Roofers in Farnborough, Hampshire

Layers of housing in one borough

Farnborough sits in Rushmoor, in the north-east of Hampshire close to the Surrey border. The borough was formed in 1974, bringing Aldershot and Farnborough together, and the council's Conservation Areas Overview of June 2025 is the clearest public record of how the town's streets were built. The panel above takes its dates from that document and nothing else.

The oldest part of Farnborough grew around Farnborough Street, where parts of St Peter's Church date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The railway arrived in 1838, and a second station followed in the village centre in 1849. After the army came to Aldershot in 1854, North Camp took shape at the southern end of the town, and the Farnborough Cottage Company, set up in 1863, laid out much of North Camp and South Farnborough. The council records that the principal roads there were in place by 1874. Early in the twentieth century, suburban commuter housing spread out from the Farnborough Street crossroads. Cove gained new housing in the 1950s and 1960s, and Southwood followed in the 1980s.

What the age of a street tells us, and what it does not

The year a house was built does not tell you what is on its roof today. A house from the 1870s may be on its second or third covering, and a 1980s roof may already have had its ridge re-bedded or its garage re-covered. So we never price a roof from the street name. We go up, look at the covering, the battens (the timber strips the tiles hang on) and the underlay, and photograph what we find.

Age still matters, because published lifespans show where a roof sits in its working life. HomeBuilding gives Welsh slate 100+ years and clay tiles 60-80 years. For concrete tiles the sources differ: HomeBuilding gives plain concrete 40-50 years, while Marley says its roof tiles are expected to last around 60 years and adds that this is not a guarantee. A 1950s Cove house that still carries its first concrete tiles would be past one of those ranges and close to the other. That is a reason to look closely, not a reason to re-roof.

On older streets we pay close attention to the details as well as the slates and tiles: lead valleys, chimney flashings, and the battens and nails underneath. Our pitched roofing work covers those repairs, and our guide on whether roof battens need replacing explains what we look for in the timber. Rushmoor has nine designated conservation areas, including South Farnborough, Farnborough Street, Farnborough Hill and St Michael's Abbey, so on those streets we check the consent route before any change of material.

Building Regulations and a re-roof

The national test comes from the Planning Portal. A re-roof does not normally need a building control application if less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope (walls, floor, roof, windows and doors) is affected and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Approval is needed if the new covering is significantly different in fire performance, or heavier by the margin the card with this chapter explains. That matters if you are thinking of swapping concrete tiles for slate or clay.

The building control page that serves both Rushmoor and Hart points people to the Planning Portal guides and sets no threshold of its own. The Hart and Rushmoor Building Control Partnership works from Rushmoor's offices in Farnborough, on 01252 398715. Elsewhere the councils word it differently. Bracknell Forest Council lists replacing roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs among work that may need approval, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council uses similar wording, and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead lists re-tiling or re-felting a roof. So for addresses in those boroughs we check with the council before a re-roof. Owners can also use a registered building control approver instead of the council.

The figureUnder 25 per cent of the envelope

Planning, conservation areas and Article 4

Planning is a separate question. Class C of the permitted development rules covers other alterations to the roof of a house, which includes re-roofing, so a new covering on a house rarely needs planning permission. Listed homes keep their Class B and C rights but need listed building consent for work that affects their character. A new roof window on a side slope must be obscure-glazed in every case, and can only open if the opening parts are more than 1.7 metres above the floor of the room. Roof windows and skylights have their own page under roof windows and skylights.

Conservation areas and Article 4 directions add another layer. In Rushmoor, the Cargate direction in Aldershot covers putting up, altering or removing a chimney or flue where it can be seen from a highway or open space, and the Wellesley direction covers antennas on a roof slope facing a highway. Hart's 1998 directions cover frontage roof slopes and chimneys across most of its conservation areas, and Guildford says you cannot remove or alter a chimney without permission where a direction applies. On article 2(3) land, such as a conservation area or a National Landscape, a dormer is not permitted development. Elsewhere, check whether an Article 4 direction applies with your council before you change a chimney or the look of a roof.