Balham
Flat Roofing in Balham
Balham went up quickly on narrow plots for a railway suburb, and a century later almost every one of those plots has had its side return filled in. So the flat roof causing trouble here is frequently the youngest thing on the house: a broad, shallow deck butting old brickwork on two sides, with glass let into it. We look at the detail before anyone talks about a new roof.
Or call us on 07593 196505
The district
What Balham actually covers
The High Road spine and its parades, Bedford Hill dropping to Tooting Bec, the Hyde Farm streets east of the common, the Heaver Estate’s red brick, and dense Edwardian grids either side. Narrow plots, long gardens, and back elevations extended at least once in nearly every street.
Local stock
The roofs of Balham
- Side return infills. Filling the alley beside the back addition produces a wide deck with very little fall, two edges against old wall and, more often than not, glazing set into the middle of it. The kerbs around that glazing are where this district leaks, which puts rooflight and kerb detailing ahead of the covering itself.
- Two roofs of different ages, one outlet. The original addition roof usually survives alongside the newer infill, joined at a level nobody planned, and both drain to a single rainwater point. When that arrangement backs up, the question is whether the boarding under either half is still sound, and that puts the deck and the structure first in the queue of things to establish.
- Parades on the High Road. Shops with flats over carry long, walked-on coverings hidden behind the parapet of the shopfront, with plant, aerials and extract sitting on them. Roofs reached through a trading unit are best handled with commercial site discipline rather than a ladder and hope.
The wider area
The wide shot: Wandsworth
Pull back and Balham is one corner of a borough reaching north-west to Putney: Wandsworth end to end. The pattern that repeats here is modern construction landing on Victorian fabric, which fails at the join rather than in the middle. That is why the survey looks hardest at edges.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Our side return extension leaks where it meets the old wall. Is that just the flashing?
Sometimes, and often it is what sits behind the flashing. An infill roof meets brickwork that was an outside wall for a century before anybody built against it. Where the upstand was dressed too low, or the mortar joint holding it has opened, water tracks in behind a flashing that looks perfectly sound from a ladder.
A rooflight in the extension is dripping. Does the whole roof need doing?
Usually not. Most of these are kerb problems rather than covering problems: the membrane turned up the kerb has been left short, or the unit sits on a kerb that was built too shallow for the covering to close under the frame. That is a detail repair, and it is worth establishing which it is before anybody quotes for a new roof.
Does the Heaver or Hyde Farm conservation area affect what can be done?
It affects the front of the house far more than the back. Those estates are protected as complete streetscapes, so what faces the road stays as built, while the flat work behind is ordinary construction and takes a modern membrane. Anything altering the street view goes to the council first.
A flat roof problem in Balham?
Infill extension, rooflight kerb or a roof over a shop: which is it?
We need a little more before we can send that: a name, the postcode of the roof, what is happening with it, and either a phone number or an email address.
Sorry, that did not send. What you wrote is still here, so press send again when you have a signal. If it will not go, ring 07593 196505 or email office@pluvian.uk.
That has come through a few times already. If the first one did not arrive, ring us instead or email office@pluvian.uk and we will pick it up from there.
Coming out and pricing the work is free; a written condition survey carries a fee, agreed before the visit and taken off the price of the work if you go ahead.