Flat-roofed garages behind brick semi-detached houses

Roofers in Clanfield

Clanfield's stone houses by The Plough and St Stephen's church, and the newer homes, garages and extensions out on the village's level ground, each get the repair or re-roof that suits the building, with survey photographs and a written quote to follow.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Clanfield's roofs, from gable to garage

Gabled stone house with a tiled roof — Stone houses with gables

Clanfield's oldest houses are stone. The Plough is a three-bay house of about 1660 built of Cotswold stone and now a pub, and Friars Court is a gabled house of about 1650 on the moat site of a Knights Hospitaller preceptory founded before 1142. Gables mean verges, the sloping edge where a roof finishes against the gable wall, and the pointing or copings that seal it. They also mean long runs of old rafters that have settled over centuries. Whatever covering a house of this age now carries, our first job is to find out what lies under it, because a roof that looks uneven from the lane is often perfectly sound.

Village church beside older tiled cottages — Around St Stephen's

St Stephen's, the Church of England parish church, dates from about 1200, with a bell tower of about 1300 and a nave rebuilt in 1869, with the chancel enlarged and partly rebuilt in 1870. That mix of medieval and Victorian work is a fair picture of the village's older streets: roofs renewed in stages, with later repairs laid beside earlier ones. Where a house has been re-roofed more than once, we often find a patchwork of lead flashings, mismatched tiles and old nail holes that tells us exactly where water has been getting in. Reading that history is the quickest route to a repair that stays put. Chimney stacks on older houses deserve a look on the same visit, since they are where those layers of repair tend to pile up.

Brick house with a low rear extension — Level ground and later building

Clanfield lies on the Thames floodplain, about three miles south of Carterton, and the ground is open and level. Houses built in the twentieth century, along with garages, porches and kitchen extensions, are common on the edges of the village, and many of those outbuildings have flat or low-pitched roofs. On open ground there are few hills or buildings to shelter a roof, so ridge tiles, verges and the felt or membrane on a flat roof take the wind first. A flat roof here usually needs attention well before the main roof does, and it is worth checking the gutters at the same time, as blocked ones push water back under the edge.

From Swindon across to the floodplain

Distance: 18 road miles north-east of central Swindon
Council: West Oxfordshire District Council
Local council: West Oxfordshire District Council
Setting: Level ground on the Thames floodplain, south of Carterton

Roof questions in Clanfield

Is my Clanfield house old enough to be listed?

Some are. The Plough and Friars Court date from the seventeenth century, but a grade cannot be assumed from age alone. West Oxfordshire District Council holds the answer and it is worth asking before any roof is priced.

Can you fix a flat roof on a Clanfield extension?

We can. The deck, the fall and the edges come first, and then comes a recommendation for either a patch or a new membrane. A flat roof that keeps holding water usually needs more than a patch.

Will a gabled stone house need special verge work?

Often. Verges on old gables are best repaired by hand with the right mortar and fixings, and we check how the roof edge meets the gable wall before choosing the method.

What do Clanfield's old stone houses ask of a roof?

Brick end-of-terrace gable beside a limestone house, slate roofs

Reclaimed Cotswold stone slates sorted by length beside a limestone wall

The short answer

They ask for patience. Seventeenth-century houses like The Plough and Friars Court carry thick stone walls, gables and well-used timbers, so a roof there is repaired by working out what is sound, then fixing only what has failed rather than stripping a whole slope.

Stone houses of the 1600s were built by hand, and their roofs show it. Rafters are not perfectly straight, ridges dip a little and walls are thick enough that a roof can sit on a surprisingly deep wall head. None of that is a fault. It does mean a roofer needs to read the building before touching it, and that a glance from the lane rarely tells you enough. We would rather spend an hour in the loft and on the slopes than guess, because the guess is what turns a small repair into a second visit.

What happens at the walls, gables and verges?

Wikipedia describes The Plough as a three-bay house built of Cotswold stone about 1660 and Friars Court as a gabled house of about 1650. A gable gives you a verge on each side: the edge of the roof where tiles or slates stop short of the wall. On an old house this edge is often bedded in lime or sand and cement mortar, and cracks in it let water run behind the covering. Repointing and refixing the edge tiles is usually a small repair, provided the problem is caught early, and we show you the cracks in the survey photographs.

Are the timbers under the covering sound?

The roof structure matters more than the covering. From inside the loft we look for dark staining on rafters, softened battens (the thin timber strips that carry the tiles) and daylight where there should be none. A few rotten battens can be replaced slope by slope without lifting everything. If the timbers have moved enough to dish the roof, the covering may need to come off so the structure can be put right, and you hear that from us before any work begins.

Can a repair match what is there?

Old houses look wrong when a repair does not match. We match the covering by size, colour and the way it is laid, so a repaired slope sits comfortably beside the rest. Our roof repairs page explains how a small repair is separated from a larger job.

Do chimneys on Clanfield's older houses need extra care?

