Roofers in Durley
Cottage roofs and village lanes along Durley Street
Durley's cottages lay in scattered groups over more than a mile of street when the VCH wrote in 1908. Each roof is surveyed first, photographed and priced once.
Durley roofs, from Durley Street to the old rectory lane
Cottages along the street
Groups of cottages spread along Durley Street, where each roof is repaired on its own merits, not by pattern.
Houses on long drives
Properties set back from the lane, where access for a ladder or frame is worked out before any price.
Roofs near the church
Houses toward the church and rectory, half a mile north-west of the main street, which the VCH recorded in 1908.
Durley between Fair Oak and Bishop's Waltham
Fair Oak lies to the north-west, Bishop's Waltham to the east, Upham to the north-east and Eastleigh further north-west. Our roofers reach each of these places.
- Distance
- 27.7 road miles south-east of Andover
- Planning
- Winchester City Council
- Council
- Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council
The Durley roof report
Local editionDurley, HampshireA scattered village and Winchester's rules
Durley's cottages are strung along a long street: what that means for a roof job
In 1908 the Victoria County History found Durley's cottages in scattered groups spread along a street more than a mile long. This report covers the council that decides on roofs here, the insulation rules that follow a re-roof, and the county scaffold licence.
Winchester's desks and the Durley roof
Durley parish had a population of 1,022 at the 2021 Census. Winchester City Council covers the village: it decides planning applications and runs its own Building Control service, reached through the council's main number, 01962 840 222. The service also offers pre-application consultation, so a conversation before work is possible. The road outside belongs to Hampshire County Council, as highway authority. For an owner that means planning and inspection are under one roof, while any scaffold on the road is the county's business.
The desk you need turns on the job. A repair confined to one slope normally needs none. A larger re-roof starts with the Planning Portal's two figures: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, and building control is not usually told. Winchester has published no percentage of its own. Added weight is the separate trigger, since a covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs Building Regulations approval and a structural check.
Insulation follows the covering. In the Building Regulations, renovating a roof means providing a new layer in it or replacing an existing layer. Approved Document L (2021 edition) then sets a threshold roof U-value of 0.35 W/(m²K) and an improved figure of 0.16 in its Table 4.3, with paragraph 4.13 allowing the most that is feasible within a 15-year payback where 0.16 cannot be reached. The 2026 edition takes effect on 24 March 2027. We raise this at survey, because a re-roof is the moment to ask what insulation the job triggers. From 24 March 2027 the equivalent figures sit in Tables 3.2 and 3.3 of the new edition, and the loft insulation depth is photographed so you and the inspector see the same thing.
A registered building control approver may stand in for the council if you prefer a private inspector; that regime started on 6 April 2024. Whichever you pick, we write down who inspects, what they will examine, and when, so that nobody is surprised on the day the covering comes off.
Durley's long street also affects the practical side. A roof set back from the lane may need a longer ladder run or a different delivery plan, and a cottage between two others may share a wall or boundary. We look at those points on the first visit and put them in the survey notes. Where a lorry cannot reach the drive, materials are carried the last stretch by hand, and the price allows for it before anyone arrives.
Dirty Durley, a street over a mile long
The Census count is 1,022 usual residents for the parish, and in 1908 the Victoria County History recorded that Durley's winding lanes, many of them surfaced with loose shingly sand, had earned the parish the nickname 'Dirty Durley'. It described the village as scattered groups of cottages along Durley Street, with its two extremes more than a mile apart, and the church and rectory about half a mile to the north-west. In 1908, then, it was a village with no single centre, and access is planned house by house.
Historic England's list shows no listed building within 500 metres of the centre of Durley, so the roofs near the middle belong to ordinary houses and not to a cluster of listings. A house elsewhere in the parish may still be listed, and an owner should check the Historic England list by address before commissioning anything. If it is listed, listed building consent is needed for work affecting its character, and that is a separate application from planning.
Conservation areas need a similar caution. The sensible step is to ask Winchester City Council's planning team whether your address sits in one, and to have the answer in writing before any visible change is designed. The same call can settle whether an Article 4 direction applies to your address, and what it would mean for the roof.
None of this changes how we approach the roof itself. A cottage that was standing when the VCH wrote in 1908 may have tiles of several ages mixed together, and the survey records which are original, which are replacements and which are failing. Where a matching tile is needed we look at reclaimed stock first, because a new tile can sit oddly beside an old one for years.
