Roofers in Amport
St Mary's, The Firs and how to choose between repair and replacement
Amport has 33 listed buildings near its centre, a Grade II* church and house among them. Each roof is surveyed, so repair, re-tile or replacement rests on evidence, not guesswork.
Amport roofs, church to country house
St Mary's Church
A Grade II* Anglican church, first listed on 21 December 1960, whose roof goes through the faculty system.
The Firs
A Grade II* house listed on 20 December 1960, where any repair has to respect the covering already there.
Conservation-area cottages
Homes within about 0.75 km of the centre, near the Amport and Monxton conservation area that the council supplies.
Amport beside Monxton and Thruxton
Monxton lies just to the east, Thruxton to the north-west, Weyhill to the north-east and Abbotts Ann to the east beyond Monxton. All are within our patch.
- Distance
- 6.3 road miles west of Andover
- Planning
- Test Valley Borough Council
- Council
- Test Valley Borough Council and Hampshire County Council
The Amport roof report
Local editionAmport, HampshireRepair or replace, and who pays
Amport roofs: choosing between repair, re-tile and replacement, with the grants and VAT to know
Amport has 33 listed buildings near its centre and shares a conservation area with Monxton. This report sets out the consents, the way a repair-or-replace decision is made, and the grants and VAT that sit around a roof job.
Choosing a service when the roof has a problem
Most roof jobs begin with a symptom and a question: is this a repair, a re-tile or a new roof? The honest answer comes from the roof, not from a catalogue, and it is reached in stages. A repair mends what has failed and leaves what is sound. A re-tile strips a slope and lays the covering again, often reusing sound tiles over new battens and underlay. A replacement removes the covering and the timbers that carry it, and it is the last resort, not the first offer.
At Amport the first stage is the survey. We view the roof from the lane, climb where the roof allows, raise a tile or two and photograph the laths and membrane beneath. The pitch is measured, and the condition of each valley, hip and ridge is recorded. The report sorts findings into what is failing, what is ageing and what is sound, so the decision follows the evidence and not a sales pitch. A roof that still has years left is repaired; our page on roof repairs explains the limits of that.
The second stage is consent. Amport is in Test Valley Borough, whose council is the planning authority, and Hampshire County Council runs the roads. The Amport and Monxton conservation area is recorded within about 0.75 km of the village centre, with a boundary Test Valley Borough Council supplies. Anything that alters how the roof appears from the lane belongs in a conversation with the council first, and a dormer needs planning permission. Check with Test Valley Borough Council whether an Article 4 direction reaches your street.
The third stage is building control. For a re-roof, the Planning Portal sets its line at 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, below which approval is not normally needed. A covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the weight needs Building Regulations approval, with a structural check advised first. The 2021 Census counted 1,244 usual residents in Amport parish, and every household there has the same choice of building control body: local authority building control or a registered building control approver.
When all three stages are done, the choice is clear, and you see why. The report sets the options side by side in plain words, with what each would involve, what approval each would need and what the survey photographs say about the roof as it stands today. If replacement is the answer, our page on roof replacement sets out the process.
St Mary's, The Firs and 33 listings
Historic England's list records 33 listed buildings within about 500 m of the centre of Amport. The Church of St Mary is Grade II* (list entry 1093280), first listed on 21 December 1960. The Firs is also Grade II* (1155840), listed the day before, on 20 December 1960. Two buildings at that grade in a village of this size give the roofline real weight, and a repair beside either is read against it.
St Mary's is Anglican and in use, so work on its roof falls under the Church of England's faculty system, which is not the same as listed building consent. A faculty comes from the diocese's consistory court, Amport's St Mary's included. What a roofer can offer is the evidence: a survey, close pictures of the covering and its lead and gutters, and a plain note of the fault and the proposed repair. We assemble that record, and the work follows permission.
The Firs is a home, so the council decides. Listed building consent from Test Valley Borough Council is required for work that touches its character. A repair that matches the present covering in material, size and laying pattern is the surest request to make. Moving to a different covering, or altering the ridge or the stacks, invites refusal. The planning team can say in one call which side a plan falls on, and the answer is worth having before money is spent.
