Arts and Crafts houses
Spelthorne's 2024 appraisal says Arts and Crafts influence is particularly common across the conservation area.
Roofers in Laleham
Roofs along Thames Side, from weatherboarded boathouses to Arts and Crafts houses
Laleham's conservation area appraisal notes Arts and Crafts houses, tall brick walls and pitched-roof boathouses on Thames Side. We survey each roof and write up the evidence.
Laleham's roofs, house to boathouse
Pitched boathouse roofs
Many Thames Side houses keep a simple boathouse, a pitched-roof weatherboarded structure with side-hung doors.
A thatched Abbey Drive cottage
Abbey Drive has a thatched cottage the appraisal calls unique in the conservation area.
Map of Laleham with Chertsey, Thorpe, Staines-upon-Thames, Ashford marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Laleham, on the Thames between Staines and Shepperton
Chertsey lies to the south-west, Thorpe to the west, Staines-upon-Thames to the north-west, Ashford to the north-east, Shepperton to the south-east and Upper Halliford to the east.
About 19.2 road miles north-east of Farnborough · Spelthorne Borough Council and Surrey County Council.
Where we can help in Laleham
Laleham, Thames Side roofs
Laleham's roofs, Thames Side and the 2024 appraisal
Which councils and rules sit behind a Laleham roof job, what help exists for roof costs, and what the 2024 conservation area appraisal says about the village's houses, boundary walls and boathouses.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Spelthorne, Surrey and help with roof costs | No national grant for a new roof |
| 02 | Arnold's Laleham and its Grade I church | All Saints Grade I, 20 listings nearby |
| 03 | Boathouses, brick walls and a thatched cottage | Boathouses: pitched roof, weatherboard |
Chapter 01 of 03
Spelthorne, Surrey and help with roof costs
| Subject | Position for Laleham addresses |
|---|---|
| Planning authority | Spelthorne Borough Council |
| Building control | Spelthorne's own team |
| Highway authority | Surrey County Council (until 31 March 2027) |
| From 1 April 2027 | West Surrey Council replaces both councils |
| Article 4 directions | Check with Spelthorne for your address |
Laleham is a Thames-side village on level gravel ground between Staines and Shepperton. Spelthorne leads on planning here and has a building control team of its own, while the roads stay with Surrey County Council until 31 March 2027, when West Surrey Council succeeds both. Check whether an Article 4 direction applies with Spelthorne. We put that question to the council for your address before pricing any alteration, and the council's reply is kept beside the survey photographs, which settles the planning position before anything is booked.
Help with the cost of a roof
A brand-new roof attracts no national grant. Schemes that do exist deal with energy and adaptation, and their terms change over time. ECO4 runs until 31 December 2026. Installations under the Great British Insulation Scheme had to be complete by 31 March 2026, when that scheme closed. The Warm Homes: Local Grant covers insulation, and its page says household income must usually be £36,000 a year or less. Disabled Facilities Grants pay for adaptations.
Whether you qualify is for each scheme to decide, and the rules shift from year to year, so check the current terms before you commit to a plan. If insulation is part of your roof plan, ask the scheme or your council before work starts. Schemes of this kind generally look at the home and the household first, and a roofer's price comes second.
The figure25%of the envelope and 50 per cent of the roof: the Planning Portal's two re-roof limits25% envelope50% roofSource: Planning Portal
What we can do is shape the survey around the question. If you are planning insulation, we photograph the roof space, note the rafters and the eaves, and record the access, so the person assessing your home has real information instead of a guess, and so the insulation can be planned with the roof, not around it.
Re-roofing and scaffold
Spelthorne states no re-roofing percentage, and the Planning Portal's national test applies: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, and building control is not normally needed. Scaffold standing on road or pavement is licensed by Surrey County Council at £208 for each 28-day period. Riverside lanes can be narrow, so access is planned during the visit, before any date is given, and you receive the plan in writing.
Chapter 02 of 03
Arnold's Laleham and its Grade I church
Laleham: people, church and records
- 2,522residents, ONS Census 2021, Laleham built-up area
- Grade IChurch of All Saints (NHLE 1298923)
- 1819 to 1828years Thomas Arnold lived at Laleham
- 20listed buildings within about 500 m of the village
In 1911 the Victoria County History of Middlesex called Laleham a typical lower-Thames river village. A new street of small villas had been built towards the river, with a few bungalow-type houses facing the tow-path. Thomas Arnold lived at Laleham from 1819 to 1828, and his son Matthew Arnold was born there in 1822 and is buried in the churchyard. The 2021 Census counted 2,522 people in the built-up area.
All Saints holds the top listing grade, Grade I, and the National Heritage List counts 20 listed buildings within about 500 metres of the village centre. Church Farmhouse, Cambridge and the Red Cottage, and Dial House with its neighbours are each listed Grade II.
