Roofers in Hemel Hempstead: new town roofs, old town roofs, one 20 year guarantee

Roofers in Hemel Hempstead: a town designed in the 1940s

Hemel Hempstead was designated a New Town in 1947, and most of its houses were built in the twenty years that followed. That puts a large share of the town's roofs at sixty to seventy-five years old, laid in the same few materials by the same few builders. When one street has a problem, the next street is about to have it too. Roofing in Hemel Hempstead is mostly one era, so the weak points are known before the ladder goes up.

Our office at 59 Union Street, Dunstable is about 13 miles from Hemel Hempstead, so a roofer can look at your roof within days of your call. We quote what the roof needs and put the price in writing. For a Hemel Hempstead roof of any age, the first visit is free.

Adeyfield, Bennetts End and Chaulden: sixty-year-old new town roofs

Adeyfield (HP2) was the first Hemel Hempstead neighbourhood, planned with wider streets and more planting than the ones that followed. Bennetts End (HP3) and Chaulden (HP1) came next, with long terraces and smaller houses built to match the incomes of the workers moving out from London. Chaulden also holds a group of low cost houses, built lean.

The roofs on these streets are brick terraces and semis under concrete interlocking tiles, many with a timber fascia and barge board that has not been touched since the day the scaffold came down. At this age the tiles are tired, the felt under them has perished and the mortar bedding on ridges and verges has cracked.

A terrace has a shared roof, so we plan the work along the whole row where neighbours want to go together: one scaffold, one skip, and one crew finishing each house in turn. Read about a full new roof, or ask for a dry verge and ridge upgrade where the mortar has failed.

Gadebridge, Warners End, Highfield and Grovehill: the later neighbourhoods

Gadebridge and Warners End (HP1), Highfield and Grovehill (HP2) were built as budgets tightened, so the designs are plainer and more repetitive. There is less architectural variety but more of the same roof: the same pitch, the same tile, the same weakness at the verge and the same felt-covered porch over the front door.

Executive houses were built here too, such as the four-bedroom homes of Abel Close put up for senior factory staff, and those larger roofs have longer ridges and more valley to maintain. Whatever the house, we start with a roof inspection and photographs, so you see the problem before you agree the fix.

Boxmoor, Apsley and the Old Town

The older part of Hemel Hempstead sits beside the Grand Union Canal and the River Gade. Boxmoor (HP1) has Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas near the station, Apsley (HP3) grew around the Dickinson paper mills, and the Old Town High Street has its own conservation area with listed buildings and plain tile roofs.

On these streets the roof is clay tile or Welsh slate with lead flashings, and the repair is like for like. We match the tile, keep the ridge line and show any planning authority charge as its own line in the quote. Our work on tiled roofing and slate roofing covers both.

Flat-roofed porches, garages and extensions

Many new town houses have a flat roof somewhere: a porch canopy, a garage in a court, a kitchen extension from the 1980s. These felt roofs are cheap to build and fail at the edges, round the roof light and at the wall.

We fit new flat roofing in torch-on felt, EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass, and renew the lead at the wall so the junction holds. A customer who had a flat roof replaced wrote that the team arrived promptly, worked efficiently and kept the site clean.

• Porch and canopy roofs re-laid and edged
• Garage roofs renewed in felt, EPDM or GRP
• Roof lights re-kerbed and sealed
• Extension roofs dressed against the wall with new lead

Garage courts, footpaths and scaffold on new town streets

New town planners separated cars from pedestrians, so many Hemel Hempstead streets have garage courts, footpath links and front doors that face a green rather than a road. The van cannot always park where the scaffold needs to go, and the roof can be a long carry from the nearest bay.

Roofers in Hemel Hempstead earn their reputation on that detail. We walk the site, agree the scaffold position with you and your neighbours, and complete a risk assessment before work begins, so the job runs to the timetable we give you in the quote.

Roof repairs we are asked for most in Hemel

Most calls start with a stain on a ceiling or a tile on the lawn. The cause is rarely where the stain is, so we trace it before we quote.

Leaks round chimneys and lead

Stacks on terraces are shared, and the flashing and flaunching round them fail first. We renew the lead work and rebuild or repoint the stack under chimney repairs.

Slipped and cracked tiles

Wind lifts concrete tiles at the verge and eaves, and a wet roof does the rest. We replace the broken tiles, check the battens under them and tell you straight if the felt has gone as well.

Gutters and rooflines

Timber fascias on 1950s houses rot where the gutter has leaked for years. We fit new white uPVC fascias and soffits and renew guttering in the same visit.

Booking roofers in Hemel Hempstead

Doyle Homes is run as a family business, and the numbers show it: TrustATrader 4.91 from 62 reviews and Google 4.7 from 23. You get a free quote with no obligation, insured work and a promise to beat any written quote you hold. All work is backed with a 20 year written guarantee.

For a leak or a blown ridge, go to roof repairs in Hemel Hempstead. We also cover St Albans, Harpenden, Watford and Luton, so a neighbour or relative a few miles away can book with the same team. Use the free quote form, or call 01582 807949.