Roofers in Minety

Minety has an unusual claim for a roofing page. Pottery known as Minety ware was made in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using local clay fired with timber from the Forest of Braydon. A 1971 excavation at a former hamlet south-east of the church found ridge-tiles, pans, jugs and pots, and there is evidence of Roman tile-making too.

Q1.1What does the history tell us?

It tells us that clay roofing suited this ground long before the railway came. It does not tell us what is on your roof. A house here can carry clay tile, concrete tile, slate or something else, depending on when it was built and re-covered, so we do not guess.

Q1.2Why does the clay vale matter?

Heavy clay ground moves with the seasons, swelling when wet and shrinking when dry, and old buildings on shallow footings feel it most. Over decades that movement can crack walls, tilt chimneys and open gaps where roofs meet. When we find a crack at a gable or a leaning stack, we think about the structure under the roof as well as the roof itself, and recommend a surveyor where the movement looks serious.

Q1.3How is clay tile repaired on older buildings?

Clay plain tiles and pantiles last when they are fixed well. The commonest faults are failed nails, slipped tiles and ridges whose bedding has crumbled. Pantiles, with their curved profile, need careful handling at the verges and the eaves, where the end of each tile must be sealed and supported. We pay attention to the underlay as well, since an old roof often has none, or one that has torn. Our pitched roofing page describes how we repair and re-cover them.

Fired clay is a durable material, and a roof made of it deserves a repair that respects it, with tiles matched by size and colour wherever replacements are needed. Sound tiles are kept and sorted, then put back on new battens with fresh fixings, so you keep the look of the roof and get a new structure beneath it.

Most upkeep on a Minety roof needs no permission. Rehanging slipped tiles, renewing a cracked ridge tile or fitting a new flashing in identical materials counts as maintenance. A few situations need more thought.

Q3.1Do conservation areas or listing apply?

Whether any part of Minety is a conservation area is something to check with Wiltshire Council for your own address, and we ask the question at the start of the quote. If you do live in one, a change of covering is worth discussing with the council first. St Leonard's is Grade I listed, and nothing that changes a listed building's character can be done without consent. Where a Church of England church is still in use, the faculty system applies instead of the council. Buildings next to a listed church may be listed in their own right, and the council can tell you.

Q3.2When does re-roofing need Building Regulations?

Below 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, there is normally no building control application to make. Go past either line and approval applies, sometimes with an insulation upgrade. The Planning Portal also requires approval when the new covering is markedly heavier, by 15 per cent or more. Applications go to Wiltshire Council, whose building control team handles them, or a registered approver can take the job instead; where the job is notifiable we explain each step and make the notification ourselves.

Q3.3What if bats or birds are found?

Bats and nesting birds are protected. If we find signs of either, work stops until you have been told what that means, and the timing of the job may move to suit.

Q3.4How is the paperwork kept straight?

Before any covering is changed, we put the proposed material, the extent of the work and any consent questions into the written quote. That gives you a single document to show the council, a lender or a surveyor if they ask, and it means nothing about the approvals is left to chance on the day the scaffold arrives.