Roofers in Worcestershire

Roofing in Worcestershire

Worcestershire's roofs change character as you move across the county. In the north around Kidderminster and Stourport the housing is dominated by long carpet-industry terraces and interwar semis, most originally covered in Welsh slate or hand-made clay plain tiles from the old west midlands tileworks. Redditch is the outlier: designated a New Town in 1964, it filled with estates whose concrete interlocking tiles are now sixty years old and reaching the point where the tiles outlast the felt and battens beneath them. Head south and west and you meet a different building tradition entirely, the black-and-white timber-framed halls and cottages of the Teme valley, with steep pitches, hand-made tiles bedded on lime, and listed status that rules out modern substitutes.

The Severn and the Avon shape the practical problems. Upton upon Severn, Bewdley and the low ground around Worcester flood repeatedly, and homes that have taken water tend to have damp masonry that pushes moisture up into wall plates and rafter feet, so timber decay at the eaves is more common here than the roof covering alone would suggest. On the Malvern side, exposure on the hill flanks brings wind-driven rain against west elevations and lifts poorly fixed ridge tiles. Across the county, mature orchard and parkland trees mean gutters silt up fast, which is why guttering is the second most requested job of the 131 roofers listed here.

If your house is in a conservation area in Malvern, Bewdley, Pershore or the Broadway end of the county, check with Malvern Hills, Wychavon or Worcester City before agreeing to any change of material. A like-for-like repair is usually permitted development; swapping slate for concrete very often is not.