A roof repair in Old Bexley has two jobs. Stop the water, and leave no trace. Patch a weathered roof with bright new tiles and it'll look wrong from the High Street for decades. Change the material and you may need the council's say-so, because on some Old Bexley houses an Article 4 direction covers exactly that. We carry out roof repairs in Bexley from 2.8 miles away in Dartford. Most of what we fix here is the slow stuff: cracked tiles, ridges losing their mortar, lead flashings split by years of heat and cold. We match what's there, keep every sound tile, and show you photos of the finished repair.
A roofer rings you back to arrange a visit.
A small repair done carefully can save an old roof. These are the standards we hold to in Bexley.
01
We keep an eye out for reclaimed tiles of the right size and colour. When none turn up, we take sound tiles from a slope you can't see, use them at the front, and fit the new ones round the back so the street view stays consistent.
02
A split flashing needs replacing. Painting it with bitumen hides the crack for a summer, and then it opens again. We cut new code lead to fit and wedge it into a raked-out mortar joint, so it can move with the seasons.
03
In a conservation area, a repair should be invisible from the pavement. We copy the existing ridge style, verge finish and pointing colour so the mended section blends with the rest. Your neighbours shouldn't be able to spot it.
04
Not sure if a repair counts as a change? We'll tell you what we think and point you to the London Borough of Bexley's planning team if there's any doubt. Better a phone call now than a dispute later.
05
Old brickwork, weatherboarding and decorative timber don't like scaffold tubes leaning on them. We pad contact points, use towers where they work better, and keep ladders off fragile old gutters. It's slower. It's worth it.
06
Leaks on older roofs often start in places you wouldn't guess: a valley lining, a parapet gutter, the back gutter behind a chimney. We trace the water before touching anything, so the roof only gets opened once. Each time a weathered roof is disturbed, a few more tiles crack.
1,000+
Roofs repaired, renewed and rebuilt
10 yrs
Written guarantee on every re-roof
5★
The only rating anyone has left us
£0
For the survey and the written quote
Old Bexley covers about 21 hectares of the old village, with 18 listed buildings inside its boundary. The village also has a weatherboarded watermill and Cray House, both from the 1770s, and the parish church of St Mary the Virgin with its octagonal spire on Manor Road. Buildings like those set the tone for everything round them. A repair that would pass unnoticed on a modern estate can look clumsy here, so we work at whatever pace the roof needs.
The Article 4 direction is what changes the routine. Elsewhere, a homeowner can usually swap one roof covering for another without planning permission. For the Old Bexley houses the direction covers, a change of roofing material comes under council control. So a repair has to use the same material as the rest of the roof, or you need to ask first. Most of the time that's easy, because a matched repair is the right repair anyway, and it tends to last longer than a mismatched one. Different materials expand, drain and wear at different rates.
When a roof has had more repairs than it can take, look at re-roofing in Bexley instead, and we'll talk the planning side through with you.
"A lot of the repairs we're called to in Bexley are really fixing an earlier repair, usually a mortar or bitumen patch that was never going to last."
Ring us or send the form, with a photo if you have one. We'll ask whether the house is listed or in the conservation area, because the answer shapes how we approach the repair.
We look from the ground, from the ladder and from inside the loft. On older Bexley houses we pay close attention to valleys and back gutters, where lead often gives up before anything else does.
The quote names the materials and explains the repair in plain words. If we think the council ought to be asked, we say so on the quote rather than leaving you to find out later.
Matching tiles, ridges and lead are gathered before we start. Waiting a few days for the right reclaimed tile beats fitting the wrong one tomorrow. We'll keep the roof covered in the meantime if it's leaking.
Tiles around the fault come off and get stacked for reuse. We renew battens and underlay where needed, replace or redress the lead, then put the original tiles back in their original positions.
After the work we check the loft for any sign of water and, if the leak was an elusive one, test the area with a hose. Then, and only then, does the access come down.
You get photos and a short written note listing the materials and the work. In a conservation area, that record is handy if anyone ever questions what was done to the roof.
10
Years' cover on a new roof
1,000+
Roofing jobs finished
Paperwork in your hand on the last day. Not posted out "in due course".
Re-roof a house in Bexley with us and you get 10 years of cover on the workmanship. It's a written document. It has your address on it, lists what was done, and is dated the day the roof is signed off. If water gets in because something was fitted wrong - a batten, a fixing, a lap, a flashing - a roofer comes back and puts it right. You don't pay for that.
Why are we happy to promise ten years? Because of how the roof goes on. Every tile or slate is mechanically fixed to BS 5534, the current British Standard. Ridges and hips are fixed too, not just sat in mortar. A breathable membrane goes down first. Where a roof meets a wall, a chimney or the house next door, it gets proper lead or a tested dry system. Shortcuts there are what make a guarantee expensive, so we don't take them.