The answer

Yes. Chimney stacks on older stone and brick houses take weather from every side, and the joint between stack and roof is where leaks most often start. Repointing, a new flashing or rebuilt top courses can each be a modest job when the problem is caught before water gets in.

A chimney is the tallest, most exposed part of a house, and on level ground in a village like Clanfield there is little to break the wind. The mortar joints weather, the flaunching (the sloping mortar bed around the base of each pot) cracks, and the lead flashing where the stack meets the roof slowly lifts. None of these faults is dramatic on its own, which is why they get missed until a stain shows indoors.

Where does water get in?

Most chimney leaks come from a short list of faults: a cracked flaunching, a flashing that has pulled away from the brickwork, or joints that have eroded back from the surface. Each one lets water run down inside the stack and stain the chimney breast in a bedroom or the ceiling around it. We check all three, and we inspect the top of the stack up on the roof, not from the ground with binoculars.

Repair, repoint or rebuild?

If the brickwork is sound, repointing and a new flashing will often be enough. If the top few courses have gone soft or the stack leans, a partial rebuild is safer than another patch. Taking a whole stack down is a bigger decision. Removing the chimney breast inside always needs approval under the Building Regulations, and where it sits on a shared wall the neighbours must be served notice under the Party Wall Act too, so that is worth settling before anyone books a builder.

What about pots, caps and old flues?

Disused flues should be capped and ventilated rather than sealed airtight, so damp does not build up inside. A chimney that has not been lit for years still sheds water through its top, so it still belongs in any roof survey. Our chimney repairs page sets out the work in more detail.

Our view

Fix the flashing and flaunching first; most chimney leaks start there, not in the brick.

How should a flat roof on a Clanfield extension be repaired?

New EPDM membrane and drip trim on a garage roof edge

Finished black rubber flat roof on a brick single-storey extension

The short answer

Find the cause before choosing a fix. A single split or lifted seam can be patched, but a roof that holds standing water, feels soft underfoot or has failed in several places is usually better re-covered, with the deck and falls put right at the same time.

Many Clanfield houses have a kitchen extension, garage or porch with a roof that is flat or only gently pitched. These small roofs are easy to forget until a stain appears on a ceiling, and by then the deck beneath may already be wet. A short, early look costs far less than replacing rotten boards and joists. The work we do on a re-covered roof like this carries our written 10-year workmanship guarantee.

What does a survey look for?

We check the surface for splits, blisters and open seams, then the edges and upstands where the roof meets a wall, because that is where most leaks begin. We press the deck for softness and note any pools that stay behind after rain. Ponding is a sign that the fall, the gentle slope towards the gutter, is too shallow, and a membrane laid over it will keep ponding.

Patch, overlay or replace?

A patch suits a single, clear fault on a roof that is otherwise sound. Replacement suits a roof that is blistered, soaked or past its typical life, which MyBuilder puts at 15 to 30 years for flat roofs in general. When a roof is re-covered we usually recommend new boards where the deck is wet, a proper drip edge and new flashings, and when the job is finished the old boards and membrane leave with us. Dust and offcuts do not stay behind in your garden.

Which covering should you choose?

EPDM (a synthetic rubber sheet), GRP (glass-reinforced plastic, often called fibreglass) and felt each suit different jobs. Our flat roofing page compares them. Wherever a flat roof meets a stone wall, the junction detail matters as much as the covering itself, and it is the part we photograph most closely.

MythA flat roof that leaks just needs another coat over the top.

FactCoating over a wet deck or a roof that ponds hides the fault for a season; the fall and the deck need dealing with first.

Roofing services in Clanfield

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from around The Plough and St Stephen's

Why do some older Clanfield roofs dip between the gables?

Timbers in houses of the seventeenth century have had centuries to settle, and a gentle dip is common. It is not always a fault. From the loft we check for cracked rafters and failing joints. If everything is sound, the roof is repaired as it stands rather than straightened, which keeps the character of the building and avoids work it does not need.

Do you cover Little Clanfield and the villages nearby?

Yes. Clanfield and Little Clanfield sit inside the 30 road miles we cover, and Carterton, Alvescot, Bampton and Brize Norton are close by. Check your address against the list of places on the areas pages of this site, or ring 01793 626096 and ask. Messages on WhatsApp reach us too, and a photograph of the roof helps.

Is a church roof something you would quote for in Clanfield?

Church work depends on the building and who looks after it. Parish churches in Church of England use are covered by the faculty system rather than listed building consent. Tell us which building you are responsible for and we will tell you plainly whether the job suits our kind of roofing, and what a survey would need to cover.

Should ridge tiles on an older Clanfield house be re-bedded in mortar?

Mortar alone is no longer relied on. Since BS 5534:2014, ridge and hip tiles are held with mechanical fixings as well as bedding. A tested dry-fix system, built to BS 8612, is the other route. With few hills nearby to slow the wind, a ridge here is worth upgrading whenever it is opened up, and the extra cost is small beside scaffolding.

Ask us about your roof

Tell us what’s happening and we’ll call you back.

Photos of what we find
A written quote
10-year workmanship guarantee

Or call 01793 626096