The church, and everything else
Because All Saints is still used for Anglican worship, the ecclesiastical exemption applies, and roof works go through the faculty system instead of listed building consent from Spelthorne. The church's own authorities grant or refuse a faculty after the work has been described to them. For every other listed building, listed building consent applies, and the owner or their agent applies.
Laleham was designated a conservation area in December 1971 and reviewed in 1991, and Spelthorne's current appraisal was prepared in March 2024. The two layers interact. A listed house in a conservation area needs listed building consent for anything that touches its character, and the conservation area adds a check on how it looks from the street.
What this means for a roof is practical. The photographs we take at survey, of the covering, the ridge, the chimney and the flashings, are the record. If a repair matches the existing roof exactly, the record shows it. If it does not, the record shows what changed, and Spelthorne's planning team can see it. A river village with so many listed buildings, and a conservation area on top, is exactly where a clear record saves time.
We keep survey notes for each house in a form that can go straight to a planning officer or a heritage adviser, so a consent application is based on evidence, not memory. A short written method sits alongside the photographs: what will be taken off, what will be put back, and what will be matched.
Chapter 03 of 03
Boathouses, brick walls and a thatched cottage
| Feature | What the appraisal records |
|---|---|
| Arts and Crafts influence | Particularly common across the conservation area |
| Boundary walls | Tall brick walls, a characteristic feature of the village |
| Thames Side boathouses | Simple, pitched-roof weatherboarded structures with side-hung doors |
| Abbey Drive | A thatched cottage, unique in the conservation area |
| Conservation area | Designated December 1971 |
Spelthorne's 2024 appraisal gives Laleham a clear set of features. Arts and Crafts influence is particularly common across the conservation area, tall brick boundary walls are a characteristic of the village, and many houses on Thames Side keep a simple boathouse, a pitched-roof weatherboarded structure with side-hung doors. Abbey Drive has a thatched cottage that the appraisal says is unique in the conservation area.
These are descriptions of the conservation area's character, so nothing is assumed from the street about any one house. It does tell us what a repair here must respect: how the roof reads from the lane, the line of the boundary walls and the small outbuildings along the river.
Boathouse and outbuilding roofs
A boathouse is a small building with a simple pitched roof, but it stands close to the water, and its roof takes the same weather as the house. A boathouse roof can be re-covered like any other small pitched roof, and the work is usually a smaller job than the house roof. The survey covers it alongside the house, so a leak in the boathouse is found while we are already on site. Weatherboarded walls need a look too, because a split board at the eaves lets water in just as a slipped tile does. Where a boathouse has been turned into a shed or garage, as the appraisal notes many have, the roof still needs the same care: a sound ridge, secure verges and a gutter that carries water away from the boards.
Outbuildings of this kind sometimes carry a felt covering, and published lives for felt vary. HomeBuilding gives felt 10 to 15 years on a flat roof and Less gives 10 to 20 years. A small pitched building may be different, and we name the covering and its condition on each, with a photograph of the ridge, the eaves and the edge where the roof meets the wall.
A conservation area asks questions first
In Laleham, anything that changes how a visible roof looks goes to Spelthorne's planning team first. That includes the covering, the ridge, a stack and the roof line of a boathouse that can be seen from the water or the tow-path. If your plan alters a roof's look, we ask before pricing and give you the council's answer in writing. A thatched cottage down the road is a reminder that this village keeps its individual roofs, and a repair should respect them.
Our pitched roofing page explains tile repairs, and the flat roofing page covers the felt and membrane roofs found on extensions and garages.
Laleham roof questions, from Thames Side to the church
The pitched boathouse roof at the end of my Laleham garden is leaking: is that a job for you?
Yes, a boathouse roof is part of the survey. We photograph the covering and the weatherboarded walls beneath it, explain what is failing and price the repair in writing. Because the roof is small, a repair can be a modest job, and where the evidence supports that, you are told and given the photographs.
Does Laleham's conservation area stop me re-covering a visible roof?
It does not stop you, but a change to the covering, ridge or stack is judged on how it looks, so we ask Spelthorne's planning team first and share the reply. The area was designated in December 1971, and the 2024 appraisal sets out its features. Matching repairs keep the look, and we tell you before work starts if yours would not.
Which consent route covers a roof repair at All Saints, Laleham?
Listed Grade I, All Saints remains in Anglican use, so the ecclesiastical exemption applies and the faculty system, not Spelthorne's listed building consent, governs roof work. A faculty is decided by the church's own authorities, and other listed buildings in the village follow listed building consent.
Who licenses scaffold on a Laleham road?
Surrey County Council, as highway authority, until 31 March 2027, when West Surrey Council takes over. Its licence costs £208 for each 28-day period, with 10 working days' notice needed. Surrey's page is silent on which party files the form, so we settle that with the scaffolding firm and give you the dates in writing.
Roofs we survey around Laleham and Staines
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Send your Laleham address and a note of the leak; we will photograph each slope and any boathouse.
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