Rear tiled roof of a brick semi seen from the garden

Roofers in Easterton

Repairs, re-covering, chimneys and low-pitched roofs in Easterton and Eastcott, covering the oak-framed houses lining the village street as well as newer homes and outbuildings beside the plain.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Easterton's roofs, from frame to brick

Timber-framed cottage with an old tiled roof — Timber-framed houses on the street

Easterton is a street village, and Wiltshire Council's community history quotes John Chandler noting a surprising number of good timber frame houses there. Under a roof like that sits an oak frame that has had centuries to settle, so rafters rarely run dead straight and ridges dip and lift along their length. The listed buildings run on from this older layer to farmhouses such as Halstead Farmhouse, from the later eighteenth century, and Court Close Farmhouse, both Grade II. On houses of this age the tiles are the visible half of the problem. We study the frame, the wall plates and where each rafter bears on the wall before deciding how much of the roof really needs lifting, because stripping more than the fault demands puts an old frame under needless strain.

Brick farmhouse with tall stacks — Georgian brick and the Spin Hill clay

From the eighteenth century, newer houses in the village were usually built with bricks from a clay pit at Spin Hill in Market Lavington, and the council page describes them as soft brick. Kestrels, an L-shaped red-brick house from the 1730s, is Grade II* listed, and Willoughby's is Grade II. Houses like these rely on their chimneys: tall stacks, lead flashing round each base, and verges that are only as sound as the pointing beneath them. Soft brick takes in water readily, so a failed flashing or cracked pointing shows up as damp long before the roof tiles themselves give out. Lime-rich mortars suit it best; hard cement repointing is a common cause of spalled faces.

Concrete tiles on modern houses — Infill, bungalows and outbuildings

Between and behind the old houses, Easterton has absorbed newer homes, garages, porches and extensions, and on those the work is different. Later houses often wear concrete interlocking tiles, ridge tiles work loose as their first bedding ages, and the flat roof over a garage or rear extension holds water at its joints. Open ground lies to the south, and roofs facing open country get little shelter from the wind. So we look closely at ridge, hip and verge fixings, and at the felt or membrane beneath a flat roof, since those are the places a gust finds first.

Easterton, between the Pewsey vale and the Plain

Distance: 26 road miles south-south-west of central Swindon
Council: Wiltshire Council
Council: Wiltshire Council
Conservation area: Easterton
Setting: Street village on Salisbury Plain's northern edge, within the Vale of Pewsey

Easterton roof questions

Will Easterton's conservation area limit my roof work?

Re-laying what was there seldom needs permission. Switching covering, altering a street-facing slope or touching a listed house should be raised with Wiltshire Council first.

Can an old timber frame carry a new roof covering?

Often, but not always. A heavier covering adds load, so we find out what the timbers can carry before choosing, and suggest the lightest sound option.

Why does soft brick need gentler repointing?

Brick that soaks up water is easily damaged by mortar harder than itself. The joint should be the weaker part of the wall so the brick face survives.

How do you reroof a timber-framed house in Easterton?

Torch showing a water-stained rafter beneath slates in a loft

Spray foam cut away revealing damp-stained rafter timber

The short answer

Slowly, in stages. The frame comes first: we inspect the timbers, work out what the roof really asks of them, and repair or re-cover just the area that has failed. A full strip is the last resort on an old frame.

Sight along the ridge of an old Easterton cottage and it will probably undulate. That is the frame, shifting and settling for a few hundred years, and it belongs to the house. A covering has to follow the frame instead of fighting it.

Why does an old frame make the roof uneven?

Oak shrinks, joints loosen and walls lean a little, so the plane of the roof drifts away from true. A modern covering laid hard and straight over that drift leaves gaps, so the tile or slate has to be chosen and laid to follow the line already there. Our pitched roofing page explains how coverings differ in how they cope with this.

Can you swap the covering without disturbing the frame?

Usually, provided the new material weighs about what the old did. The rafters and battens are what we lift and replace, section by section, working from a platform that spreads our weight rather than concentrating it on one rafter. Rot tends to start at the eaves and the foot of valleys, where water lingers, so those are the first places we probe with a screwdriver, while the lead at the abutments gets a close look in case it has split. Replacing a timber means sistering it, not cutting it out, whenever the old one still has life.

What if the frame itself is the problem?

Then no covering will cure it. A rafter that has dropped, a wall plate that has rotted or a purlin that has split wants structural attention first, and the survey photographs show it before any quote for covering work is written. If an engineer's opinion is needed, we tell you plainly. We recommend whatever modest job puts the fault right for good, and on an old frame that often means a repair, not a re-roof, and our roof repairs page shows what that looks like.

One practical point: on a timber-framed house the loft is usually where the evidence is. Stains on the timbers, daylight between tiles and soft spots under a screwdriver tell us more than the view from the street.

Who is told before listed-house roof work?

The answer

Wiltshire Council. A listed house needs listed building consent for any alteration that touches its character, roofing material included, and Easterton also has a conservation area. Plain repairs are unlikely to need an application, yet ringing the council beforehand is free.

