Roof repairs and re-roofing in Chesham Bois

Housing in Chesham Bois

What the roofs here are like

Chesham Bois is overwhelmingly interwar: large 1920s and 1930s detached houses set back on generous plots along the roads between Chesham and Amersham, with mature trees on almost every frontage. The typical roof here is a substantial clay or early concrete tiled hip with multiple facets, projecting gables, and often a tile-hung upper storey - a lot of surface area, a lot of junctions, and a lot of lead. Many have had two-storey side extensions and rear additions over the decades, which means several changes of roof level and abutment on a single property. Bungalows and chalet bungalows are common on the side roads, and there is a scattering of later infill from the 1960s and 1970s on plots subdivided from the original gardens.

What we get called out for

The problems that come up in Chesham Bois

The trees are the defining factor for roofing here. Heavy mature cover means north-facing slopes moss up quickly and gutters fill fast - a good proportion of our Chesham Bois work is moss removal and gutter clearing rather than anything structural. The other recurring job is leadwork: those 1930s roofs have a lot of abutments, back gutters and bay roofs, and the original lead is now approaching a century old with plenty of it undersized or over-long by modern guidance. Ridge and hip work comes up regularly too, since mortar-bedded hips on a multi-faceted roof give you a lot of running metres to fail.

Working in Chesham Bois

Access, scaffold and what affects the timescale

Access here is straightforward - long driveways, wide verges and room to stand a scaffold without a licence in almost every case. The complication is the trees. Many of the mature specimens on these plots are protected, so branches overhanging a roof cannot simply be cut back to make room; that needs the council's agreement and it is worth starting the conversation early if a scaffold has to go up through a canopy. We also plan moss and gutter visits here for late autumn once the leaf fall has finished, because clearing gutters in September just means doing it again in November.