Roofing in Chesterton, Cambridge

Roofing in Chesterton, from the team that lives on the patch

Roofing Cambridge is based at 2 The Grove in East Chesterton, a couple of streets from Green End Road and about 0.4 miles from Cambridge North station. So when someone in Chesterton, Cambridge, asks us to look at a roof, we’re usually talking about houses we pass every day: slate terraces off Chesterton Road, older cottages towards the river, brick semis like the ones on our own street, and the flats and extensions in between.

East and West Chesterton are home to about 18,620 people (2021 Census), in housing that’s far more mixed than most visitors expect.

What kind of roofs do Chesterton homes have?

Victorian and Edwardian slate around De Freville and Chesterton Road

The De Freville Avenue area was laid out as a planned estate in the late Victorian and Edwardian years. The council’s 2020 conservation area appraisal describes “buff brick terrace cottages with slate roofs”, many with pierced terracotta ridges and finials, and chimneys topped with clay pots. Rooflights have been added to some slopes, and the appraisal notes pressure for attic extensions.

These roofs are now more than a century old. The slate itself often has plenty of life left; it’s the nails, battens and lead around it that give up first.

The old village: Chesterton High Street, Church Street and Ferry Lane

Before the suburbs arrived, Chesterton was a riverside village. The Chesterton and Ferry Lane appraisal (May 2022) records gault-brick buildings where “simple gabled slate roofs predominate”, with plain clay tiles on some of the earlier houses and a few mansard roofs with dormers. On Ferry Lane, the earliest buildings carry plain clay tiles and the 19th and early 20th century ones Welsh slate. Several timber-framed houses from the 16th to 18th centuries are Grade II listed.

Interwar and 1960s–70s homes near Green End Road

The streets immediately around our base tell a different story. Council Tax records for the neighbourhood show most homes were built in the 1920s or between 1965 and 1972, and a recent council planning report on The Grove describes two-storey brick semis with “contoured roof tiles”, the concrete interlocking kind. Add the purpose-built flats, 29% of homes in East Chesterton, and there’s a lot of concrete tile, felt and flat roofing within a few hundred metres of our door.

Which roof problems do we see most in Chesterton?

• Slipped slates. Iron nails corrode and slates slide out of line, a fault known as nail sickness. The council’s listed buildings guidance recommends aluminium alloy or copper nails when re-slating, and reusing good slates.
• Tired chimney flashings. Nearly every terrace has a stack, and failed flashing around chimneys is one of the leading causes of roof leaks.
• Loose ridges and finials. Terracotta ridge tiles work loose as their mortar bedding fails. They’re worth saving rather than swapping for plain modern ridges.
• Flat roofs on extensions and dormers. Felt that has baked through several hot summers cracks and lets water in at the upstands and edges.
• Frost damage. Cambridge averages about 40 days of air frost a year (Met Office, 1991–2020), enough to open up cracked mortar and porous tiles.

Planning and conservation rules in Chesterton

Several of Cambridge’s 18 conservation areas cover parts of Chesterton: Chesterton, Ferry Lane and De Freville, with Riverside and Stourbridge Common along the river. Being in one doesn’t stop ordinary re-roofing. Like-for-like work generally needs no planning permission, and the only Article 4 direction in Cambridge that removes householders’ alteration rights covers the Accordia estate off Brooklands Avenue. The nearest one to Chesterton, at The Waterman on Chesterton Road, protects a pub from demolition and has nothing to do with roofs.

In a Cambridge conservation area you do need permission for:

• dormer windows on any roof slope, and any roof extension;
• altering or replacing a chimney on a slope that faces the road;
• rooflights that project more than 150 mm from the slope or rise above the ridge.

Listed buildings need listed building consent for any work affecting their character, and stripping a roof can disturb bats, which are protected by law. If either applies to your house, we’ll raise it at the survey. The detail is in our guide to planning permission for roofing in Cambridge.

Which roofing services do Chesterton homeowners need most?

For the slate terraces it’s roof tiling and slating: refixing slipped slates, re-slating whole slopes and rebuilding valleys. Our team includes Michael Conway, who has 35 years’ experience in slate and leadwork, and the two trades go together, so our lead roofing and leadwork service covers the flashings, aprons and soakers that keep a slate roof dry. Leaking stacks are handled through our chimney repairs service.

For extensions, dormers and the flats, flat roofing in EPDM rubber, GRP or felt is the usual job. And if you’re converting a loft in a conservation area, we fit Velux windows and skylights that stay within the 150 mm permitted limit.

Why use a roofer based in CB4?

Because we’re round the corner. We can look at a small problem without a long journey being priced into the quote, come back easily to check a repair after heavy rain, and we already know the appraisals that cover your street, along with which terraces need a pavement scaffold licence and which roofs can be reached from the garden.

Get a free roof survey in Chesterton

Whether it’s one slipped slate or a full re-roof, we’ll inspect by ladder or drone, show you what we find with photos and give you a detailed written quote. Repairs carry our 5-year warranty and new roofs our 10-year insurance guarantee. Call 01223 902596 or request a free quote.