Herne Bay · covering Kent
Roofing in Herne Bay and across Kent
Slipped tiles, storm damage, flat roofs, chimneys and guttering. I come out, go up, and tell you what is actually wrong with it - which is not always what you have been told, and is not always urgent. Ring me and I will have a look for nothing.
Out of hours, try the mobile: 07818 184211
Tell me what the roof is doing
I read these myself and normally come back the same day.
What I get called out to
Most of it is repair work on houses people are living in, rather than new build. If your problem is not on this list it is still worth ringing - roofs rarely go wrong in tidy categories.
- 01 Slipped And Broken Tiles One tile out of place is usually all it takes for water to start getting in. Most are back on the same day.
- 02 Storm Damage Roof Repairs Ridge tiles off, felt torn, a sheet of flashing in the garden. I board up or sheet over first, then price the proper fix.
- 03 Flat Roofs Garage roofs, dormers, extensions and porches. Repairs where a repair will hold, a new covering where it will not.
- 04 Chimneys And Leadwork Repointing, flaunching, cowls and new lead soakers or flashings. A lot of "roof leaks" turn out to be the stack.
- 05 Gutters, Fascias And Soffits Clearing, resealing, re-hanging to the right fall, or replacing the lot in uPVC where the timber has gone.
- 06 Re-Roofing And New Roofs When patching stops being worth the money. Strip, new felt and battens, tiles back on or a new covering.
You will know the van
There is no office and no call centre. The number on the side of the van is the number that rings in my pocket, and the person who comes to quote the job is the person who turns up to do it.
That is the whole pitch, really. It means you get a straight answer about whether a roof needs replacing or just needs three tiles bedding back in - because there is nobody upstairs with a monthly target to hit.
Kent roofs do not fail the way people expect
This is one of the driest corners of the country. The Canterbury area sees somewhere around 700-750mm of rain a year, against a UK average closer to 1,100mm. People assume that means an easy life for a roof. It is the opposite.
Long dry spells bake the mortar in ridge and hip bedding until it shrinks and cracks, and they let the nails and clips holding everything down sit there quietly corroding. Then a handful of genuinely violent days in autumn find every single one of those gaps at once. Nearly all the emergency calls I get are in a fortnight or two of the year, and they are almost never a surprise once you get up there - the damage was already set up months earlier.
The second thing is which way Herne Bay faces. Most of England takes its weather off the Atlantic from the south-west, so most roofs are detailed with that in mind. We look north across the Thames Estuary at open water, which means the hardest wind arrives on the north-easterlies, hitting the slope that is usually the least protected, carrying salt with it.
The bungalow problem
Herne Bay has an unusual number of wide-fronted 1930s bungalows, and they catch people out. A bungalow carries far more roof per room than a two-storey house, so there is more to go wrong and more to pay for when it does. The hipped ends mean more ridge and hip line - which is exactly where dried-out mortar lets go first - and the low eaves mean rainwater lands close to the wall rather than being thrown clear.
How a job actually runs
- One
I come and look
Free, and I go up rather than squinting from the pavement. You get photos of whatever I find, including the bits you cannot see from the ground.
- Two
You get a price and a straight answer
In writing, itemised, with the option of doing it in stages if that suits better. If it can safely wait a year or two, I will tell you that instead.
- Three
I do the work and clear up
Agreed date, agreed price. Old material goes with me, nails come out of the flower beds, and you get told what was different from what we expected - because something usually is.
No reviews up here yet
This is a new website, and rather than fill this bit with quotes you have no way of checking, it is staying empty until there are real ones to put in it.
In the meantime, judge me on the bit that costs you nothing: I will come out, go up, and tell you what is actually wrong - including when the answer is that it can wait another couple of winters. If you want to speak to someone I have worked for before deciding, ask and I will put you in touch.
Book a look at itWhere I work
Herne Bay and the villages around it are the bread and butter, and I get out across the rest of Kent regularly. If you are further afield than this list, ring anyway - it depends what the job is and what else I have on that week.
- Herne Bay
- Whitstable
- Canterbury
- Faversham
- Tankerton
- Chestfield
- Sturry
- Broomfield
- Reculver
- Birchington
- Margate
- Ramsgate
- Sandwich
- Sittingbourne
- Ashford
- Maidstone
Questions I get asked
- How quickly can you get here?
- If water is coming in, usually the same day or the next one - Herne Bay, Whitstable and Canterbury are all a short run. Anything that is not actively leaking normally gets looked at within the week.
- Do you charge to come and look?
- No. I will come out, get up there, and tell you what I find, whether or not you end up giving me the work. If it does not need doing yet I will say so.
- Do I need scaffolding?
- Not for most repairs - a ladder and a roof ladder covers a few slipped tiles or a bit of pointing. Anything that means being up there for days, or working on a whole slope, needs a proper platform, and I will tell you before you commit to anything.
- Will I need planning permission?
- Almost never for a repair or a like-for-like re-covering. It gets more involved if the house is listed or sits in one of Canterbury City Council's conservation areas, or if you are changing the roof shape or the material. Worth a phone call to the council's planning team before you start.
- Do you do insurance work?
- I will happily write up what I found and what it will take to fix, with photos, so you can send it to your insurer. I do not deal with the claim itself - that stays between you and them.
Not sure how bad it is?
That is normally the reason people put off ringing. Getting me to come and look costs nothing, and quite often the answer is that it can wait.