1980s estate houses with brown concrete tile roofs

Roofers in Toothill

Roof repairs, ridge and verge work, full re-covers and flat roofs in Toothill, from the first houses of 1976 on the hill to the garages, porches and extensions added to them since.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Toothill's roofs, from farmhouse to 1976

An old farmhouse roof with weathered tiles — The farm on the hill

Toothill takes its name from Old English words meaning a lookout hill or watchtower, and the land was farmland long before the estate. Toothill Farm is first mentioned in 1594, and its farmhouse still stands among the later streets. A building of that age is a different job from the estate houses around it. Its roof may carry old timbers, hand-made tiles or a covering that has been patched over generations, and the first question is always what is already there and what condition it is in, which a close look from a ladder and from the loft answers. Whether the farmhouse or any outbuilding is listed is a matter for Swindon Borough Council to confirm, and we would want that settled before any covering is touched.

Interlocking tile roofs on a 1970s estate — The estate of the 1970s

Infrastructure work for Toothill began in 1974, and the first houses were occupied by April 1976, which makes it the first area built in what is now West Swindon parish. Roofs from that decade are now around fifty years old. Houses of this period often carry concrete interlocking tiles over a bitumen felt underlay, laid on softwood battens, and each of those layers ages differently, so one visit has to look at all three. The tiles tend to outlast the felt beneath them, and ridge tiles were bedded on mortar alone because that was normal practice then. When we survey a Toothill house, the ridge, the verges, the felt where it can be seen from the loft and the battens are the parts that tell us whether a repair will hold.

A flat-roofed garage beside a pitched house — Garages, porches and the local centre

Fifty years of ownership bring additions to a house like these. Many Toothill houses have a garage with a flat or shallow-pitched roof, a porch, a kitchen extension or a conservatory, and these small roofs tend to wear out well ahead of the main roof, so they are worth a look on any visit. Felt and fibreglass coverings blister, split at the upstands and pond where the fall has settled. The local centre, which includes Toothill Methodist Church, is different again: larger buildings, often with flat sections, parapets and rainwater outlets that need a surveyor's eye for access and drainage before anyone quotes. We look at the whole run of roofs on a property, not only the one that is leaking, so one visit sorts out the order of work and nothing is repaired twice.

Up the hill from the town centre

Distance: 3 road miles west-south-west of central Swindon
Council: Swindon Borough Council
Council: Swindon Borough Council, which also runs building control
Conservation area: Toothill does not appear on the council's list
Setting: A hilltop suburb of Swindon's 1970s western expansion

Toothill roof questions

Are Toothill's 1970s roofs due for replacement?

Age is not the test. A roof from 1976 is around fifty years old, yet it may need nothing beyond work at the ridge, the gable edges or the felt. The survey photographs settle which, and the written quote follows.

Does Toothill have a conservation area?

Not on the council's list of 27, and no Article 4 direction applies to the hill. A listed building is a separate matter, so check with Swindon Borough Council's planning team before work starts on anything old.

Do ridge tiles on the hill need extra fixing?

Where they sit on mortar alone, yes. Since BS 5534:2014 ridge tiles also get mechanical fixings beyond the bedding, and a hilltop that catches the wind makes that upgrade the first one we suggest for an older estate roof.

What fails first on a 1970s Toothill roof?

Lead-lined valley gutter between two slate roof slopes

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

The short answer

At fifty years, the weak points tend to be the details and not the broad field of tiles: ridge bedding that has cracked, gable-edge mortar that has crumbled, and bitumen felt that has perished beneath. Those faults let water in long before the tiles themselves give up.

The houses that went up from 1976 were built quickly and well enough to still be standing, but their roofs were detailed in ways that have since changed. Fifty years on, the pattern of faults is consistent from street to street.

Why does ridge and verge mortar fail?

The ridge is the line of capping tiles along the top, and the verge is where tiling finishes against the side of a gable wall. On a Toothill house of this era both were normally bedded in sand and cement. Mortar shrinks, cracks and lets go, so you see tiles loose at the ridge or a gable edge that has opened up. Since BS 5534:2014, mortar alone is not relied on for fixing these tiles, and a repair now adds mechanical fixings, or a dry-fix ridge kit that has passed the tests in BS 8612. Our ridge and verge dry-fix page explains the difference.

What happens to the felt and battens?

Beneath the tiles sits the underlay, a membrane that catches wind-blown rain and condensation, fixed over battens, the timber laths that carry the tiles. Old bitumen felt goes brittle, tears at the laps and sags between rafters. From the loft you can sometimes see daylight, stained timber or a dark patch on the felt, and each is a clue.

Why do valleys and abutments leak?

A valley is the internal angle where two slopes meet, and it carries a great deal of water. Lead or mortar-bedded valley tiles fail quietly, and a stain on a bedroom ceiling is often the first sign. Flashings, the metal strips that seal a slope where it meets a wall or a chimney stack, loosen at the same time.

