Roofers Silsden

Silsden roofing, the short version

A small Aire valley town in gritstone, canal above it, moor behind it and a nail-making past in the older streets. Silsden is about twenty minutes out, down the valley or over the tops depending on what the traffic is doing, and we are across there constantly. The same short list of faults keeps coming back on Silsden roofs, and the useful part of a survey is knowing which of them is a morning's work and which means the covering has finally had its day.

What we take on for Silsden roofs

Roofers in Silsden: roofing and roof repairs across BD20

Silsden made nails before it made anything else, and the old part of the town still shows it: tight gritstone streets off Kirkgate and Briggate, cottages with workshops built into them, and terraces running up from the valley floor towards the moor. Above that core there is inter-war and post-war housing and a substantial amount of modern estate building on the higher ground. The canal sits above the town on its way towards Skipton. Roofs run from heavy Yorkshire stone slate on the oldest property to interlocking tile on the newest, and the difference in what those two need is total.

Height is the thing to understand in Silsden. The streets at the top of the town are markedly more exposed than the ones down by the beck, and the farms and cottages on the moor side above are more exposed again. On the upper streets we fix mechanically as standard, clip the perimeter courses, and make sure ridge and verge are not relying on mortar alone. Stone stacks up there need sound flaunching and lime pointing rather than cement. Lower down the town the wind is less of an issue and the work is more ordinary: slipped slates, cracked ridges, tired gutters and the flat roof over a back kitchen.

Older Silsden property throws up structural questions as often as covering ones. Cottages of that age were built with rafters and purlins sized for the stone that was on them, and if somebody has re-roofed at some point with a heavier or a lighter covering, the loads have changed. A sagging ridge line or a spreading rafter foot is not solved by re-slating. We look in the loft as part of the survey and say honestly if what you need is a joiner or a structural opinion before a roofer, because it is far cheaper to hear that before the scaffold goes up than after.

Silsden is at the top end of our patch and we go up there regularly, so a survey is no trouble to arrange. It costs nothing, it includes the loft and the rainwater goods as well as the covering, and everything is photographed. The quote is written and itemised, with the reclaimed stone slate, lead codes and fixings named. Stone slate re-laying, slate and tile repairs, re-roofing, chimney rebuilds and lime repointing, lead valleys and flashings, gutters, fascias and flat roofs. Insured to five million pounds, guaranteed in writing for ten years, and we come out at weekends after storm damage.

Silsden houses and the roofs they carry

Terraced streets and their shared stacks

Through terraces and back-to-backs in Silsden are simple shapes with awkward details: back gutters tucked behind the stacks, parapet and valley runs sitting full of water, and slates hanging on nails that gave up a long time ago. We fix whatever is letting the water in rather than chase the stain across the ceiling.

Gritstone houses and farm buildings

Stone houses around Silsden carry heavy gritstone or Welsh slate on timbers that have held it for well over a century. What comes round again and again is slates split and crept after a hard frost, ridges bedded in cement that has cracked along the run, and lead torn at the fold where it was always going to go.

1930s semis and their hipped roofs

Inter-war housing around Silsden usually means hipped roofs in clay or early concrete tile over felt that was never expected to last ninety years. Hip irons, ridges and the eaves are where it shows first, and they are worth looking at before a winter rather than after one.

Post-war and council-built housing

The 1950s and 1960s houses in Silsden have plain gabled or hipped roofs, which keeps a re-cover sensible on price. Fascia, soffit and gutter replacement on these streets is a steady part of most weeks.

The ground we cover in Silsden is Kirkgate, Briggate and the streets rising towards the moor, and the closes, folds and ginnels off it as well.

What we are called out to most in BD20

• Back and parapet gutters standing full of water
• Gritstone slate split and crept after frost
• Gable copings and stacks wanting lime repointing
• 1930s coverings reaching the end all at once
• Cement-bedded ridges cracked the length of the run
• Stacks shared across the party wall

Most of that list starts cheap and turns expensive. Ring 0113 460 1042 or book the survey while it is still the cheap version.

Why Silsden property owners use Bradford Roofing

• Priced on paper, broken down — Every quote is written out and itemised, normally a day or so after the visit, so you can see what you are paying for and what has been left out on purpose.
• Drone up where a ladder tells you nothing — Steep gritstone pitches, tall multi-flue stacks and mill ranges get flown and photographed. You see exactly the same pictures we do before you decide anything.
• Insured, and guaranteed in writing — £5m public liability, £10m employer’s liability, and a ten-year written guarantee on the workmanship for all major work.
• Materials matched to Silsden roofs — Reclaimed Yorkshire stone slate, Welsh slate, clay and concrete tile matched to whatever came off, and lead used where lead belongs instead of tape and mastic.
• Storm work, seven days a week — When the wind strips a run of slates in Silsden it is the same number to ring. We make it safe first, photograph it for the insurer, then come back and repair it properly.

Around Silsden

Nearest to Silsden on our list are Steeton, roofers in Utley, Riddlesden, roofers in Addingham, roofers in Keighley and East Morton (BD20). The rest of the patch sits on the area finder, all of the Bradford district and Leeds included.