Roofers in Kent

Roofing in Kent

Kent is clay-tile country. The county's signature is the Kent peg tile — a small, handmade clay plain tile traditionally hung on riven oak pegs — and whole villages in the Weald are roofed in them, often with sweeping catslide slopes and tile-hung upper walls. Handmade clay tiles weather to the warm colours you see across Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and the Canterbury villages, and matching them on a repair is a specialist job: modern machine-made tiles rarely blend, and conservation officers frequently insist on reclaimed or handmade replacements.

The county also carries a lot of distinctive building types that need roofers who know them — oast houses with their conical kiln roofs, weatherboarded Wealden houses, and timber-framed hall houses, many of them listed. On the coast — Thanet, Sheppey, the Romney Marsh fringe — the picture changes: driving rain and salt-laden wind off the Channel accelerate the corrosion of nails, flashings and fixings, so coastal Kent roofs need stainless or non-ferrous fixings and more frequent maintenance than the inland Weald.

If you own a period property in Kent, the two things to get right are tile matching (insist on handmade or reclaimed clay for anything visible) and, near the coast, corrosion-resistant fixings. Steep peg-tile pitches also mean access and labour are a bigger share of the cost than on a modern estate roof.