in Ashley Green

What the roofs here are like

Ashley Green is a linear village strung along the ridge road between Chesham and Berkhamsted, with a green at its centre and open farmland either side. The housing is mixed and low-density: some genuinely old cottages and former farm buildings in brick and flint with steep tiled roofs, a run of Victorian and Edwardian estate-style cottages, and then a good deal of 20th-century detached housing and bungalows built along the road frontage. Converted barns and outbuildings appear regularly here, and those often carry large expanses of plain tile or slate on shallow-framed structures. Plots are large, and detached garages, stables and workshops are common - which means a lot of secondary roofs alongside the main house.

What we get called out for

The problems that come up in Ashley Green

Being on the ridge, Ashley Green takes weather from every direction, and wind damage is the single most common reason we get called out - ridge tiles, verges and the odd sheet of felt off an outbuilding. There is no shelter here of the kind Chesham gets from the valley. The barn conversions bring their own work: large roof areas, long rafter spans and rooflights that were often fitted at the conversion and are now at the age where the flashings around them fail. Gutters fill with field debris as much as leaves, so annual clearing matters more than it does in town.

Working in Ashley Green

Access, scaffold and what affects the timescale

Ashley Green sits on a fast ridge road with no pavement in places, so anything needing a scaffold at the front means traffic management and sometimes a licence - worth factoring into the timescale. Off the road, plots are large and access is easy. The outbuildings and barns here often sit behind the house on soft ground, which in winter can mean waiting for it to dry out before a lorry will get in. We clear gutters here more often than the average because they fill with field debris as well as leaves, and we usually suggest a spring visit as well as the autumn one.