Roofers in Hythe

Hythe runs from the seafront up the hill, and where a property sits on that slope changes what its roof has to deal with. The nearer the front, the more salt and driven rain it takes, and because the prevailing wind is south westerly the seaward slopes weather years ahead of the sheltered ones.

The older stock around the High Street and the Royal Military Canal tends to be slate or clay on softwood, with lead at the valleys and the chimneys. The commonest faults on it are perished lead, blown mortar at the ridge, and nail fatigue, where corroded fixings let tiles start slipping in ones and twos.

Much of the old town, the High Street included, sits in the Hythe conservation area, and its roofs are a large part of why the area is protected. The council's appraisal describes steep pitches in clay tile and slate, with parapets and brick chimneys, and a new roof there should look like the one it replaces.

Replacing a roof like for like in the conservation area does not usually need planning permission. Changing to a different covering, adding a dormer or working on a listed building is a different matter, and replacing a roof covering comes under the Building Regulations wherever the house is. A Lawful Development Certificate from Folkestone and Hythe District Council is the way to be certain about a particular house, and the time to settle it is before a material is chosen, not once the old roof is off.

The same short journey covers the villages on every side of the town. Saltwood sits on higher ground just inland to the north. Seabrook runs along the shore towards Sandgate and takes the weather off the Channel as directly as Hythe's own seafront does. West Hythe and Palmarsh lie to the west on the flat land below the old cliff line, and Lympne stands on top of it, looking out over Romney Marsh with very little between it and the wind.

That spread is why we do not quote by postcode. A cottage in Saltwood and a house on the front at Seabrook are close together on a map and need different things from their fixings, their lead and their verges. Sandgate to the east and Dymchurch to the south west have pages of their own.

Our address is 126-128 High Street, which for most of Hythe means we can come and look at something the same week and often the same day. It also means the people who quote the job are the people who turn up to do it.

The 24 hour call out runs from the same High Street yard. When a gale lifts tiles or water starts coming through a ceiling, the first job is making the roof safe and watertight, and the permanent repair follows in daylight if the weather will not allow it there and then.

Plenty of Hythe roofs cannot be judged from the pavement, such as the tall houses on the hill and flat roofs hidden behind a parapet. A drone survey photographs every slope, the ridge, the chimneys and the flashings without a ladder on the house, and you keep the photographs and the video.