Stone roof repair and re-roofing on listed houses

Stone tiles are among the longest-lasting roof coverings there are, but the battens, fixings and underlay beneath them are not. When a stone roof fails, it is usually because the timber pegs, nails or battens have rotted, not because the stone has worn out. That means most of the original tiles can be taken off, sorted and laid again.

How we re-roof in stone

We strip the roof by hand, keeping the tiles in their sizes. Traditional stone roofs are laid in diminishing courses, with the largest tiles at the eaves and the smallest at the ridge, so sorting them matters. Damaged tiles are set aside and the shortfall is made up with reclaimed tiles of the same stone, so the finished roof looks as it did.

With the roof open, the carpenters repair the timbers underneath. Where old timbers are sound we keep them and repair the decayed ends, rather than replacing whole members.

Projects

At Tysoe Manor in Warwickshire, we stripped the roof of a Grade II* manor house, repaired the mediaeval timbers and retiled with the original tiles and reclaimed ones.

At a Grade II farmhouse near Lechlade in Gloucestershire, the roofs were re-felted, battened and stone-tiled as part of a renovation of the whole house.

Consent

Re-roofing a listed building like for like may not need consent, but changing the covering, the pitch or the details usually does, and the local authority decides what counts as like for like. Our guide to Listed Building Consent explains how to check.