With 33 listings in the immediate area, a neighbouring house that is unlisted could still sit against a listed wall. We check the listing of neighbours before a frame goes up, tell the owners concerned and position the scaffold clear of old masonry. Roofs in a conservation area are seen from the road, so matching colour and course pattern counts even where no consent is required. The churchyard and the lane around St Mary's are shared space, so a scaffold or skip near the church is agreed with the parish at survey. Where The Firs stands behind a boundary wall or hedge, the access route for materials matters as much as the roof, and the survey sketch records the gate width and the way to the back of the house. Materials arrive in a sequence, not all at once, so the drive is not blocked for the whole job.
On a house like The Firs, the survey is long: each slope, valley and stack gets its own set of pictures, tied to a plain label, so the owner, the architect and the council look at the same record. For a modest cottage the same method gives a shorter report, but the discipline is identical.
“A roof is repaired while it has years left, and replaced only when the evidence says so.”
Grants, VAT and insulation around a roof job
Nothing at national level pays for a whole new roof. A few schemes touch roofs at the edges, and each has its own terms. Ofgem says ECO4 will run until 31 December 2026. The Great British Insulation Scheme has ended; installations had to be complete by 31 March 2026. The Disabled Facilities Grant pays for adaptations. The Warm Homes: Local Grant covers insulation, for households whose income is usually £36,000 a year or less. Eligibility is for each scheme to decide, and no firm can promise it.
VAT is the other money question. The standard rate is 20 per cent, and a quotation should say whether it is included. The reduced treatment for energy-saving materials is narrow: installations made between 1 May 2023 and 31 March 2027 are zero-rated, and from 1 April 2027 the rate reverts to 5 per cent. That applies to qualifying installations such as insulation, not to ordinary roof repairs or a new covering.
Insulation brings Building Regulations into a re-roof. Approved Document L, in its 2021 edition, treats replacing an existing layer of a roof, or adding a new one, as renovation. Table 4.3 gives a roof threshold of 0.35 W/m2K, upgraded to 0.16 where the existing figure is worse, and paragraph 4.13 allows the closest figure that is feasible within a 15-year payback where 0.16 cannot be reached. The 2026 edition takes effect on 24 March 2027.
A frame on the road needs a licence under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, issued by Hampshire County Council. Hampshire County Council's scheme names the scaffolding firm as applicant, asks for ten clear working days' notice and charges £211.90 on application for the first 2 weeks and £72 for each further 2-week period. Private ground is outside it. A written quotation should say what it covers, whether scaffolding and VAT are inside the total, and what happens if the survey finds something unexpected once the covering is off. Citizens Advice would have you hold at least 3 quotations, and when they differ the difference is usually in scope, so ask each trader to confirm what is left out.
Gutters and fascias are often renewed in the same visit as the covering, so the scaffold is paid for once, and the same frame serves insulation work if that is planned. Where a roof is being opened up anyway, it is a convenient moment to look at the loft insulation. A short note on the thickness and condition of the existing insulation goes into the report beside the pictures. Guttering, soffits and fascias covers that work.
Amport roofs: repair or replace, grants and the church
How do I know if my Amport roof needs a re-tile or only a repair?
The survey decides. Isolated slipped or cracked tiles point to a repair. Soft battens, torn underlay or tiles failing across a whole slope point to a re-tile or replacement. We lift a few tiles, photograph the timbers beneath and explain which stage your roof has reached, so you can judge the evidence yourself before agreeing to any work.
Is VAT lower on an Amport roof repair?
No. The standard rate of 20 per cent applies to a roof repair. The zero rate for energy-saving materials runs from 1 May 2023 to 31 March 2027 and reverts to 5 per cent from 1 April 2027, but it covers qualifying installations such as insulation. Put the VAT and scaffolding question to every quotation, and keep the answers in writing.
Does St Mary's Church in Amport need a faculty for roof work?
Yes. St Mary's is Anglican and in use, so its roof falls under the Church of England's faculty system rather than listed building consent, so a faculty from the diocese's consistory court, Amport's route for its church, comes first. We supply the survey, close photographs and a written description of the covering and the repair needed, and the work begins once the faculty is granted and the dates are agreed with the church.
Who files the Amport scaffold licence application?
The scaffolding firm does, because Hampshire County Council names the firm and not the householder as applicant, and asks for ten clear working days' notice. Hampshire County Council's fee is £211.90 for the first 2 weeks and £72 for each further 2-week period. Private land is outside the licence, and the survey says which applies.
Villages round Amport
Get an Amport roof survey arranged
Give the address and describe the problem. We survey first, then you receive one written price.
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.