Roofers in Burghfield Common
Red brick, a mission hall and high ground above the Kennet
Burghfield Common has 6,214 residents and stands above the Kennet valley. We survey each roof, photograph what lies under the covering and explain the repair in plain words.
Burghfield Common roofs, from hall to red-brick row
Hall and school sites
The VCH recorded parochial schools and a mission hall on the common in 1923, built by a Dr Bland.
Red-brick houses and cottages
In 1923 the VCH described Burghfield's houses and cottages as red brick, several large houses aside.
High ground above the Kennet
A village on higher ground in the south of the parish, south-west of Reading, surveyed roof by roof.
Burghfield Common beside Mortimer and Theale
Mortimer lies to the south, Theale and Calcot to the north, Silchester to the south-west and Three Mile Cross to the east. Roofs in each are surveyed first. Burghfield Common is 24.5 road miles north-east of East Street in Andover, and we book a survey visit there by appointment.
- Distance
- 24.5 road miles north-east of Andover
- Planning
- West Berkshire Council
- Council
- West Berkshire Council (unitary)
The Burghfield Common roof report
Local editionBurghfield Common, BerkshireCouncils, old records and the map gaps
Above the Kennet valley: what a Burghfield Common roof job involves and who clears it
Burghfield Common lies north-east of Andover, 24.5 road miles away, under West Berkshire Council. This report sets out who clears a roof job here, where the conservation area question is settled, and how a scaffold is licensed.
West Berkshire rules, with a building control partner
Burghfield Common looks like one place and answers to one council. West Berkshire Council is its planning authority, its highway authority and the body behind its building control. The 2021 Census counted 6,214 usual residents in the built-up area, so this is a sizeable village. A settlement that size will have houses, extensions, garages and outbuildings of different ages, and each raises its own question about approval, so we ask about the building before we put a number on anything.
For building control, West Berkshire hands the work to Building Control Solutions (BCS), which describes itself as the local authority service delivered through a partnership between West Berkshire Council and Wokingham Borough Council. You can reach it on 0300 790 0580. A registered building control approver is the private alternative. Which suits you is a matter of preference. What matters to us is that the choice is made before the work begins.
Three questions decide whether a re-roof here needs an application. How much of the building does the work touch? Planning Portal guidance looks for less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof. Does the new covering weigh 15 per cent or more than the old one? And will it behave differently in a fire? Work above those limits, a heavier covering or one that performs differently points to Building Regulations approval. A repair that stays inside the limits does not normally need an application.
The survey is how we answer them. We measure the slope that needs work, photograph the battens and underlay, and weigh up the covering. On a garage or extension with a flat roof the same questions apply, and the falls and outlets are checked as well, since ponding water shortens the life of any membrane. You see the photographs and the conclusion together, so the approval route never arrives as a surprise.
The write-up pairs each fault with a photograph and its place on the roof, then gives the repair proposed and the scale of the job, from a patch to a whole new covering. If the honest answer is a repair, that is what we propose, even where a larger job would suit us better.
Because Burghfield Common is Berkshire, not Hampshire, we work from West Berkshire's pages and not from Test Valley's. That is a small point on paper and a large one if a form goes to the wrong office. A neighbour's advice from a different county can sound authoritative and still be about another council, which is why we name the right one in writing.
Red brick, a mission hall and a Japanese bell
The Victoria County History set down a few details about the common in 1923. It recorded parochial schools and a mission hall here, the hall built by a Dr Bland, and a large Japanese bell he had brought to England that stood in the school playground. The same account said that, besides several large houses, the remaining houses and cottages of Burghfield were of red brick and for the most part modern. Those are 1923 descriptions, not a survey of today's roofs, and we treat them as colour and never as evidence of what you have overhead.
A house built within the last hundred years and a cottage that already stood in 1923 age in different ways, and the repair that suits one can damage the other. Where an older brick wall meets a newer roof covering, we match tile colour to the brick as well as to the neighbours, so a repair does not stand out from the street.
The same volume placed the parish in the Kennet valley on London Clay, rising to 302 ft in the south-west. Our record puts the common itself on higher ground in the south of the parish, above the valley and south-west of Reading. We draw no conclusion about weather from that. In practice it means a roof here is judged on its own survey, with a built-up area of 6,214 residents at the 2021 Census behind it and no regional assumption in front of it.
