Roofers in Cold Ash
Four listed buildings near the centre and the edge of the downs
Part of the ground around Cold Ash lies inside the North Wessex Downs, so we check where your address falls before we survey the roof and photograph it.
Cold Ash roofs at the edge of the downs
Bay Cottage
Listed Grade II on 16 August 1983, one of four listed buildings within 500 metres of the centre.
Thatched Cottage
Listed Grade II on 16 August 1983; a list entry's name is no proof of today's covering.
Westrop Farm barn
The Threshing Barn at Westrop Farm is listed Grade II, so work that alters it needs listed building consent.
Cold Ash between Thatcham and Hermitage
Thatcham lies to the south, Hermitage to the north, Shaw to the west and Bucklebury to the east. Newbury and Greenham lie to the south-west as well.
- Distance
- 22.8 road miles north-east of Andover
- Planning
- West Berkshire Council
The Cold Ash roof report
Local editionCold Ash, BerkshireA boundary village, listings and licences
Cold Ash roofs on the downs boundary: planning, inspection and the scaffold licence
Cold Ash is a Berkshire village of 4,037 people, near Newbury and Thatcham, with part of the surrounding ground inside the North Wessex Downs. This report separates planning, inspection and scaffold licences, and sets out what the listed barn and cottages change.
One unitary council and a shared inspection team
At the 2021 Census Cold Ash parish had 4,037 usual residents. Every roof question from those homes reaches one of three desks, and it helps to know which before you pick up the phone.
- Planning: West Berkshire Council, a unitary authority, which means one council where Hampshire has two.
- Building Regulations: Building Control Solutions, or BCS (0300 790 0580). BCS says it is delivered through a collaborative partnership between West Berkshire Council and Wokingham Borough Council.
- Scaffold licences: West Berkshire Council again, in its role as highway authority.
The planning team and the highway team sit in West Berkshire Council itself, while BCS is the partnership it shares with Wokingham, and each keeps its own records. That is the one place where a homeowner meets a different name, and we make the introduction early so you are not surprised by an email from a partnership you have never heard of.
Re-roofing is the case to check first. As a national rule of thumb, the Planning Portal says a building control application is normally unnecessary if under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected. We apply that to a Cold Ash address and put any job near the limits to BCS before it is booked. A registered building control approver can take BCS's place if you prefer.
Weight is the second filter. A new covering that makes the roof 15 per cent or more heavier brings in Building Regulations approval, and the Planning Portal recommends a structural opinion first. We measure the rafters, the timbers that carry each slope, before proposing any heavier tile or slate, and we note their size and spacing in the report.
For a pitched roof the survey begins with the eaves and finishes with the ridge. We note the state of the tiles or slates, the fixings, the mortar at the ridge and verge, and the flashings (the metal strips that seal joints against walls and chimneys). Safe access permitting, a couple of tiles come up and the battens and underlay beneath are photographed.
Every finding is matched to a photograph in the report, so the cause and the proposed repair can be read together.
A small fault does not trigger any of this. A split ridge piece, or flashing that has come up, is a small repair, and the report records it as one in a sentence. Planning and building control become important once a whole slope is failing, the roof's form is altering, or the house is listed or lies inside the downs; the answers then reach you in writing before any date.
On the boundary: is your house inside the downs?
Cold Ash stands at the margin of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, formerly an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The place point of the village is just outside the boundary, but about 35 per cent of a 1.5 km box drawn around it falls inside. In plain terms, some addresses near Cold Ash are in the designation and some are not, and the council's mapping decides which. We check the map for your address before we talk about dormers or roof windows.
The distinction matters because land inside a National Landscape is treated as protected land under the General Permitted Development Order, and a dormer there needs planning permission. Outside it, the position is different. Our guide to planning permission for roof work sets out the wider rules. The downs partnership gives advice only, and West Berkshire Council remains the authority that decides.
Historic England's list shows 4 listed buildings within 500 metres of the village centre. Bay Cottage is Grade II (list entry 1291106, first listed on 16 August 1983), and so is Thatched Cottage (1291108, same date). The Threshing Barn at Westrop Farm is Grade II as well (1393731). A list entry's name does not prove what covers a roof today, and if a house does carry thatch, a specialist thatcher is the right trade.
A listed building cannot have its character altered without listed building consent, whatever planning permission is also required. The existing materials are recorded first, and we begin with a repair that matches them.
