The example here is a stone roof, which is common on many properties around the Cotswolds region. The stone does have a rough appearance, common with hand-cut materials, but these roofs are remarkably resilient once installed properly and the stone can commonly be found to be over 200 years old and still going strong. The example roof shown here is on a Grade II listed private house in Tetbury. EK West was asked to survey the roof, advise on likely repairs and how much longer the stone is expected to last, or if it was beyond its life expectancy.
We provided a specification of works after examining the condition from a close-up drone survey and using access ladders.
The work came about through a recommendation and is for a private client. They lived in the house for several years before purchasing it after the 2020 Covid lockdown. The project involves a major refurbishment of the property’s exterior and some internal changes. The roof repairs involve the replacement of cracked and slipped stone slates. One visible difference is that each row of stone gets smaller towards the ridge unlike modern roofs that have universal width roof tiles. The cost to do repair work is around 15-20% more than traditional pitched roofs as the material has to be locally sourced and sequenced correctly. However, local roofers will often use salvaged stone slate ensuring that the repairs are sympathetic preserving its character. A new stone slate roof is over 50% more in cost than the equivalent cost of a ‘regular’ slate roof so it is important for us to be sure that the stone has the required longevity.
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