Shirley · CR0
Roof Repairs In Shirley
Trees over your Shirley roof, and water coming in through the extension?
Moss, gutter and flat roof repairs for Shirley's interwar and postwar houses
Shirley gets more shade than most of Croydon, and you can see it on the roofs. The roads climbing from Wickham Road up towards Shirley Hills and the Addington Hills are full of big trees, so leaves land in the gutters for most of the year and moss gets a grip on any slope facing north. The houses underneath are mostly interwar and postwar semis and detached homes in concrete tile. The tiles are rarely what's wrong. The flat-roofed rear extension or garage, added decades after the house, very often is, and blocked gutters and moss make both worse.
Free roof survey in Shirley
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
The people behind it
A brothers' business for Shirley homes
In Shirley a pitched tile roof often comes with a flat-roofed extension or garage on the back, which is really two jobs on one house. Roof Repairs Croydon is a family business run by brothers John and Mark, and the two of them often put a quote together side by side.
They've always got on, which helps when two roofs need one sensible plan. Customers tell us it's refreshing to have two contacts who both know the job, so you're rarely left waiting on one person.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Shirley lives under the trees
Shirley was farmland and heath until builders arrived in the 1920s and 30s and laid out roads of semis and detached houses on the slopes between Wickham Road and the woods. Spring Park and Monks Orchard filled in around the same time and after the war. Most people buy here for the green: Addington Hills, Shirley Heath and the woods towards West Wickham are all close, and plenty of gardens back onto big trees. Families tend to stay put, so most houses have been extended, some more than once.
Trees and extensions account for most of the roof work here. Shade keeps a north slope damp, moss grows thick, and its roots lift tile edges before it washes down into the gutters as a sludge that blocks the outlets. Then there's the flat roof at the back. Many were felted when they went on and have been patched since. Standing water, splits where the roof meets the wall and rotten deck boards at the edges are all routine. A leak in the kitchen of a Shirley semi comes from the extension far more often than from the main roof.
Roof repairs Shirley asks for most
Flat Roof Repairs
Rear extensions and garages are where we find most Shirley leaks. We check the deck, the falls and the wall junction before suggesting felt, EPDM or GRP.
Read more about flat roof repairs in ShirleyGuttering
Under this much tree cover, gutters fill with leaves and washed-down moss well before the usual annual clear. We empty them, refix sagging runs and fit guards only where they actually help.
Read more about guttering in ShirleyStorm Damage Repairs
When a gale brings a limb down off an oak or a pine onto a Shirley roof, we make it watertight that day and photograph everything for your insurer before the proper repair.
Read more about storm damage repairs in ShirleyThose three come up most on Shirley roofs. Everything else in the services menu is covered here as well.
Roof repairs that allow for Shirley's trees
A roof under a canopy behaves differently from one sitting in open sun. That should shape the repair, and how often you need anyone back.
Moss removed gently
We scrape moss off by hand and treat the slope. A pressure washer forces water up under concrete tiles and strips their surface. Then we work out why that slope stays damp.
Gutters cleared at the right time
In Shirley one clear a year often isn't enough. We suggest timings based on the trees over your house, usually after the main leaf fall and again in spring.
Flat roofs diagnosed, not just painted
A coating rolled over a wet deck just seals the water in. We check whether the boards underneath are sound before choosing between a repair and a new covering.
Branch damage recorded for insurers
If a limb comes down, you get dated photographs and a written cause, which is what most insurers want. We also flag any protected tree so nobody cuts what they shouldn't.
Access planned around the garden
Tight side passages, mature planting and protected trees all limit where a ladder or tower can stand. We sort that out on the visit so the price doesn't move on the day.
"When someone in Shirley rings about a leak at the back of the house, it's usually the flat-roofed extension at fault, not the main tiled roof above it."
Based on Shirley jobs handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
A roof repair in Shirley, step by step
Ring, or send a photo
A picture from the pavement or the back garden is often enough to tell whether this is a today job or one that can sensibly wait until next week.