Conservation area boundaries are drawn by the council, and West Berkshire Council's own map is the check for whether one covers your street, so we read it before any visible change is planned. West Berkshire Council also has an Article 4 direction area named The Homestead, Hollybush Lane, close to the common. Only West Berkshire Council can say which rights it withdraws and whether it touches your address. Our guide to planning permission for roof work explains what an Article 4 direction does in general.
A search of Historic England's list around the village point found no entries within 500 metres. Individual houses can still be listed anywhere, so we check the list entry for your own address before the survey, and we tell you what we find whichever way it falls. If your house does turn up, listed building consent joins the building control question, and like materials become the starting point.
“Burghfield Common is Berkshire: West Berkshire's pages apply here, not Test Valley's or Hampshire's.”
A scaffold licence on West Berkshire's roads
Where a house fronts the road, scaffold on the footway or carriageway is licensed by the highway authority, which for Burghfield Common is West Berkshire Council, under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980. The council's page puts the duty on the scaffolding company, acting for its customer, so the form is the scaffolder's job and not yours. A drive or private road is different. A scaffold that stands on a private road, West Berkshire's page adds, is not covered by the licence.
Counting back from a start day shows why the notice matters. Ten working days before a Monday is the Monday two weeks earlier, so the order of events is a survey, a decision from you, the application, and only then the booking of tiles, labour and scaffold for the date the licence allows. We lay that sequence out when we send the price.
West Berkshire Council's fee is £125, plus £71 per week, and applications must be in at least ten working days ahead of the scaffold going up. West Berkshire says a mistaken application, or one dropped before the licence issues, can generally get back only 50 per cent of the fee, and nothing once the licence has been granted. That is why we fix the start date with you first and only then ask the scaffolder to go ahead: a licence for the wrong week is money gone. The council also requires the scaffolder's insurance to indemnify it to a limit of £10 million.
None of this appears as a separate bill. Your one quoted total includes the licence, the scaffold hire, the removal of waste and the clearing of the site afterwards, so nothing arrives as a separate bill later, and the price you accepted stays the price you pay. What changes the figure is the length of road frontage the scaffold has to cover, how long the job runs, and what turns up beneath the covering.
Garage and extension roofs often need a lower, simpler scaffold than a main roof, or a tower, and that can change whether a licence is needed at all, because a licence follows the highway and not the roof. We explain at the survey what is needed for your house. For flat-roofed garages and extensions our flat roofing page covers the coverings and falls, and for the gutters and fascias around them see guttering, soffits and fascias. For slipped tiles and leaks, roof repairs starts with the same survey: photographs first, then a plain explanation of what failed and what a sound repair involves, then the price for the whole job in one figure.
Tiles, flat roofs and gutters in Burghfield Common
Settling a Burghfield Common roof job
Is there a conservation area in Burghfield Common that affects my roof?
Whether one reaches your own Burghfield Common street is a question for the council to answer: West Berkshire Council holds the definitive map, and that is where we check before work begins. If your house is inside one, a change to the shape of the roof can need planning permission, and we raise it at the survey.
Does the Article 4 area near Hollybush Lane stop me re-roofing?
We cannot say, and neither can a map. West Berkshire Council has an Article 4 area named The Homestead, Hollybush Lane near the common, and which rights it withdraws is a question for the council. West Berkshire Council can tell you whether it touches your address, and we ask its planning team before pricing, and you get its answer in writing.
What happens to the scaffold licence fee if my dates change?
On refunds the council is generally limited to 50 per cent of the fee for an application withdrawn or made in error, and gives nothing back once the licence is granted. So we fix the start date with you before anything is booked, and the licence cost forms part of your single total.
Who handles building control for a Burghfield Common re-roof?
Building Control Solutions, the service West Berkshire Council shares with Wokingham Borough Council, on 0300 790 0580. You can use a registered building control approver instead. Many small repairs need neither, because Planning Portal guidance treats work under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof as not normally needing an application.
Villages around the common we cover
Start with a survey of your Burghfield Common roof
Tell us the address and attach a photo. We survey, say which approval route applies and quote one written price.
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.