Flat Roof Repairs · Purley CR8
Flat Roof Repairs In Purley
Has a lead or felt section of your Purley roof started letting water through?
Careful repairs to lead flats, dormer tops, porch roofs, garages and rear extensions across CR8
Purley isn't thought of as flat roof country. The Webb Estate and Upper Woodcote Village are clay tile, catslides and swept valleys. Look more closely, though, and the flat sections are there: small lead flats over bays and dormers on many of the Arts and Crafts houses, porch canopies, a garage roof tucked behind a Tudor Revival front. Away from the estates, along Foxley Lane and around Purley Oaks and Purley Downs, the interwar detached and semi-detached houses have gathered rear extensions and flat-roofed garages over the decades. Each of those is a different repair. On the older houses, the wrong material can spoil a roof that was put together with real care.
Flat Roof Repairs quote in Purley
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
The people behind it
Who you'd deal with about a Purley flat roof
A lead dormer top and a felt garage roof get the same two people. Roof Repairs Croydon is family-run, and the brothers at the top, John and Mark, have always got on well enough to share the whole business between them.
They often go through the numbers on a job together, so the price for your flat roof has been thought about twice over. Afterwards both of them know the detail of it. If one brother is out of reach, you'll usually find the other ready to answer.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Where a Purley flat roof tends to show its age
Small flat roofs give way at their edges and joints more than in the middle. These are the signs to watch for, and what usually sits behind each.
Cracks in the lead over a bay or dormer
Lead laid in pieces too big for its thickness can't expand and contract freely, so it tires and splits along the same lines. Often an earlier repair has done away with the original rolls and drips.
Damp in the ceiling of a room under a dormer
The flat top of the dormer, or the joint where its cheek meets the tiles. Water can run along a rafter before it shows, so the stain may be some way off.
Tar streaks or stains down the garage wall
An old felt roof with a failed edge trim, or a past repair in bitumen paint that has cracked and let water track down the brick.
Leaf mould sitting on the extension roof
Overhanging beech, oak or yew drop debris that blocks the outlet. Water backs up behind it until it finds the weakest lap.
The care a Purley flat roof needs
Lead mended in lead
On a period house a lead flat is repaired with sheet lead of the right code, with rolls and drips placed where the sheet needs them. We don't paint over it with a liquid coating.
Bay sizes kept honest
Lead fails when a single piece is too large. If a previous repair joined bays together, we put the joints back where the metal can move.
Material chosen for the spot
On a visible estate roof EPDM or GRP may look wrong. Behind the house, on a garage or extension, a modern membrane often makes good sense. We say which belongs where.
Outlets cleared as part of the job
Purley has a great many mature trees. Outlets and hoppers are cleared before we finish, and we will tell you if a leaf guard is worth fitting.
Steep drives and gardens planned for
Plenty of Purley houses sit above or below the road. We work out how ladders and materials reach the back at the free survey, so it's on the quote from the start.
Ten year written guarantee
Our workmanship comes with a ten year guarantee, set down in writing.
Lead on the estates, felt on the chalk slopes
The houses William Webb laid out between 1903 and 1925 were each designed individually, and their flat sections are small and fiddly: the top of a dormer, a bay, the roof of a porch or a link between two wings. Many are in lead, worked by hand around odd shapes. Lead like that can last a very long time if it is left alone, and it suffers badly when someone patches it with whatever happens to be in the van. Upper Woodcote Village, built as a model village around its green, has the same kind of detail on a smaller scale.
Further from the estates the job changes. The interwar houses around Purley Oaks, Foxley Lane and Purley Downs sit on chalk slopes, and many have had flat-roofed extensions, garages and dormers added over the years, mostly in felt. On the higher roads, where the town climbs onto the dip slope of the North Downs, wind gets under any loose edge. In the valley roads lower down, leaf collects and roofs stay damp. The 1987 storm that took so many trees at Purley Beeches is a fair reminder of how hard it can blow up there.
"On the Purley flat roofs we are asked about, the leak is more often at a joint somebody has already patched than anywhere in the original lead or felt."
From flat roof repairs enquiries in Purley handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
Our process for flat roof repairs in Purley
Survey from inside and out
We look at the ceiling below, then at the roof itself. On a dormer that includes the cheeks and the tiles either side. We note what the roof is made of and how it was built.
Find the original detail
On lead we look for the rolls, drips and laps it was built with, and for any place a later repair has removed them. That is usually where it's failing.
Agree the approach
The written quote says whether we will repair in lead, re-cover in a modern membrane or do a mix of both, and why. On estate houses we flag anything that would change the look.
Prepare the deck
Old covering comes off the failed area and the boards are checked. Wet or soft timber is replaced. Lead goes down over an underlay so it can move.
Lay and dress
Lead is cut, bossed and dressed to fit, with joints where the sheet needs them. Felt or membrane goes down with proper edge trims and upstands.
Check the junctions, then hand over
Where the flat roof meets tiles or walls, the flashings and soakers are checked and renewed if needed. Outlets are cleared, and you get photos and the written guarantee.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
How to judge a roofer for an older Purley flat roof
Can they work lead?
Ask how they would repair a cracked lead flat. If the answer is a liquid coating or flashing tape, they are not the right people for an Arts and Crafts house.
Do they raise the appearance?
