Henleaze Roofing Company
Local roofers for Henleaze, Westbury-on-Trym, Westbury Park and the surrounding areas. Repairs, re-roofs, flat roofs and leadwork, quoted in writing and backed by a 20 year written guarantee.
A suburb built in two waves, and roofs to match
Henleaze grew in two bursts. Land between Henleaze Road and Durdham Down was sold for building in 1896, which is why the streets nearest the Downs carry Edwardian houses with gables, tile-hanging and tall stacks. Most of the rest went up in the 1920s housing boom. Two eras, two ways of building, and a roof from one does not fail in the same places as a roof from the other.
We have been roofing for twenty years. When you call, you talk to the person who will come and look at your roof, and the quote you get is written down, itemised and fixed.
More about us
What you actually get
20 year written guarantee
A document, not a promise on the phone. It says what is covered, for how long and what you need to do to keep it valid. Read how it works.
A diagnosis before a price
We find where the water is getting in before we quote to fix it. Photos of what we found come with the quote.
Fixings to the current standard
Tiles and slates are fixed to BS 5534, the British Standard for slating and tiling, so the repair holds in the same wind that loosened the original.
Planning checked first
Part of Henleaze sits inside The Downs Conservation Area. We check what that means for your house before work is booked, not after.
Roofing services across Henleaze and north Bristol
Roof Repairs
Slipped or cracked tiles, failed ridge mortar, leaking valleys and flashings, traced to the cause before anything is replaced.
Read more ›Re-Roofing
Full strip and re-cover with new membrane, battens and fixings when the roof has genuinely reached the end, not before.
Read more ›Flat Roofs & EPDM
Rear extensions, dormers and garages in single-piece EPDM rubber, with properly detailed edges and outlets.
Read more ›Leadwork
Chimney flashings, valleys, bay roofs and dormer cheeks in rolled lead, sized and fixed so it can move.
Read more ›Guttering, Fascias & Soffits
Leaking joints, sagging runs and rotten boards replaced, so rainwater actually leaves the roof.
Read more ›Emergency Repairs
Water coming through a ceiling or a storm-lifted ridge: we make it safe the same day where we can.
Read more ›Three things that shape roofs in Henleaze
A conservation area on the doorstep
Henleaze Avenue, Henleaze Gardens and part of Westbury Road fall within The Downs Conservation Area, and the council has added an Article 4 direction there covering front boundary walls. If scaffolding or a skip needs a wall taken down, that is a planning question first.
Older than it looks in places
Listed buildings survive inside Henleaze itself, among them The Old Lodge on Henleaze Road, a cottage ornée under thatch, and Greystone House on The Drive, built of Lias rubble under a hipped roof. Listed roofs need listed building consent for most changes.
Weather from the south-west
Met Office records for south-west England show most wind, and nearly all of the strongest wind, arrives from between south and north-west. Bristol sees about twelve or thirteen wet days a month in winter. Ridges, verges and flashings on the weather side take that first.
Built on limestone
Henleaze sits on the limestone of the higher ground around the Downs. Henleaze Lake is a former limestone quarry, allowed to flood after it stopped working early in the twentieth century.
Henleaze and the surrounding areas
Neighbourhood guides: Westbury-on-Trym, Westbury Park and Southmead. Just outside this list? Ring us anyway, we work across the city and surrounding areas.
Roofing in Henleaze: a local guide
Two eras, two sets of problems
The Edwardian houses on the Downs side, around Downs Park and Downleaze, were designed with complicated roofs: cross gables, tile-hung attic storeys, bays and diagonally set chimney stacks. Historic England describes Ashbourne House at the top of Henleaze Road, built in 1904, in exactly those terms. Every one of those features is a junction, and junctions are where water gets in: valley gutters between gables, lead soakers against tile-hanging, flashings around a stack.
The interwar streets that make up most of Henleaze were built more quickly and more simply. We will not tell you what your roof is made of before we have seen it, because houses of the same age here were finished in different materials and many have been re-covered since. What we can say is that a roof approaching a hundred years old has usually had at least one round of patching, and the patches are often where the next leak starts.
Conservation areas and listed buildings
Part of Henleaze falls within The Downs Conservation Area, and next door Westbury-on-Trym and Cotham & Redland are conservation areas in their own right. In a conservation area, changing the look of a roof can need permission that an ordinary house would not. For a like-for-like repair it usually does not, but a change of material, new rooflights on a front slope or a dormer is a different matter. We check before we quote, and we will tell you if you need to speak to the council first.
Geology underfoot
Henleaze sits on the limestone that forms the higher ground around the Downs. Henleaze Lake was a working limestone quarry until early in the twentieth century before it was allowed to flood. The few pre-suburban buildings that survive, such as The Old Lodge, are built of local rubble stone.
Repair or replace?
Most of the time the honest answer is repair. A slipped tile, a cracked ridge joint or a tired flashing is a morning’s work. We recommend a re-roof only when the covering or the battens underneath have failed across the slope, and we show you the photographs that led us there.
Getting a quote
Ring 0800 494 7291, or send a few photos and a description, and we will arrange a visit. Quotes are free, written and itemised. See the cost guide for what moves the price.
Sources for the local detail on this page: Historic England: Ashbourne House (1413906), The Old Lodge (1282261), Greystone House (1282107), Bristol City Council Article 4 direction, Henleaze, Met Office south-west England climate, Henleaze Swimming Club: story of the lake.
Get your free, no-obligation quote
Tell us what is happening with your roof. You will speak to the roofer who would do the job, and the quote comes in writing.