The picturesque cottages of the Cotswolds are built of the renowned golden Cotswold limestone; if you look upwards, you’ll notice that the roofs are tiled in stone too. A Cotswold stone roof can last for hundreds of years if properly maintained and scraped clean of moss. Sadly, however, maintenance doesn’t always happen regularly enough, and the stone might then decay, requiring repairs and even in extreme cases replacement.
Tiling a Cotswold stone roof is a specialised job. Cotswold stone roofers have their own parlance and terminology to describe the traditional materials, tools and methods used for stone roof tiling, which has come to be recognised as a true test of the roof tiler’s art.
Here at A. Roofer we have the expertise, craftsmanship and passion to undertake the complex task of Cotswold stone roof tiling. We have satisfied customers in the towns and villages across the Cotswold region who bear testament to our skill and care.
Modern Cotswold roofs are usually tiled above a breathable membrane, unlike the old waterproofing method of torching with lime mortar. In days of yore the stone tiles were hung on oak pegs over strong lathes, whereas today we generally use nails or screws to fix the slates in place on the battens.
The overall method of Cotswold stone tiling however remains the same, with new stone tiles being sourced from local quarries. The stone slates come in different sizes, and the roofer has to sort them so as to lay the smallest slates at the highest part of the roof, using larger slates as the courses of tiles descends to the eaves.
One of the real skills of the Cotswold Stone Tiler is to lay a Swept Valley. This is where two roofs’ invariantly meet. These days you will see lead in these valleys but traditionally there would be no lead and instead the tiles would continually sweep around the roof joining the two elevations.
We have the skill and knowledge to install a new Cotswold stone roof on a property, to repair or renovate an existing stone roof, or to undertake regular Cotswold stone roof maintenance.
We’re proud to be playing our part in keeping the tradition of regional Cotswold stone roofing alive and well in the area.
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