Roofers in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, guaranteed for 20 years

Roofers in Welwyn Garden City: a planned town needs a careful roofer

Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1920, with a neo-Georgian town centre and tree-lined boulevards, and Louis de Soissons as its architect and planner. Every street was designed, and the roofs were part of the design. That makes a Welwyn Garden City job different from a standard suburb: the roof has to match the street as well as keep the rain out.

Our office at 59 Union Street, Dunstable is about 22 miles from the town, and about 19 from Hatfield. We quote both, with the same free, no obligation visit and the same 20 year written guarantee.

Neo-Georgian roofs: how the garden city house is built

The early neighbourhoods of Welwyn Garden City, among them Handside, Howlands and Sherrards in AL7 and AL8, are built in brick, in pairs and short terraces, with steep hipped roofs in clay tile and chimney stacks set to a pattern. The proportions are Georgian, the materials are local, and the details are consistent across a street.

The ageing shows in the same few places. Clay tile slips at the hips, ridge mortar dries and drops, lead flashings crack at the stacks, and timber fascia boards rot behind the gutters. We repair these roofs with matched clay tile, re-bedded ridge and hip, renewed lead and sound timber, so the street still reads as one design. See tiled roofing and lead work.

Scheme of management and conservation area: what they mean for your roof

Much of Welwyn Garden City sits within a conservation area, and a scheme of management applies to many properties in addition to planning permission. The scheme exists to keep the town's character, and it covers visible changes to a house, roofs included.

Like-for-like roof work, with the same tile and the same ridge, is the core of what we do. Tell us your address when you request the quote, and any consent or planning authority charge appears as its own line in the quote.

Panshanger, Peartree and the later neighbourhoods

Peartree and Woodhall are interwar, and Panshanger to the north-west was added in the 1960s and 1970s. These Welwyn Garden City homes are plain brick under concrete or clay tile, with flat-roofed garages and porches, and they need what every estate roof of that age needs: new felt, a dry verge, new fascias and guttering, and renewed flat roofs.

A full new roof with breathable membrane, new battens and a dry verge is the answer on a roof past fifty, with flat roofing for the garage or extension in the same visit. The scaffold goes up once.

Hatfield: Old Hatfield, the New Town and the estates (AL9, AL10)

Hatfield grew around the gates of Hatfield House, and Old Hatfield keeps the Old Palace, St Etheldreda's Church and Georgian and Victorian houses along its streets, in clay tile and slate. The rest of the town is post-war: a New Town built from the late 1940s with 1950s modernist buildings, and estates such as Hollybush, Roe Green, Hatfield Hyde, Birchwood and Bishops Rise.

Roofers in Welwyn Garden City who work in Hatfield meet two very different jobs. In Old Hatfield, slate and clay tile are repaired like for like, with lead and chimney work done to match. On the estates, the roofs are brick houses under concrete tile and flat roofs on porches and garages, which we strip, re-felt and re-tile.

Tree-lined boulevards, shade and moss

Welwyn Garden City kept its trees, and the boulevards and hedged gardens that make it attractive also shade the roofs. Shaded clay tile grows moss and lichen, leaf litter blocks gutters, and a blocked gutter soaks the fascia and the brickwork beneath. A moss-covered roof holds water against the tile through the winter.

We offer roof cleaning and moss removal, clear and renew guttering, and replace fascias and soffits where the timber has gone. If the tiles beneath the moss are failing, we tell you so, and show you why.

Chimneys, hips and valleys: the detail on a garden city roof

A hipped roof has more ridge, more valley and more junctions than a plain gable, and a neo-Georgian house adds chimney stacks and sometimes dormers. Each junction is a place for water to enter, so we scaffold the elevation and inspect every one before we write the quote.

The result is one clear list: which ridge tiles to re-bed, which hips to repoint, which lead to renew and which stack to repoint or rebuild. See chimney repairs for the stack work.

Why Welwyn and Hatfield homeowners choose Doyle Homes

The record is public: TrustATrader 4.91 from 62 reviews and Google 4.7 from 23. We are fully insured, we complete a risk assessment before every job, and our free quotes carry no obligation. We will beat any written quote. All work is backed with a 20 year written guarantee.

For a leak, a blown tile or a cracked chimney, ask for roof repairs. We also cover Stevenage, St Albans, Harpenden and Hitchin, and our Hertfordshire page lists the rest.