Wallington · SM6
Roof Repairs In Wallington
Water pooling at the foot of your Wallington downpipe?
Gutter, bay and hip repairs for SM6's Edwardian and 1930s semis on the Wandle valley floor
Wallington is flat. That sounds like good news for a roof, and for wind it is - the houses here get an easier time than anything up on the Downs. The trouble is water. On low ground near the Wandle, gutters were often hung with barely any fall, so rain sits in them instead of running off, and where a downpipe meets the ground it has nowhere fast to go. Along Manor Road, Stafford Road and the streets round Woodcote Green, the Edwardian and interwar semis add hipped roofs and bay windows, each with its own small roof and its own way of letting water in. Most of our SM6 work is in those places.
Free roof survey in Wallington
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
Wallington and the family behind Roof Repairs Croydon
Wallington is in Sutton, not Croydon, but that doesn't change who you'd be dealing with. Roof Repairs Croydon is run by John and Mark, brothers who have always worked together and get on well, which isn't a given in a family business.
Gutters hung too flat to drain are a common Wallington culprit, and either brother can talk you through one. The two of them share the quoting and the running of each job, so you've got a choice of who to ring.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Wallington is Sutton, and it sits on the valley floor
A lot of people assume Wallington is part of Croydon. It is not. It is in the London Borough of Sutton, with its own council, planning team and local plan. The town grew from a station that opened in 1847 in open fields south of the old village, called Carshalton at first because the owner of Carshalton Park did not want it any nearer his land. It took the Wallington name in 1868. Gothic villas came first, then Edwardian semis, then interwar roads filling the gaps. It is a settled, family suburb now, with Beddington Park and the Wandle on its northern edge.
The ground is what shapes the roof work. Wallington sits low on the Wandle valley floor, and it is flat enough that there is not much natural drainage once water is off the roof. Gutters on many of these semis were put up nearly level, so they hold water, collect silt and grow moss, then overflow at a joint. Downpipes discharge into gullies that block, and water pools against the wall. Up top, the hips and bays are the weak points. Hip tiles lose their mortar, and the small lead or tile roofs over bay windows leak into the front room.
Roof repairs Wallington asks for most
Guttering
Wallington gutters often run almost level, so water sits in them. We reset the brackets to a proper fall, clear the outlets and sort out downpipes that back up.
Read more about guttering in WallingtonRoof Leak Repairs
Damp in a front room under a bay is common on SM6 semis. The fault is usually the small bay roof or its flashing against the wall, not the main slope.
Read more about roof leak repairs in WallingtonFascias & Soffits
Years of gutters overflowing at the same joint rot the timber fascia behind them. We replace the rotten boards and fix the gutter that caused it.
Read more about fascias & soffits in WallingtonThose three come up most on Wallington roofs. Everything else in the services menu is covered here as well.
What a good roof repair in Wallington takes care of
Less wind, more standing water. The faults on Wallington roofs are mostly about where rain goes once it lands, so that is where our attention goes.
Gutters with an actual fall
We check the fall along the whole run with a level, not by eye. Where a gutter is flat or sagging between brackets, we rehang it so water reaches the outlet instead of sitting there.
Downpipe feet sorted
Ponding where a downpipe meets the ground soaks the wall and the footings. We check whether the gully is blocked, broken or simply too small, and tell you which.
Bay roofs given proper attention
The small roof over a bay window has its own flashing, its own gutter and often old lead. We repair the detail that is leaking, rather than smearing sealant over the whole thing.
Hip tiles bedded and fixed
Loose hip tiles on Wallington's hipped semis are a common callout. We rebed them in fresh mortar and add mechanical fixings where the hip needs them.
Sutton rules, not Croydon's
If anything needs an application, we point you to the London Borough of Sutton. Wallington Green and the Beddington conservation areas have their own rules that we check before starting.
"Wallington owners usually call us about the roof, and a good share of the time the roof is fine and the gutter, hung too flat to empty, is the culprit."
Based on Wallington jobs handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
A roof repair in Wallington, step by step
Ring, or send a photo
A picture from the pavement or the back garden is often enough to tell whether this is a today job or one that can sensibly wait until next week.