We also make a note of what is above the covering. Overhanging trees drop leaves and twigs into valleys and gutters, and a roof that holds debris holds water. That is cheaper to remedy as a clearing visit than as a replacement.
Cottages that adjoin need a word about party walls. Under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, cutting away a chimney breast or projecting flue from a party wall calls for two months' notice before the work starts, and silence from a neighbour cannot be taken as agreement. Where you and a neighbour cannot agree, each side appoints a surveyor. Questions about party walls go to a party wall surveyor, not to building control, and we flag the point at survey if a shared stack is involved.
“In 1908 the VCH wrote that Durley's lanes had earned the parish a muddy nickname.”
Source: VCH Hampshire vol 3 (1908), Parishes: Durley
County scaffold, moss and the roofs under trees
If a Durley house fronts a lane, the frame may need the public road, and section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 makes that a licensed matter. In Durley the licensing body is Hampshire County Council, which has the scaffolding firm lodge the application. Hampshire County Council wants 10 clear working days in hand, gives no extensions, and charges £211.90 for the first 2 weeks and £72 for each further 2-week period. If hoarding is needed as well as scaffold, a further fee applies.
The county also expects public liability insurance of £10 million from the scaffolding firm, and a frame built to BS EN 12810/12811 or NASC guidance TG20:13. Hampshire County Council says no licence is required for scaffold on a private road. Where a house sits back from the lane, a frame on a drive may sidestep the licence altogether, and the survey says whether that is possible.
Roofs under trees gather moss and algae. Marley does not recommend high-powered jet washing, since it can strip the surface of tiles and cut their expected life considerably. Biocides are separate: HSE says the general public should never use products meant only for professionals. Our roof cleaning and moss removal begins with a survey, which shows whether cleaning will help or the tiles are failing.
Other work follows suit. Roof repairs tackle slipped tiles and failed ridges, and dry ridge and verge systems replace crumbling mortar with clipped fixings. At the top of the roof, the ridge caps the join between two slopes, and the verge finishes the sloping edge above a gable wall; both are checked on every survey. Valleys, the angled channels where two slopes meet, get the same scrutiny, because on a roof under trees they collect leaves first.
A word on duties. Under CDM 2015, a householder commissioning work on their own home is a domestic client, and reg 7(1) passes the client's duties to the contractor. A lone contractor must still prepare a construction phase plan. It is the roofer's paperwork, though it is worth asking to see.
On older cottages the whole stack is read from top to bottom: pot, flaunching (the mortar collar that seats the pot), brick pointing, and the lead at its foot. Pointing that has gone lets in water that appears as damp on a bedroom wall rather than a drip from the roof, which is why the survey looks inside and out.
Whatever the job, the scaffold, the waste removal and the clean-up are part of the one written price you receive after the survey.
The Durley roof work we cover
Durley roofs: access, insulation and the county licence
Does re-covering a Durley roof mean upgrading the insulation?
It can. In the Building Regulations, renovating a roof includes providing or replacing a layer, and Approved Document L then sets 0.35 W/(m²K) as the threshold and 0.16 as the improved value, subject to feasibility and a 15-year payback. Winchester City Council's Building Control service can confirm what applies, and we raise the point at survey, before any price is written.
Is there a conservation area covering my Durley house?
That is a question for Winchester City Council's planning team. We never assume the answer either way, because a wrong guess shows only when a design is refused. The council can also say whether an Article 4 direction applies to your address. We ask before booking work and file the council's reply with your survey photographs.
What would a Durley roof scaffold licence cost me?
Hampshire County Council charges £211.90 for the first 2 weeks and £72 for each further 2-week period, with 10 clear working days needed before it starts. Hampshire County Council makes the scaffolding company, not the householder, the applicant. No licence arises for a frame on your own drive. Dates are agreed with the scaffolder, and the cost is in your single written price.
How should moss be cleared from a Durley tile roof?
Marley does not recommend high-powered jet washing, as it can damage tile and slate surfaces and shorten their life considerably. HSE also says the public should never use biocides meant for professionals only. We survey first and tell you whether the roof can be cleaned or has failed enough to need repair, and who should do which part.
Ask for a Durley roof survey before a price
Pass us your address, and a photo if there is one. Survey, consent check and one price come next.
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.