Roofers in Kingsway
Every roof in Kingsway was laid after 2006, on land that was an RAF station until 1995. At 10.8 road miles from Stroud, we look after the ridge, verge and flashing work that young roofs call for.
Kingsway at a glance
- Distance
- 10.8 road miles north-north-west of Stroud
- Council
- Gloucester City Council
- Building began
- 2006, on the former RAF Quedgeley site
- Setting
- Southern edge of Gloucester, beside Quedgeley
Kingsway's roofs: a village laid down in stages after 2006
Kingsway is a twenty-first century development on the southern edge of Gloucester, beside Quedgeley. It stands on the site of RAF Quedgeley, an RAF maintenance unit from 1939 to 1995 on land first used for a First World War shell-filling factory, and building of the village began in 2006. There is no historic fabric here to describe, no medieval church and no listed street. That absence is useful in its own way, because it tells us exactly what kind of roof work to expect.
The village filled in over time. Kingsway Primary School opened on 20 October 2008, and the community centre and sports pavilion opened in September 2014. So the first houses are now around twenty years old, and the latest phases are younger, which means two roofs in the same street can be five or six years apart in age. The housebuilders on the site have included Barratt Homes, Bryant Homes, David Wilson Homes, George Wimpey, Miller Homes, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey.
For a roofer, a recent estate has a particular profile of work. The coverings are not worn out, and a large re-roof is rarely the question. The issues are smaller and more specific: fixings along the ridge and hips, the finish at each verge, flashing around porches and bays, gutters that have clogged, and the occasional tile that has cracked or slipped. These are jobs best caught early, when the repair is a few hours and not a scaffold. Planning here falls to Gloucester City Council, and no conservation area or listed building is recorded for the village.
Each roof is judged on what its photographs show, not on the year the house was finished. The quote that follows covers the whole job, so a small repair is shown as a small repair.
Flint and brick cottage with a clay tile roof beside a road 
Wooded hillside lined with rows of stone houses and slate roofs
Chapter 01
What twenty years does to a roof laid in 2006
The first Kingsway houses are now old enough for the details to show their age, even where the covering looks fine.
Chapter 01In this chapter
Building of Kingsway began in 2006, and the oldest roofs on the site are therefore close to twenty years old. That is long enough for the first small failures to appear and short enough that the covering as a whole is still sound. The pattern we look for is the one common to any roof of that age: faults in the fittings and junctions, not in the field of the roof.
The first place is the ridge. Ridge and hip tiles sit along the highest lines of the roof and take the full weight of wind, sun and frost with nothing to shelter them. If they were bedded in mortar, the mortar cracks and crumbles over time and a tile can loosen. Next is the verge, the sloping edge of a roof beside a gable wall, where end tiles are bedded or clipped and the wall below takes any rain that gets past. Then comes the flashing, a strip of lead, aluminium or proprietary material sealing the joint between the roof and an adjoining wall, chimney or porch.
Gutters and the eaves come next. Gutters of this age are often plastic, with joints held by seals that harden over the years. A gutter that has begun to drip at a joint is small, cheap to mend and easy to ignore, and over a winter it wets the fascia and the brick below. We look at each gutter run from a ladder or from the survey photographs and note anything that is sagging or leaking. Our roof repairs page gives typical UK prices for the commonest repairs, with the source and the year.
Roof windows and small extensions are the other source of early trouble on an estate home. A loft conversion, a porch or a rear extension adds junctions that the original roof did not have, and each new junction is a fresh place for a seal to fail. If your house has been altered since it was built, tell us at the start, and the survey will concentrate on the join between the original roof and the later work.
None of this is dramatic, and that is the point of a survey. A roof that has been looked at every few years rarely needs more than a small repair, and the repair is cheaper than the damage it prevents. A leak behind a plasterboard ceiling is slow to show and expensive to dry out. The longer a small fault runs, the more it costs, and the wetter the loft insulation becomes.
If you are not sure where to begin, a survey of the whole roof, from ridge to gutter, gives a baseline. The roof inspections and surveys hub explains what is recorded, and the next chapter shows what we note on a Kingsway visit.
On a young roof the fittings tire long before the field of tiles does.
Chapter 02
Seven housebuilders on one former airfield
Barratt, Bryant, David Wilson, George Wimpey, Miller, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey built here, and each leaves its own set of roof details.
Chapter 02In this chapter
Wikipedia lists the housebuilders on the Kingsway site as Barratt Homes, Bryant Homes, David Wilson Homes, George Wimpey, Miller Homes, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey. Seven names means seven sets of standard house types, and each is likely to have its own choices about tiles, ridge system, underlay and eaves. We do not claim to know which builder used what. That is the survey's job, and the answer matters for a repair.