We list what we find against each part of the roof, so a repair covers the real fault and not just the nearest stain. Our page on roof repairs sets out how we decide.

Is it time to re-roof a Toothill house?

The answer

Not necessarily. A roof of fifty years with sound tiles and failing details usually responds to targeted repair. A full re-roof makes sense when tiles are cracking across the slope, battens are soft or the felt has failed widely. Our recommendation is always the lightest fix that will last.

Re-roofing a house is a large, disruptive job, and it is not the answer to every leak. Deciding between repair and replacement is mostly a matter of looking closely and writing down what is found.

When is repair enough?

If the tiles are whole and water is getting in at a ridge, a flashing or a valley, a repair solves it. Re-bedding a ridge, renewing a section of valley lead or replacing a handful of cracked tiles costs a fraction of a re-roof and leaves the covering in place. The aim is to buy the roof many more years of service, not to sell a bigger job.

When does the slope have to come off?

Re-roofing becomes the better value when the same repairs keep coming back, when many tiles are cracked or spalled, or when the felt and battens beneath are failing across a whole slope. Stripping the slope, fitting new breathable underlay and battens, then re-laying the covering deals with causes and not just symptoms.

Do weight, insulation or notification rules apply?

According to the Planning Portal, no building control application is normally required where less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is involved. Go beyond either figure and approval follows, often with insulation to bring up to standard as well. A covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the weight also needs approval, so a change from a light tile to a heavy one is checked first. The council's own building control team covers Swindon, and we deal with the paperwork whenever the work is notifiable.

Whichever way it goes, you receive a written quote with survey photographs of your own roof. If a full replacement is the right call, our roof replacement page explains what it involves.

Our view

Repair the fault if the tiles are sound; replace the roof only when the layers beneath have failed.

Who must hear about roof work on a Toothill house?

Long flat roof on a 1960s brick building being re-covered

Rolled lead roof covering over a bay above white windows

The short answer

Most repairs need nobody's permission. Larger re-roofs and flat roof membrane renewals can trigger a Building Regulations notification through Swindon Borough Council or a registered building control approver. Planning questions go to the council, and Toothill has no conservation area of its own.

Because Toothill is a planned suburb of the 1970s and not a protected historic centre, the rules are lighter here than in Swindon's older districts. They are not absent.

Who handles building control?

Swindon Borough Council's building control team covers the area, and since 6 April 2024 a private firm can do the same job only as a registered building control approver. We explain which of the two routes applies and then deal with the notification whenever one is due. Renewing a flat roof's waterproof covering counts as renovating a thermal element, and where more than half the surface is renovated the whole element should be brought up to the insulation standard in Approved Document L.

Do planning rules affect a re-roof?

Replacing a covering with the same material in the same form seldom needs planning permission. Swindon's list of 27 conservation areas leaves Toothill out, and the two Article 4 directions on that page cover Bishopstone and the Railway Village instead. New roof windows or a loft conversion raise separate planning and escape-route questions, which our skylights page covers in detail, so we leave them there.

What about older buildings and the church?

If you own the old farmhouse or a building of similar age, check its listing status with the council before anything is priced. Listed building consent applies to works that affect character, and that includes roofing material. A Methodist church in use falls under the ecclesiastical exemption instead, so its congregation follows a different route for consents.

When you are unsure which of these applies to your house, send us the address and a couple of photographs and we will tell you what we would check with the council first. Flat garage roofs and porches on the same plot follow the same logic, and we raise them at the survey so that nothing is missed. The 10-year workmanship guarantee we give in writing covers the work we do, whichever route the paperwork takes.

MythA new estate has no roofing rules, so any covering can go on.

FactBuilding Regulations still apply to larger re-roofs, heavier coverings and flat roof renewals, wherever the house stands.

Roofing services in Toothill

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from the lookout hill

Why do ridge tiles on 1970s Toothill houses come loose?

The bedding was sand and cement alone, and mortar cracks as it ages and the roof flexes in the wind. Rain gets behind the crack, and winter frost widens it year by year. We re-bed the ridge and add mechanical fixings, or fit a dry-fix system, which is how BS 5534 now expects it to be done.

Can you repair a flat garage roof without replacing it?

Often, if the deck beneath is sound. A split at an upstand, where the roof turns up against a wall, a blister or a failed joint can be repaired locally. If the surface has gone soft or the water is ponding because the fall has settled, we say that a new covering is the sensible fix and explain why.

Do you work on the roofs around the Toothill local centre?

Yes. Larger and flat-roofed buildings need a survey that covers access, drainage and parapets. Our commercial roofing page explains how that differs from a house, and the quote comes after we have been on the roof, never from a guess made over the phone.

Is the farmhouse roof treated differently from estate roofs?

It is, because its age means we first find out how it was built, what has been added since, and whether the building is listed. Materials and methods are matched to what is there, and timbers are checked before anything heavier goes on. We never assume a modern covering suits a building that predates the estate.

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