Rushmoor's own history of the borough reads like a timeline of roofs. There is the old centre around Farnborough Street, the streets laid out from the 1860s at North Camp and South Farnborough, the commuter housing of the early twentieth century, the Cove estates of the 1950s and 1960s, and Southwood in the 1980s. Each period left a stock of houses, and each has reached a different point in its life.
We cannot tell you what your roof is made of from a street name, and nobody can. Houses have been re-roofed, extended and patched over the decades, so the covering you can see may be much younger than the walls under it. What the age of a street can do is tell you which questions are worth asking: how old a roof might be, whether the ridge was laid before the fixing rules changed, and whether the house is old enough to raise the asbestos question.
This post goes through the eras in turn, using dates from Rushmoor and typical lifespans from published guides. Those lifespans are ranges, not promises. Use the post to decide what to look at, then arrange a survey of the roof itself.
Farnborough Street and the oldest streets
In Rushmoor's account, Farnborough's oldest quarter lies around Farnborough Street, and the town's name is thought to come from an Old English word for a hill of ferns. The conservation area covering Farnborough Street was designated in 2025, so if your house sits in or beside it, the roof is part of a street the council has chosen to protect.
What age does to a roof like this
A building that has stood for a very long time has almost certainly had its roof covering renewed at least once, often in a different material from the original. So the age of the walls tells you little about the age of the tiles. What matters is when the covering was last laid and how it was fixed.
In HomeBuilding's table (updated 30 September 2025), clay tile runs to 60-80 years and Welsh slate to 100+. Neither figure covers the battens, nails and underlay beneath, which can give up while the covering above still looks sound.
Consent comes first
In a conservation area, permitted development for dormers is withdrawn, and a listed house, which keeps its Class B and C rights, still needs listed building consent for any change to its character. A house outside those controls can normally be re-roofed under Class C. Ask Rushmoor's planning team before any work is priced, because the answer can change which materials you may use.
On an older house our survey records the ridge, both verges, each valley and every flashing, and notes anything that points to an earlier repair, such as a patch of newer tile among old. Those photographs go to you, so the findings can be checked against the roof by anyone, including a second roofer.
North Camp and South Farnborough: the 1860s streets
Rushmoor's overview says the army arrived in Aldershot in 1854 and that North Camp grew up at the southern end of Farnborough as a result. The Farnborough Cottage Company dates from 1863, and by 1874 the principal roads were in place. South Farnborough is a conservation area, designated in 1987 and revised in 2025.
Counting the years
A roof laid when those streets went up would now be about 150 years old. Slate and clay can reach that age in the right conditions, since HomeBuilding gives Welsh slate 100+ years, but nobody should count on it, and many roofs have been re-covered since. If the covering has been renewed, the question becomes how old the renewal is and how well it was done.
Parts that wear out first
- Lead flashings and valleys. For lead flashing, MyJobQuote's figure is over 80 years as a minimum, so a flashing older than that deserves a close look.
- Chimneys. Flaunching, the mortar cap around the pot, and the flashing at the stack are the usual weak points on any stack this old.
- Battens and fixings. They are out of sight and age at their own rate, whatever the covering looks like.
Buildings of this age have usually been altered more than once, so a good survey measures rather than assumes. Slopes can be out of square, valleys can have been rebuilt, and a chimney can lean slightly without any crack showing yet.
If you are buying here, our guide to roof checks when buying a house sets out what to look at before you exchange.
The early twentieth-century commuter streets
Rushmoor describes suburban commuter housing built in the early twentieth century, radiating out from the crossroads at Farnborough Street. The railway had reached Farnborough in 1838, and a station was added in the village centre in 1849, so the area was already tied to commuting when these streets went up.
Roughly a century on
A covering laid in 1910 or 1920 is now more than 100 years old. It is worth working out whether the roof was re-covered in the 1960s, the 1980s or later, and what was done to the timber beneath. The age of the most recent work matters more than the age of the house.
| Covering | Typical life |
|---|---|
| Welsh slate | 100+ years |
| Clay tile | 60-80 years |
| Concrete tile | 40-50 years |
| Fibre cement tile | 30-40 years |
Ridges laid in mortar
Ridge and hip tiles on older roofs are often bedded in mortar. Marley says the 2014 revision of BS 5534 ended reliance on mortar by itself for these tiles, and that BS 8612 is the standard that dry-fix ridge, hip and verge kits are tested against. BS 5534 is a code of practice rather than legislation, and mortar has not been outlawed. It is just no longer relied on by itself.