Matching is the practical reason. If a tile cracks, the repair needs a tile of the same profile, size and colour, and the quickest way to find one is to identify the make from the back of a spare or from the roof itself. A tile that is a close but not exact match will sit slightly differently and can let water past the lap. We record the profile with a photograph and a measurement of the gauge, which is the distance between the battens, and the quote names what will be used.
Neighbours on one street may share a builder and a year, so trouble on one roof is a fair reason to check the next. Put simply, if your neighbour has had a ridge re-bedded, it is worth looking at yours.
Ridge and verge work is a particular topic on a young estate, because the system used varies. Some roofs have mortar-bedded ridge tiles, some dry-fix, and some a mixture after earlier repairs. The ridge, verge and dry-fix hub explains the options, how each is fixed, and what the typical UK prices are.
The survey photographs each roof section by section, which leaves you with a record of its condition on the day. For a house that you plan to sell, a clear set of photographs and a short written note of the survey findings can be useful to a buyer's surveyor, who may otherwise raise questions about the roof. We do not promise how a buyer will react, but we can say what the evidence shows.
| Part of the roof | What we note |
|---|---|
| Ridge and hips | Mortar-bedded or dry-fix, and whether any tile has loosened |
| Verges | Fixing method, condition of the end tiles and of the wall below |
| Flashings | Material, fixing and any gaps at chimneys, porches and bays |
| Tile profile | Make, gauge and colour, so any replacement matches |
| Gutters and eaves | Joints, brackets, falls and staining on the fascia |
Chapter 03
The 2014 fixing rules and a roof that began in 2006
Standards moved while Kingsway was being built, so the oldest ridges may sit on the older method.
Chapter 03In this chapter
Building of the village began in 2006 and the community centre opened in 2014, so the estate was going up across the period when the standard for ridge and hip fixing changed. BS 5534 was revised in 2014, and Marley explains that the revision ended reliance on mortar strength alone for ridge and hip tiles, so every bedded fitting now carries a mechanical fixing as well. Dry-fix systems are tested to BS 8612.
Applied to Kingsway, that gives a simple logic. Houses finished in the early years predate the revision, and they may have ridges that depend on mortar alone. Later houses may have mechanical fixings or a dry system. It would be wrong to say any particular roof has a defect, because bedded ridge tiles are not banned. But a mortar-only ridge is the natural candidate for a check, and where it has cracked, there are two ways forward: bed the ridge again with fixings added, or replace it with a dry-fix ridge.
The prices are national and given as typical ranges. In MyBuilder's guides, replacing or re-bedding ridge tiles falls between £300 and £600, repointing a ridge or hip between £200 and £400, and a dry ridge at £40 to £60 per metre. A survey costs £150 to £250 for a standard visit, up to £400 for a drone survey and up to £500 for a thermal one. We use a standard survey with photographs for a house of this kind, and the quote after it is in writing.
There is one more document to think about: the builder's paperwork. A new-home warranty or a builder's guarantee may set terms on who can work on the roof, and a repair done outside those terms might affect cover. We cannot read your policy for you. Read it, ask the issuer if it is unclear, and then book the survey. The photographs and written findings help if you need to make a claim.
Finally, VAT. Roof repairs are normally standard-rated, and your quote will show the VAT. Our roof repairs hub gives the wider picture on typical costs.
- Dry ridge, per metre£40 to £60
- Standard roof survey£150 to £250
- Repoint ridge or hip£200 to £400
- Re-bed or replace ridge tiles£300 to £600
Map showing Kingsway and the Stroud service radius, with nearby towns we also cover.
Near Kingsway
Roof work we do here
Post-2006 roofs on the former RAF Quedgeley land
My Kingsway house is under twenty years old. What would a roof survey find?
Usually small things: a loosened ridge or verge tile, a gap at a flashing, a gutter joint that drips, perhaps a cracked tile. The covering itself is rarely the issue. We photograph each part and tell you which items are worth fixing now.
Does it matter which builder constructed my Kingsway house when a tile needs replacing?
It matters for matching. Each builder chose its own tile profile, colour and ridge method, so we identify the make and gauge from your roof before ordering a replacement, and the quote names what is used.
Can a dry-fix ridge replace a mortar one on a house built in 2007?
Yes, in principle. The old mortar and tiles are removed and a tested dry-fix system is fitted along the ridge. The survey checks the tile profile and the battens first, because the system must suit both.
Is there a conservation area or listed building to worry about in Kingsway?
The village was built from 2006 on a cleared RAF site, so it has no historic core. If you plan to change how the roof looks, ask Gloucester City Council's planning team to confirm.