Roofers in Cumbria

Roofing in Cumbria

Cumbria gets the worst weather in England, and its buildings were designed around that fact. Seathwaite is the wettest inhabited place in the country, the western fells take Atlantic depressions with nothing in the way, and the driving-rain exposure across much of the county is as severe as anywhere in Britain. The vernacular answer is Westmorland green slate from Honister, Elterwater and Kirkstone, a hard volcanic slate laid in random diminishing courses, often on low pitches, over thick rubble walls with generous overhangs. It is a beautiful covering and a demanding one: the courses have to be graded properly, the slates are irregular, and a roofer who has only ever laid uniform Spanish slate will produce something that looks and performs wrong.

The coast is a separate story. Whitehaven is a Georgian planned town with a conservation area to match, Barrow-in-Furness has its distinctive Victorian tenement blocks built for the shipyard, and Workington and Maryport face the Irish Sea directly with salt in every westerly. Inland, Penrith and the Eden valley bring red sandstone, and Carlisle, Cockermouth and Kendal have all flooded badly in living memory, most severely during Storm Desmond in 2015. The 134 firms listed average 4.8 across more than 2,500 reviews, and slate roofing sits high among their services, as it should.

If you live inside the Lake District National Park, assume the covering material is controlled and confirm it before anything else. Everywhere in the county, ask about headlap and pitch rather than accepting a generic specification, because the rain here arrives sideways and a lap that works in Yorkshire will not do. And if you have been flooded, remember that the roof and the rainwater goods above are part of the same water story as the ground below.