New-build brick and render estate houses with grey tile roofs

Roofers in Rushey Platt

Slate and tile repairs, lead flashings, re-roofs and flat roofs for the houses of Rushey Platt, where the old canal and railway lines once ran.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Rushey Platt's roofs, from railway age to the newest garage

Slate roof with a brick chimney stack — Houses from the railway years

Rushey Platt station opened on 18 December 1883 on the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway, later known as the Midland and South Western Junction line, and it closed to passengers on 1 October 1905. If your house dates from those decades, expect Welsh slate or clay tile on a steeply pitched roof, a brick chimney stack and lead where the two meet. At well over a century old, the usual faults are nail fixings rusted through so slates slip, soakers and flashings worn thin, and valley gutters that have given up. Repairs are matched in slate size and colour, so the roof still reads as one. On a railway-age terrace, a repair that looks different from its neighbours is easy to spot from the street, which is a good reason to take time over the matching.

Interlocking concrete tiles on a hipped house — Later houses and estates

Our rule here is simple: the house tells us what it needs. Most pitched roofs built since the middle of the twentieth century carry concrete interlocking tiles over battens and an underlay, and the problems are the common ones. The mortar under ridge and hip tiles lets go, verge pointing cracks at the gable, and the underlay perishes after years in a hot loft. Hipped roofs add their own junctions, with a hip iron at the foot of each hip and mitres that can open. A survey photographs each of these on your roof, so you see the fault before you pay to fix it.

Lean-to roof meeting a brick wall — Garages, sheds and extensions

Plots on the edge of town tend to carry outbuildings: a garage under a flat or shallow roof, a timber shed under felt, a lean-to against the back wall. Each has its own failures. A lean-to leaks where its top edge meets the house wall, a garage roof ponds where the deck has dipped, and a shed roof, which is nearly always bitumen felt or felt shingles, simply wears out. Small buildings are quick to re-cover when caught early, and a dry deck needs no joinery, so we price them in the same written quote as the house, so one visit settles everything under one set of photographs. A shed roof is a modest job, but a leaking one spoils whatever is stored below it, which is why it is worth fixing before the weather turns.

From Swindon to Rushey Platt

Distance: 2 road miles west-south-west of central Swindon
Council: Swindon Borough Council
Setting: On the line of the Wilts and Berks Canal and the former railway
Railway: Rushey Platt station: opened 1883, closed to passengers 1905, goods until 1964
Conservation area: None; Rushey Platt is not among the council's 27

What Rushey Platt owners ask before a roof job

Does the closed Rushey Platt railway line change roof rules?

No. The line shut to goods in 1964 and puts no restriction on a roof today. The thing to check is your own house, and whether it is a listed building, not what once ran nearby.

Can a railway-age slate roof be repaired rather than replaced?

In many cases, yes. Slipped slates can be refixed, failed nails replaced and flashings renewed, and matching slate fills any gaps. Replacement only makes sense when the slates are failing.

What can I check from a Rushey Platt street before calling?

Look for slipped or missing tiles, sagging ridge lines, stained ceilings and gutters overflowing in rain. Take photographs, and never climb onto the roof yourself.

How can I tell how old my Rushey Platt roof is?

Clay tile roof opened to battens and membrane for repair

Loft interior with torn felt and daylight through a roof gap

The short answer

Look at the covering, the fixings and the ridge. Hand-nailed slate or clay plain tiles suggest a Victorian or Edwardian roof, concrete interlocking tiles suggest the twentieth century, and bedding on mortar alone points to work done before 2014. The age affects the repair we recommend.

People often ask whether a roof is "original", and the question is worth answering before any quote, because the age of the roof decides what a sensible repair looks like. Houses around Rushey Platt range from the railway years to recent infill, and each period left its signature on the roof.

What does the covering tell you?

Slate comes in thin, flat, regular pieces and is nailed through a hole near the top or middle. Clay plain tiles are small, slightly curved and overlap in many courses. Concrete interlocking tiles are larger, thicker and lock sideways into each other. A mixture on one roof usually means repairs were made at different dates, which is why matching matters.

What do the details tell you?

The underlay shows its age at the eaves, where a black felt may be visible, and in the loft, where daylight or dust tells its own story. Ridge tiles bedded on mortar alone were standard practice before BS 5534 was revised in 2014, and many roofs still carry them. A lead flashing with a dull, wrinkled surface has been there a long time.

Why does age matter to the plan?

An old roof with sound timbers is a good candidate for repair. A roof whose battens crumble when touched is not. Our roof replacement page explains how we decide when a full strip is justified, and what new underlay, battens and fixings add to the result.

We record the clues on your roof with photographs, because the quote then rests on what is actually there and not on a guess from the road.

