Clapham
Flat Roofing in Clapham
Clapham was divided into flats earlier and more completely than most of south London, and its flat roofs inherited the arrangement. Over a back addition, the covering is one household’s roof and another household’s ceiling, which makes ownership the first question and the fault the second. We answer the second in writing so somebody can settle the first.
Or call us on 07593 196505
The district
What Clapham actually covers
Old Town and its Georgian survivors, the long north side of Clapham Common, the Abbeville grid, Clapham North towards the Brixton boundary and Clapham Park stretching south. Two commons, a great many stucco fronts, and behind almost all of them the workaday additions nobody photographs. Clapham Junction, despite the name, is a mile north in Battersea.
Local stock
The roofs of Clapham
- Terraces converted into flats. A back addition carrying two or three homes puts the covering between leaseholds, and water arriving in the flat underneath tells you nothing about which one owns it. The way out is evidence rather than argument: a written condition report with photographs, addressed to whoever has to make the decision.
- Old Town and Common-side villas. The larger houses hide small flat areas between pitched slopes and behind parapets, often still in lead that has served its time and split along a fold. Renewing those without disturbing the visible roof is detail work, which is where cold-applied liquid waterproofing earns its place around awkward abutments.
- Purpose-built blocks and the Clapham Park estates. Interwar mansion flats and post-war blocks carry communal coverings that belong to a freeholder or a residents’ company rather than to anybody living under them, which is exactly the fabric that repays a maintenance programme over reacting to whichever flat reports it first.
The wider area
The wide shot: Lambeth
Clapham is the north-western corner of a borough that runs down to Streatham and up to the river: the whole Lambeth picture. What concentrates here is division of ownership, so more of the work starts with a document than with a ladder. Leaseholders, freeholders and managing agents get the same report, which is the point of writing one.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
The flat roof above our flat belongs to the one upstairs. Who pays for the repair?
The lease decides that, and it is worth reading before anybody is instructed. We can settle the technical half: an inspection with photographs of what has failed and where, written so a freeholder or managing agent can act on it. We do not interpret leases or apportion cost, because that is not a roofer’s job.
Is Clapham Junction in Clapham?
No, and it catches people out. The station sits in Battersea, in SW11, roughly a mile north of Clapham Old Town. An address nearer the Junction than the Common belongs on our Battersea page instead. Everything from the Old Town, Abbeville, Clapham North and Clapham Park is Clapham proper and belongs here.
We are in a conservation area near the Common. Does that rule out a new covering?
Almost never, because the roofs in question are rarely the ones anybody can see. The protected face of a Clapham terrace is the front elevation and the roofline above it; the flat work is out of sight at the back, on additions and on whatever was added after them. Anything that would alter what the street sees needs the council asked first, not told afterwards.
A flat roof problem in Clapham?
Tell us the address and which floor the water is showing on.
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.