The free visit
On SM6 semis we put a level along each gutter, watch where water collects at the downpipe foot, check the hip lines for loose tiles, and look closely at the bay roofs and their flashings.
What failed, and what let it
Before any figure is mentioned you hear what has gone wrong and the reason it went, with photographs from the roof and from the loft side.
A fixed price on paper
Each item on its own line. Scaffold or a tower, if one is needed at all, sits separately so you can hold it up against anyone else's quote.
The repair itself
Here that usually means rehanging gutters to a proper fall, clearing or replacing blocked gullies, rebedding loose hip tiles, and renewing the lead or flashing over a leaking bay window.
Signed off
Photographs of the finished work, gutters cleared of anything the job dropped into them, and the 10 year guarantee in writing before anyone leaves Wallington.
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
What to do in Wallington
Nothing to do with roofs. Three places worth an afternoon if you live here or are thinking of moving in.
Beddington Park
A big park of about 58 hectares on the northern edge of Wallington, once the Carew family's deer park. The River Wandle runs through it to a lake in the Grange gardens, and there are woodland walks, sports pitches and a cafe.
View on Google Maps - Beddington Park
Carew Manor
The old manor house of the Carews, beside St Mary's Church in Beddington Park. Its Great Hall dates from around 1550 and has a hammerbeam roof. It is the only Grade I listed building in Sutton, and there is a Grade II* listed 18th-century dovecote in the grounds.
View on Google Maps - Carew Manor
Little Holland House
A short way south-west in Carshalton Beeches, the house the artist and craftsman Frank Dickinson designed and built himself between 1902 and 1904. Everything inside, from the furniture to the metalwork, is his. The interior is Grade II* listed, and it opens on the first Sunday of the month.
View on Google Maps - Little Holland HouseWhere Wallington sits on our patch
From our base on Penwortham Road, CR2 0QS: about 12 minutes. Planning and building control here sit with London Borough of Sutton.
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.
Other towns we cover, and what we do there
The same services and the same guarantee apply across every town below, from the Norbury end of the borough down to Caterham.
Roof repair costs in Wallington
On Wallington houses the cost usually depends on how far the water problem has spread. Rehanging a gutter to a proper fall is a modest job. Where it has been spilling over the same joint for years, the fascia board behind is often soft and has to come off as well. Bay roofs vary: a cracked flashing is quick, old lead that has split across the top is more work. Hips on a two-storey semi can often be reached from ladders, which keeps that part cheaper than people expect.
Read the cost guideWallington roof repair questions
Is Wallington in Croydon for planning permission?
No. Wallington is in the London Borough of Sutton, so planning and building control go through Sutton Council, not Croydon. Repairing in matching materials needs no application. If your house is in the Wallington Green conservation area, designated in 1971, or one of the Beddington conservation areas, alterations that change the look of the roof need checking with Sutton first. The SM6 postcode and the CR addresses nearby make this an easy mistake.
Why does water pool at the bottom of my downpipe in Wallington?
Usually because the gully at the bottom is blocked with silt and leaves, or cracked, or too small for the roof area draining into it. On flat Wandle valley ground, there is not much fall to carry water away, so any restriction shows up as a puddle against the wall. Left alone, it soaks the brickwork and can cause damp inside. Clearing or replacing the gully usually solves it.
My Wallington gutters overflow even after cleaning. Why?
The gutter may be hung almost level, or sagging between brackets, so water sits in it instead of reaching the outlet. That is common on houses in this area. Another possibility is that the outlet or downpipe is too small for the roof it serves. We check the fall with a level and look at the outlet size, then rehang or upgrade as needed.
Why is there damp in the front room under my bay window?
Bay windows on Wallington semis have their own small roof, covered in lead or tiles, with flashing where it meets the main wall. Water gets in when that flashing cracks or lifts, when old lead splits, or when the bay's gutter blocks. It then runs down inside the wall above the window. Repairing the bay roof or flashing usually fixes it, and it rarely means work on the main roof.
Get your Wallington gutters and bays checked
Next time it rains hard, go outside and watch where the water goes. Then send us a photo of the overflow or the puddle. We will come out, put a level on the gutters and tell you what needs doing now and what can sit until spring.