On the Webb Estate and in Upper Woodcote Village, what a roof looks like matters to Croydon Council. A good roofer brings that up before you have to.
Will they leave sound work alone?
Many small flat roofs need one joint put right, not a whole new covering. Be wary of a quote that replaces everything without saying why.
Repair in lead or re-cover in a modern membrane?
On older Purley houses this is the choice that comes up most. Neither is always right, and where the roof can be seen from matters as much as the price.
| Comparison point | Repair or relay in lead | Re-cover in EPDM or GRP |
|---|---|---|
| Best suited to | Bays, dormer tops and porches on period houses, above all where they show. | Garages, rear extensions and hidden roofs on interwar houses. |
| Appearance | Matches the house as it was built. | Looks modern. May not suit a visible roof in a conservation area. |
| Lifespan | Very long if laid in the right bay sizes. | Long, provided the deck is dry and the edges are well made. |
| Cost | Dearer material and more skilled labour. | Usually less, especially on simple shapes. |
| Awkward shapes | Lead can be worked round almost anything. | Fine on plain shapes, harder with lots of corners. |
| Planning | Like for like needs no application. | On a visible estate roof, check with Croydon Council first. |
Lead and stacks often go together
The lead around a Purley chimney is made in much the same way as a lead flat, and it can make sense to have both looked at on one visit. For the stack itself, see our page on chimney repairs in Purley.
What shapes the price of a Purley flat roof repair
Most flat roofs in Purley are small, so the cost depends less on size than on material, detail and how hard the roof is to reach.
Lead on the estates
On the Webb Estate and in Upper Woodcote Village, a repair to a lead dormer or bay roof means skilled hand work and sheet lead, which costs more than felt. It is also the right material for those houses.
Sloping plots on the chalk
Around Purley Downs and Foxley Lane many houses sit on chalk slopes above or below the road, and the back extension can be a long carry from the van. Steps and terraced gardens add time, and they get their own line.
Trees overhead
Where beech or oak hangs over the roof there is usually leaf mould to clear first, and sometimes a rotten board at the outlet. We price the deck once we have seen it.
Flat Roof Repairs in Purley: questions
Do I need permission to re-cover a flat roof on the Webb Estate?
Like-for-like re-covering generally needs no planning permission. Purley comes under the London Borough of Croydon, and the Webb Estate and Upper Woodcote Village are both conservation areas, designated in 1983 and 1973, where roof work is looked at much more closely than on a similar house outside them. Swapping lead for a modern membrane on a dormer or bay that can be seen, or raising the height of the roof, is worth raising with Croydon Council first. If more than a quarter of the roof is being renewed, building regulations under Approved Document L usually require the insulation to be upgraded too.
Why do flat roofs under trees in Purley fail sooner?
Leaf, shade and blocked outlets. Purley has a lot of mature beech, oak and yew, and what they drop sits on the roof, holds water and chokes the outlet. Water then backs up to the weakest lap. Clearing the outlet in late autumn and again in spring makes a real difference.
Can the cracked lead on my Purley house be repaired, or does it need replacing?
Often it can be repaired. Cracks in lead usually follow a line of stress where a piece is too large or has been fixed too tightly. Cutting out the failed section and putting in a joint that lets the lead move can solve it. If the lead is thin and cracked all over, relaying in new lead of the right code is the better job.
Is GRP a good choice for a garage roof in Purley Oaks?
It can be. On a plain rectangular garage roof that nobody walks on, GRP or EPDM gives a long life without seams. The deck has to be sound and dry first. If the garage roof is visible and you are in a conservation area, check before changing the material.
My dormer only leaks when the wind comes from one side. Why?
Driven rain is getting in at a junction, often where the dormer cheek meets the tiles or where the flat top meets the main roof. Rain from one direction gets pushed up under a lap that copes perfectly well in still weather. We check the soakers and flashings on the weather side first.
Do you use liquid coatings on flat roofs?
Rarely, and never on lead. A coating can buy a little time on old felt that is due to be replaced, but it hides the state of the covering and makes a proper repair harder later. We would rather fix the cause.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Things to do in Purley
Purley has some good walking for when the roof is sorted.
Promenade de Verdun
The Promenade de Verdun is a memorial road William Webb made in 1922, lined with Lombardy poplars and ending at a granite obelisk. The trees grow in soil brought from a First World War battlefield in northern France.
View on Google Maps - Promenade de Verdun
Purley Beeches
Purley Beeches is mature beech wood with yew and whitebeam growing underneath. It was bought for public use in 1907, partly through local subscription, and still makes a pleasant short walk despite the 1987 storm.
View on Google Maps - Purley Beeches
Foxley Wood
Foxley Wood is a Croydon Council nature reserve of ancient oak and ash with patches of chalk grassland. Roe deer and badgers have both been recorded there.
View on Google Maps - Foxley WoodPurley on the map
Purley is about 8 minutes from our base in South Croydon. Like the rest of the borough, it comes under Croydon Council for planning.
Areas we cover
From Purley it's a short run to Coulsdon, Kenley and Sanderstead, and we cover the rest of Croydon and the towns just over the borough boundary as well.
Flat Roof Repairs by town
A flat section of your Purley roof letting water in?
Tell us whether it's a dormer, a bay, a porch or an extension, and what it's covered in if you know. We survey it free of charge, look at how it was built, and write down what we would do and why before any work is agreed.