You’re stood on the pavement in St Thomas, neck craned, looking at a slate that has slipped down the roof for the second time this autumn. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder whether it’s a repair or a whole new roof. This week Roofing Today reported that St Paul’s Church in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has been awarded £944,012 for a full restoration, with around 95% of the roof getting new Westmorland slate and the lead gutters repaired. Work starts in January 2027.
It’s a big job on a Grade I building, but the lesson scales down nicely to a Victorian terrace in Heavitree or a 1930s semi in Pinhoe. A slate roof rarely fails all at once. The nails go first, rusting through at the head, and the slates slide because there’s nothing holding them. Strip it back to the battens and you’ll usually find the slate is fine and the fixings are finished. That’s why a proper re-roof means checking the batten gauge against the slate length and keeping a headlap of around 75mm on a normal pitch, more if it’s shallow.
Then there’s the lead. On a valley or parapet gutter we’d use Code 4 as a minimum, stepping up to Code 5 on wider runs, because thin lead splits when it moves with the heat. Underneath, a breather membrane with 150mm laps stops wind-blown rain getting in at the eaves. None of it is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a roof lasting twenty years and one that’s leaking by year six.
One more thing the church project shows: they’re doing the lot while the scaffold’s up. Chimney flashings, fascias, the dry verge fixings. Devon westerlies find every loose verge cap, so we’d fix those mechanically rather than relying on mortar alone. And because the scaffold is a big slice of the bill on a smaller house, doing it all in one go saves money.
If your roof needs a proper look, Bailey & Sons Roofing are a family-run firm covering Exeter and the surrounding Devon villages. Have a look at the work on their website at https://rooferexeter.co.uk/ or give them a ring for a straight, honest quote on new roofing in Exeter.