The nearest conservation areas are Newbury Town Centre and Thatcham. Neither is Cold Ash, and being near one does not put a house inside it, any more than living near the downs boundary puts a house inside the designation. We look at West Berkshire Council's own map for the exact address, and we ask the council whether an Article 4 direction applies where there is doubt.
Because the picture varies from one address to the next, the file we hand over lists what applies to your house and what does not. It is written down, and it keeps a later buyer from having to repeat the research.
One practical habit helps. Before the survey, look up at the roof from the road and note what you can see: slipped tiles, a sagging ridge, moss on a north slope, gutters that overflow. Send us a photograph or two with the address. We will still survey the roof properly, but those pictures tell us where to look first and what to bring.
“Near Cold Ash, the downs boundary can put one house inside the designation and its neighbour outside.”
A licence by the week, and our jobs
A scaffold over the footway or part of the carriageway falls within section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, and in Cold Ash West Berkshire Council grants the licence. West Berkshire Council requires the application to come from a scaffolding provider, not the resident. West Berkshire Council also wants at least 10 working days' warning before the date you want the scaffold up.
The charge is £125, plus £71 per week, from West Berkshire Council. Time on site therefore costs money twice, in labour and in licence fees, which is a good reason to plan the sequence carefully. If the scaffold never touches the public highway no licence arises, and at survey we tell you which case yours is.
Cold Ash roofs call on a few services, each carried out with care. Roof repairs answer slipped tiles, cracked ridge pieces and flashings that have lifted. Flat roofing covers a rear extension, a porch or a dormer cheek whose membrane has failed at a seam. Guttering, soffits and fascias look after the roofline, where a leak can show as stained boards.
When a covering has reached the end of its working life, roof replacement is set out beside repair. A local fault on sound battens points to repair. Fixings failing across a slope point to replacement. The photographs show which is which, so the choice is made calmly, not on the doorstep, and you can take them to another roofer for a second view.
A flat roof gets its own checks. We look at the fall, meaning the slope that carries water towards the outlets, at the joints and upstands, and at any ponding. A repair that ignores a wrong fall will fail again, so the report says when the fall is the real problem.
Access shapes the work here as elsewhere. We look at the width of the footway, the space for a delivery lorry and the route for materials to the rear. A narrow side passage can be enough to carry tiles on a barrow and spare a scaffold tower on the frontage, and we note that option in the plan before a price is set. Where the only way in is across the front, the plan says so, and the scaffold and its licence become part of the sequence from the first day.
Thatcham, Hermitage, Shaw, Bucklebury, Newbury and Greenham are all close, and each belongs to West Berkshire. Each address gets its own check on planning, building control and the downs boundary, and the answers are written into the survey notes. That keeps the file honest about what applies and what does not.
Cold Ash: the jobs we take on
Cold Ash roofs: the boundary, the listings and the licence
How do I find out whether my Cold Ash house is inside the North Wessex Downs?
The council's mapping decides, because part of the ground around the village is inside the designation and part is outside. We check the map for your address at survey and write the answer in your file. It matters for dormers, which need planning permission on protected land. For repairs the survey explains what applies.
Is Thatched Cottage in Cold Ash definitely thatched?
Not necessarily. A list entry's name does not prove what covers the roof today. Thatched Cottage is listed Grade II, and listed building consent applies to work that would alter its character. If the roof is thatch, a specialist thatcher is the right trade, while we survey tiled and slated roofs, chimneys and rooflines.
Which team checks Building Regulations for a Cold Ash roof?
Building Control Solutions, a collaboration between West Berkshire Council and Wokingham Borough Council. A new covering that raises the roof's weight by 15 per cent or more needs Building Regulations approval. Larger jobs go to BCS first, and BCS's answer is filed beside our roof photographs, so the route is recorded before any order is placed.
How much notice does West Berkshire want for a scaffold licence?
West Berkshire Council wants at least 10 working days' warning, and a scaffolding provider must submit the application on your behalf. West Berkshire Council charges £125, plus £71 per week. A scaffold that never touches the public highway needs no licence. We set the dates at survey, ask the scaffolder for the earliest start the licence allows, and carry any licence cost inside your single price.
Ask about a Cold Ash roof survey
Tell us your Cold Ash address and what you can see overhead. We survey first, then quote one written price.
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.