Tiles, slates and membranes also carry the maker's own warranty. Those vary by product, and your paperwork tells you which ones apply. If a job is too unusual to guarantee in the normal way, you'll hear that at quote stage.
The table sets out the common repair options. For a house in Old Bexley the cheapest fix isn't always allowed, so weigh each one against the conservation rules as well as the price.
| Comparison point | Targeted repair | Patch-and-seal | Partial re-roof | Full re-roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | £180 - £1,600 depending on the fault | Low, often under £200 | Several thousand, priced by area | £8,000 - £24,000+ by house size |
| How long it lasts | As long as the roof around it, if done right | Months, sometimes a year or two | Decades on the renewed slope | Typically 50+ years, depending on covering |
| Disruption | A few hours from a ladder or tower | An hour or two | Scaffold on one side for several days | Full scaffold, roughly one to two weeks |
| When it makes sense | Sound roof with one clear fault | Stopgap until a proper repair | One slope failed, the other still sound | Battens, felt and fixings failing everywhere |
| Paperwork you get | Written quote, photos and a note of the work | Usually nothing worth keeping | Written quote, building control if over the limits | Written quote and our 10 year guarantee |
| Building regulations | Not needed | Not needed | Needed past 50% of the roof or 25% of the envelope | Building control approval normally required |
Small repairs in Bexley usually cost £180 to £450, and ridge work £450 to £1,200. A few local factors decide where in those ranges your job lands.
Matching an old roof in the conservation area can mean reclaimed tiles or handmade ridges. They cost more than standard stock and take longer to find. On a small repair the difference is modest. Across a large patch, it adds up.
Valleys, chimney flashings and back gutters on older Bexley houses are often lead. Replacing a valley is a bigger job than refixing tiles, because the tiles either side have to come off first and go back on in the same order.
If your house has a narrow side passage or an old garden wall in the way, access takes more planning. A scaffold standing on soft ground near the River Cray needs extra boarding to sit safely, and that adds to the cost.
If your house is one of the listed buildings, any repair that might affect its character needs care and sometimes consent. That can mean extra time preparing photos and details for the council, which we'll price honestly and separately.
A like-for-like repair usually doesn't. Bexley Village is under the London Borough of Bexley, and parts of the Old Bexley conservation area are covered by an Article 4 direction that brings a change of roofing material under council control. Keep the same material and appearance and you're normally fine. If you want something different, or your house is listed, speak to the council's planning team first.
Lead expands and contracts with the seasons. Over decades, pieces that are too long, fixed too tightly or poorly chased start to crack. Many older valleys and flashings have also been patched with bitumen at some point, which traps water underneath. We replace failed lead in pieces of the right size, so each one can move without splitting.
Yes. Bexley Village is about 2.8 miles from our base in Dartford, around six minutes by road. If a storm strips tiles, we'll aim to make the roof safe quickly with a temporary cover, then return to repair it properly once we've got matching materials in hand. A neat temporary fix is far better than a rushed permanent one in the wrong tile.
Often, yes. Reclamation yards stock a wide range of old tiles, and some handmade new tiles come close to the original in colour and texture. If a good match really can't be found, the fallback is to move sound originals to the front slope and put the new tiles where nobody looks. Done carefully, you won't see the join.
Get a second opinion before you agree. Older roofs can look tired and still have plenty of life in them. It's common for a weathered roof to need nothing more than a new valley or a rebedded ridge. We'll give you an honest view, free, with photos to back it up. Replacing a whole roof in a conservation area is a big step, and it should never be the default.
Tudor house on Bourne Road, built around 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a former Lord Mayor of London. Its gardens run down to the River Cray and include topiary clipped into heraldic beasts.
Learn more about Hall Place & Gardens on Google Maps
Medieval parish church on Manor Road in Old Bexley, recognisable from its octagonal shingled spire. A timber lychgate leads into the churchyard from the road.
Learn more about St Mary the Virgin, Bexley on Google Maps
Over 200 acres of parkland at Bexleyheath, about two miles from Bexley village, with a 12-acre lake at its centre. Danson House, a Palladian villa by Sir Robert Taylor, was built in the 1760s for Sir John Boyd.
Learn more about Danson Park on Google MapsEvery review left for us so far has been five stars. We're adding them here as they come in.
Reviews only tell you so much anyway. When a roofer comes out to Bexley, ask to see photos of a recent job on a house like yours. A good roofer will have plenty and won't mind you asking.
Call 01322 946667 or send a photo through the form. We'll come out free, match what's there, and put the repair price in writing.
