Roof repairs and re-roofing in Chalfont St Giles

Housing in Chalfont St Giles

What the roofs here are like

Chalfont St Giles is built around a village green and pond, and the buildings fronting it are the oldest - timber-framed and brick cottages under steep clay tile, several listed, with the low eaves and heavy roof mass of genuinely old construction. Milton's Cottage is the best known of them. Radiating out from the green are Victorian and Edwardian additions, then a broad band of interwar and postwar detached housing on generous plots, and substantial modern executive housing on the edges of the village. Many of the larger houses have complex roofs with multiple gables, dormers and integral garages, and there is a strong tradition of extending here - most properties of any age have been added to at least once.

What we get called out for

The problems that come up in Chalfont St Giles

The green and the streets immediately around it form a conservation area with a concentration of listed buildings, and roofing there means handmade tile, matched coursing and consent. On the modern and interwar stock the recurring work is different: multiple gables and dormers mean a lot of abutments, and complex roofs leak at junctions rather than in the field. Extensions are the other theme - where a rear or side addition ties into the original roof, the flashing at that junction is nearly always the culprit when a damp patch appears. Tree cover through the village keeps moss removal and gutter clearing steady.

Working in Chalfont St Giles

Access, scaffold and what affects the timescale

Two different situations here. Around the green and the older lanes, the roads are narrow, parking is limited and much of the property is listed or in the conservation area, so consent and matched handmade tile are the norm and the lead time is long. On the modern and interwar estates away from the centre it is ordinary suburban working with driveway access and no licences. The larger houses on the village edges have long drives and gates that a scaffold lorry will not always fit through - we check that at the quote rather than discovering it on delivery day, because it can mean hand-carrying the scaffold in.