Easterton has several listed houses, among them Kestrels at Grade II* and the farmhouses at Halstead and Court Close. Their neighbours may wonder whether their own roofs are caught too. The answer depends on the address.

Which jobs need consent and which do not?

On an unlisted house, mending a roof in matching material is maintenance, and re-covering it identically is not normally development either. A listed house is different, because working on it without consent is an offence. A conservation area adds the council's interest in anything that alters how the street looks.

Where does building control come in?

The Planning Portal puts the line for building control at 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof: beneath both, a repair or re-cover does not normally need an application. Beyond that, approval applies, and so it does for a covering 15 per cent or more heavier. Wiltshire Council's building control team is the council route, and a registered building control approver is the private one. Notifiable jobs are ours to sort out, and we explain the route first.

Is there an Article 4 direction I should know about?

A direction can sit on a single street or even one house, so the safe course is to ask. That is one more reason to ring the council about the address, not guess from the neighbours.

Our guide to tiled roofs in conservation areas explains what usually prompts a talk with a conservation officer, so you know what to ask.

Typical routes for roof work in Easterton

Job	Usual route
Refixing slipped tiles in matching material	Maintenance, no application
Same-pattern re-roof of an unlisted house	Building control only if the limits are passed
Change of covering inside the conservation area	Ask Wiltshire Council first
Any roof work affecting a listed house	Listed building consent

What fails on Easterton's brick chimneys?

Brick chimney stack with new lead flashing on a clay tile roof

Roofer repointing a stone chimney stack above lead flashing

The short answer

Soft brick stacks take in water, so the first failures are usually pointing, flaunching and lead flashings, not the bricks. Repairs start there. A stack is rebuilt only when the brickwork itself has moved or crumbled beyond a sound repair.

Brick from the Spin Hill clay went into many of the village's later houses, but soft brick pays for its character in maintenance. A stack stands highest and most exposed on the house, and water finds every weak joint.

What fails first on a stack?

Mortar joints go first, then the flaunching on top, which is the mortar slope that holds the pots and sheds rain. After that the lead flashing at the base lifts or splits. Each fault lets water in behind the brick, and soft brick holds onto that water through the winter. Repointing in a mortar softer than the brick keeps the face from flaking. Our chimney repairs page walks through the order of work.

When do you rebuild a stack?

When courses lean, bricks crumble through their depth, or a repair would be repaired again within a season. Rebuilding is the larger job, so we photograph the stack from several angles and show you what the survey found before suggesting it. If a stack has been taken down in the past, we cap or flash the remnant so it stops letting water into the roof.

What do these jobs cost?

MyBuilder's chimney guide (updated 21/08/2026) gives repointing at about £750 within a £500 to £2,000 range, flashing repair at £250 to £1,200 and a stack rebuild at £2,000 to £10,000 or more. Those are national typical figures, and scaffold is a large part of any chimney quote. Our written quote follows the survey, and whoever quotes, ask what is included.

Taking out a chimney breast indoors is a separate matter: Building Regulations approval always applies, with a neighbour notice as well where it stands on a shared wall.

What it typically costs

Chimney repointing£500 to £2,000
Flashing repair£250 to £1,200
Ridge re-bedding£300 to £600
Stack rebuild£2,000 to £10,000

National typical ranges; the stack, its height and the access set the real figure. MyBuilder guides to chimney repair and slate roofing, updated 21/08/2026.

Roofing services in Easterton

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from along the village street

Why does the ridge of my Easterton cottage dip in the middle?

Old oak frames settle over the centuries and walls drift, so a ridge often curves with them. A gentle dip is character and not a fault. What matters is whether it has changed recently, whether tiles have opened up at the dip, and whether the timbers beneath are sound. A dip that has deepened over a couple of winters, or a ridge that has sprung a crack, deserves a proper look. We check those three things in the loft before saying anything needs doing.

Do you work on farmhouses and barns around Easterton?

Yes. Farmhouses are repaired in matching material and method, and the listed ones, such as Halstead Farmhouse and Court Close Farmhouse, need their own consent check first. Larger barn and outbuilding roofs are surveyed the same way as a house, with photographs, and the written quote comes with a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.

Does the open land south of the village change how ridges are fixed?

It raises the stakes on fixings. BS 5534 was revised in 2014, and ridge and hip tiles no longer depend on a mortar bed by itself; we add clips or use a dry-fix system that meets BS 8612. Verges get equal attention, as gusts lift them first. On a roof facing open country that is worth doing at the same visit as any repair, because a loose ridge tile is the commonest way a small fault becomes a leak.

Is Easterton inside the area you cover from Swindon?

Yes. Easterton is well inside the 30 road miles we cover from Swindon. Eastcott and neighbouring villages such as Market Lavington are included too. Ring 01793 626096, send a WhatsApp or complete the enquiry form to book a survey. We will photograph the roof and send a written quote afterwards, so you can decide at your own pace.

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