A ridge that is cracked, loose or short of mortar is a small job to put right if it is caught early, and a larger one if a gale takes it first. The same goes for hips and verges, which are fixed the same way on many older roofs, so we look along every one of them rather than only the ridge, and note where each is bedded, clipped or pointed.
Cove in the 1950s and 1960s
Rushmoor lists new housing developments at Cove across the 1950s and 1960s. The district also has an older story: Rushmoor notes pottery sites there, tied to a local clay industry that dates back to the fourteenth century, so the ground under the estates has a long history of its own.
Sixty to seventy years on
A covering laid in 1955 or 1965 is now between 60 and 70 years old. For concrete tile, HomeBuilding gives 40-50 years, while Marley puts the expected life of its roof tiles near 60 years and calls that figure no guarantee or warranty. Two published sources, two different answers, and that is the point: a covering of this age may be sound or tired, and only a close look tells you which.
Questions the date raises
Under HSE's advice a building from before 2000 is treated as possibly asbestos-bearing, and insulating board in external soffits can pass for ordinary board. Nothing here says that any particular house in Cove has it. The point is that a roofline job on a house of this age starts with the question, not with a ladder. Our post on asbestos in soffits for Farnborough homeowners goes into the detail.
If the house has a flat-roofed garage or extension, those coverings age faster than tile: HomeBuilding gives felt 10-15 years and Less 10 to 20 years. A flat roof of this era that has never been re-covered is worth a look for that reason alone.
Southwood in the 1980s
Rushmoor places Southwood's housing development in the 1980s. That is the youngest era in the council's account, and it brings a different set of questions from the older streets.
Forty years in
A covering laid in 1985 is about 40 years old now. HomeBuilding's range for concrete tile starts at 40 years and runs to 50, and its range for fibre cement tile is 30-40 years. A roof of that age is not necessarily due for replacement, but it is the point where a survey earns its place. Nothing is guaranteed in either direction, so the check is what counts, and a roof near the middle of its range can still hide a failing ridge or tired battens.
What has changed since
A ridge laid in the 1980s predates the 2014 revision of BS 5534, so it is worth checking whether it is bedded on mortar alone. It may be perfectly sound. If it has failed, a dry-fix system tested to BS 8612 is the usual replacement.
The underlay is also worth a look. HR underlay is non-breathable, and where one is used on a cold roof, Marley gives eaves ventilation of 25 mm for pitches of 15 degrees or less and 10 mm above that, under BS 5250:2021. A roof relaid in this period may have an underlay that depends on that ventilation, so the eaves get checked as well as the covering. Loft insulation placed over time can quietly block the gap, which is why we look from inside the loft too.
The pre-2000 asbestos question applies to Southwood's external soffits and boards just as it does elsewhere.
Reading the age of your own roof
You can gather a good deal without a ladder. Work through these questions, then add what a survey finds.
Five questions to ask first
- When was the covering last replaced, and is there a receipt or a building control record?
- Is the ridge set in mortar, or clipped on with dry-fix parts?
- Was the house built or refurbished before 2000, which raises the asbestos question for soffits or sheets?
- Are there flat sections, such as a garage or rear extension, and what covers them?
- Is there any sign of a past leak on a ceiling or in the loft?
What a survey adds
A surveyor goes up, measures every slope and records each part in photographs, then walks you through the pictures and separates sound from tired. The price then arrives as one total in writing. Where a repair will cover it, a repair is what gets priced, and a re-roof appears only when the evidence supports one.
Building control rules come into this too. On the Planning Portal's test, re-roofing usually needs no application when under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected. A covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the weight triggers approval, plus a structural opinion from an engineer or surveyor. Councils word this differently, so ask your building control body, which for Farnborough is the Hart and Rushmoor Building Control Partnership.
Our post on what Farnborough is like to live in sets the neighbourhoods side by side. For a full survey, start at the Fortis Roofing Farnborough homepage.