Reading a roof's age from the covering

Clue	What it suggests	What we check
Thin slates, nail heads rusted	A Victorian or Edwardian roof	Nails, headlap, lead at the stack
Small curved clay plain tiles	Older tilework, often re-laid once	Nibs, pegs, battens beneath
Large concrete interlocking tiles	A twentieth-century roof	Ridge bedding, verges, underlay
Ridge bedded on mortar only	Work done before 2014	Cracks, loose tiles, added fixings

Why do Rushey Platt chimney leaks start with lead?

The answer

Lead is the waterproofing between a roof and a wall. Where a stack, a party wall or a dormer cheek meets the slope, lead soakers and flashings do the sealing, and when they split, lift or are poorly pointed in, rain finds the gap long before the tiles themselves fail.

A damp patch beside a chimney breast is one of the most common reasons for a call, and in our experience of roofing generally the cause is a junction, not the roof covering. A flashing is lead strip that bridges the gap between brick and slope. A soaker is a smaller piece of lead, bent to an L, woven in under each slate or tile along a wall so the join stays dry.

What goes wrong with the lead?

Lead moves with the weather and, over decades, it fatigues and cracks. Cement fillets that were used to seal old flashings shrink and drop out. Where the pointing around a stack has failed, water runs behind the lead and into the wall. Birds and weeds can lift a loose edge, and a chimney that is no longer used may have lost its cap.

How is the lead repaired?

A neat repair re-dresses or replaces the lead, wedges it into a raked-out joint in the brickwork and pointed up in mortar or sealant, and it checks the flaunching, which is the mortar slope round the pots. Code 4 is the thickness commonly used for general flashing, with Code 3 reserved for soakers. Our lead roofing page covers the codes and the work in more detail.

What if the stack itself is crumbling?

If the brickwork itself is crumbling, repointing or rebuilding may be needed before any lead is renewed. The survey notes it, with a photograph.

Where a chimney breast has been taken out inside the house, the roof above it deserves a second look, because the stack may now be unsupported. A stack is heavy, and it relies on the breast below for support, so we check how it is held before any lead goes back round it.

Does re-roofing a Rushey Platt house mean upgrading its insulation?

Chimney stack taken down below roof level during removal

Loft rafters coated in yellowed spray foam insulation

The short answer

Sometimes. If the roof is stripped to the rafters, or renovation reaches past half the covering, Approved Document L expects the whole roof to be brought up to the improved insulation standard. Small repairs and like-for-like patching do not trigger it. The survey tells you which side of that line your job falls on.

Re-roofing is not only a matter of tiles. When a roof is taken back to the rafters and rebuilt, the building rules treat it as renovating a thermal element, and the insulation question arrives with it.

What triggers the upgrade?

Approved Document L treats replacing a layer after stripping down to the rafters as renovation. Once renovation reaches beyond 50 per cent of the roof's surface, or beyond 25 per cent of the external building envelope, the document wants the entire roof brought to a U-value of 0.16 W/(m²K). The document also allows a lesser standard where insulation would cut head room. Repairs below those limits do not set it off.

What does it mean in practice?

On a pitched roof with a cold loft, the easiest route is usually to lay insulation at ceiling level to current depth. A loft that has been converted needs insulation between and over the rafters instead, and ventilation has to be kept working. We talk the options through with you at the survey, so you can decide before anything is priced.

Who checks the work?

Swindon Borough Council runs its own building control team, and a registered building control approver is the private route. When a roof job is notifiable, the notification is ours to make, and the sign-off certificate is part of the paperwork you keep. Separately, the Planning Portal says a replacement covering at least 15 per cent heavier calls for approval, because the rafters then carry more load. We weigh the old and new coverings before choosing.

Our roof repairs page explains when a repair is enough and no thermal upgrade comes into it.

Our view

Ask the surveyor which side of the 50 per cent line your job falls on before you compare quotes.

Roofing services in Rushey Platt

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from the old station and canal side of town

Do roofs from the years Rushey Platt station was open need special care?

If your house dates from the 1880s to 1900s, it probably has a steep slate or clay tile roof, lead at the chimney and original timbers. The care is in matching: slate by size and colour, tile by profile, lead dressed neatly. We repair what can be saved and tell you plainly what cannot.

Can you roof garages and sheds as well as the house?

Yes. Garage roofs, lean-tos, porches and timber sheds all need different coverings, from felt to EPDM and GRP. We price them in the same written quote as the main roof, so one survey and one set of photographs covers everything on the plot.

Is the old canal route a planning constraint for a roof?

Not by itself. The council's list of 27 conservation areas does not include Rushey Platt, and the canal route does not add consent for a matching roof repair. If your house is listed, that changes things, so ask Swindon Borough Council about it before the covering is changed.

What does the written quote for a Rushey Platt roof include?

The survey photographs of your own roof, a list of faults with a fix for each, and the price in writing. Work carries our 10-year workmanship guarantee, also in writing. When the job ends, the site is swept and every scrap of waste leaves on our van.

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