The free visit
We walk the main roof and the flat roof, note which slopes sit in shade, check the gutters and outlets for moss build-up, and look at the extension's deck from underneath wherever we can reach it.
What failed, and what let it
Before any figure is mentioned you hear what has gone wrong and the reason it went, with photographs from the roof and from the loft side.
A fixed price on paper
Each item on its own line. Scaffold or a tower, if one is needed at all, sits separately so you can hold it up against anyone else's quote.
The repair itself
Moss scraped off by hand, gutters and outlets cleared, cracked or lifted tiles replaced, and the flat roof patched or recovered on a sound deck, with the junction against the house wall properly dressed.
Signed off
Photographs of the finished work, gutters cleared of anything the job dropped into them, and the 10 year guarantee in writing before anyone leaves Shirley.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
What to do in Shirley
Nothing to do with roofs. Three places worth an afternoon if you live here or are thinking of moving in.
Shirley Windmill
A five-storey brick tower mill built in 1854 to replace a post mill lost to fire, and now Grade II listed. Volunteers open it to visitors on selected Sundays through the summer and over the Open House weekend in September.
View on Google Maps - Shirley Windmill
Addington Hills
Around 130 acres of woodland on a gravel ridge above Shirley, with London's largest stretch of heathland in the middle. The viewing platform looks across Croydon towards central London.
View on Google Maps - Addington Hills
Shirley Heath
Ancient woodland and heath along Shirley Church Road, a surviving piece of the much larger Spring Park Wood that was cleared for houses and a golf course in the early 1900s. The London Loop walking route passes through it.
View on Google Maps - Shirley HeathWhere Shirley sits on our patch
From our base on Penwortham Road, CR2 0QS: about 12 minutes. Planning and building control here sit with London Borough of Croydon.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Other towns we cover, and what we do there
The same services and the same guarantee apply across every town below, from the Norbury end of the borough down to Caterham.
Roof repair costs in Shirley
Most Shirley houses have plain hipped or gabled roofs in concrete tile, so the main roof rarely runs up a big bill. The extras come from the trees and the extension. A thickly mossed slope takes longer to clear properly. A flat roof with a soft deck needs new boards before any covering goes on. Getting a ladder or tower past a narrow side passage, a greenhouse or a protected tree can add time too.
Read the cost guideShirley roof repair questions
Do I need Croydon Council's permission for roof repairs in Shirley?
For ordinary like-for-like work, no. Shirley comes under the London Borough of Croydon, and replacing tiles, recovering a flat roof in a similar material or clearing gutters doesn't need planning permission. The trees are the likelier snag. Many residential roads here have protected trees, and you need the council's consent before cutting back a protected tree, even one hanging over your roof. Shirley Windmill is a listed building, but that only affects the mill.
When should I get the gutters cleared on a house under trees?
Twice a year is sensible if branches hang over the roof: once in late autumn when the leaves are down, and again in spring after catkins, seed cases and a winter's worth of moss have washed in. Pine needles are a nuisance in their own right because they knit into a mat over the outlets. If water pours over the front of the gutter in heavy rain, it's blocked, whatever the calendar says.
Should I have the moss pressure-washed off my roof?
We'd advise against it. A pressure washer drives water under the tiles and can strip the surface off concrete tiles, which leaves them more absorbent and helps the moss come back sooner. Scraping by hand and applying a biocide is slower and kinder. On a slope that sits under trees, expect some moss to return. The aim is to stop it building up enough to block gutters and lift tile edges.
My flat-roofed extension keeps leaking. Can it be repaired, or does it need replacing?
It depends on the deck. If the boards underneath are dry and firm, a split, a blister or a failed edge can usually be repaired. If the deck flexes underfoot, or the ceiling below is stained in several places, water has been getting in for a while and a new covering on new boards is the honest answer. We check from above and below before telling you which.
Leaves in the gutter, water in the kitchen?
Both have a cause we can find. Book a free visit and we'll come out to Shirley, look at the main roof, the gutters and the extension, and tell you what needs doing now and what can wait until the leaves are down.