The 22 list entries
Within 900 m of the centre sit 22 National Heritage List entries, so check whether your house is one.
Roofers in Cranbrook
A town of 6,553 people with 22 list entries near its centre
Cranbrook counted 6,553 residents in the 2021 Census, and 22 National Heritage List entries sit within 900 m of its centre. Whatever your roof, a survey comes before a price.
Hillside Cottage, Little Croft and the listed core
Hillside Cottage, Grade II
A listed house, where listed building consent applies to roof work that changes its character.
Little Croft, Grade II
Another listed home, at the Rockbeare end of the 900 m count; a new material on its roof needs consent.
Street map of Cranbrook with Rockbeare, Whimple, Broadclyst, West Hill marked around it, and Taunton.
Rockbeare to the south-east, Broadclyst to the north-west
Rockbeare lies just south-east of Cranbrook, with Whimple to the north-east and Broadclyst to the north-west, while Clyst St Mary sits south-west and Bradninch to the north.
About 22 miles south-west of Taunton, East Devon District Council and Devon County Council.
Fixes and replacements in Cranbrook
Four checks for a town of 6,553
Walking a Cranbrook roof, from the heritage list to the VAT line
Four checks that apply to a house in Cranbrook, and what each does to the consent you need, the work itself and the total price.
Check 1 of 4Is your house one of the 22?
Find out before the plan is drawn
Cranbrook has plenty of homes and a short list of old ones. The National Heritage List for England records 22 entries within 900 m of the centre, among them Hillside Cottage and Little Croft, both Grade II. Whatever the job, the sensible opening move is to learn which side of that list your address falls on. Listed status decides who must sign off the work, and it can narrow what you may put on the roof afterwards.
Can I check a listing myself?
Historic England publishes the list online and lets you search by address or postcode, so you can do it yourself in a couple of minutes. We run the same search before a survey and write the answer on our notes. If the result is listed, listed building consent is wanted for work that changes the building's special interest. That can take in a swapped covering, a stack repointed in a harder mortar than the old one, or a new roof window on the pitch that overlooks the street.
What if the house is not listed?
Then an ordinary repair needs no application, and you can go ahead as soon as you are happy with the survey and the photographs that came with it. Conservation areas are a separate question, so put your address to East Devon District Council's planning team if you are changing a covering, and keep the reply with your house papers. Our guide to planning permission for roof work explains when an application is required and when it is not.
Either way, we photograph each slope before anything is priced, and note the pitch, the covering and the state of the edges, so that you and the planners are looking at the same roof, and so that you hold a record of how it stood on the day we came.
Look for
- A house with a heritage plaque
- Tiles different from the row
- Street-facing roof windows
- Hard grey cement on old brick
Check 2 of 4Tiles, ridges and verges on Cranbrook homes
Where mortar fails first
Two parts of a pitched roof take the worst of any gale. Along the apex lies the ridge, the capping that covers the join between the two slopes. Down each gable end runs the verge, the finished edge of the roof where it stops at the wall. Both were once laid in mortar, and mortar cracks as the house shifts with the seasons and rain gets in behind it. A loose ridge tile can slide off in a gale and land on whoever is walking below, so keep children and cars away from the gable after a storm. A handful of tile fragments in the flower bed beneath a gable is often the first clue, and looking costs nothing.
What decides the price
- Length of ridge and verge involved
- Mortar or dry-fix, and why
- Height of the gable above ground
- Condition of tiles along the edge
Is mortar still the right way to fix them?
Not on its own. Marley explains that since BS 5534 was revised in 2014, bedded ridge and hip tiles are meant to have mechanical fixings as well. Marley adds that fitting to BS 5534 is not a legal requirement, and mortar is not banned; it just cannot carry the tiles alone. Dry-fix is the alternative: clips and screws hold the tiles down, and BS 8612 sets the tests such kits must pass. Where the house is listed, how the ridge looks counts for as much as how it is fixed, so consent comes first.
What do ridge and verge repairs cost?
MyJobQuote (Oct 2026) puts ridge tile replacement at between £225 and £550, and a dry verge system at usually £500 to £2,000, both typical UK ranges. They are national guide figures and not our prices. Your own total depends on the length of ridge or verge, how high the gable stands, and how easily we can reach it. Our pitched roofing page explains how we weigh a repair against doing the whole run again.
Check 3 of 4Flat roofs on extensions, porches and garages
Ponding tells you the fall has gone
Flat roofs are built with a slight tilt, so rain runs towards an outlet. When the tilt disappears, water stands and finds the weakest seam. BS 6229:2025 sets a finished fall of at least 1:80, and IKO advises designing for 1:40, which leaves margin for the finished roof to drain in practice. A puddle that is still there two days after the rain stopped points to a sagged deck, a blocked outlet or a roof that never had enough fall.
A flat roof that holds water has stopped doing the one job it has.
From the ground
- Puddles two days after rain
- Stains on the ceiling below
- Moss or weeds along the edge
- Water marks beneath the eaves
Leave to a roofer
- Clearing a blocked flat roof outlet
- Lifting the edge trim
- Probing the deck for soft boards
- Building the fall back up with firrings
Which covering lasts longest?
Published lives vary, and the figures do not always agree. EPDM, a rubber membrane supplied in large sheets, gets 20 to 30 years from GreenSpec and 30 to 50 from Less. Less gives GRP, a skin of resin and glass fibre formed on site, 25 to 40 years, and torch-on felt 10 to 20. Read each as a guide and not as a promise, because the workmanship at the edges and upstands counts for as much as the sheet.
Is it worth replacing the whole roof?
MyJobQuote (Oct 2026) gives a typical UK range of £1,500 to £6,000 for a flat roof replacement, with an average of £2,400. If the deck is sound and one corner has failed, a patch can be the better buy. Where water has soaked the timber, laying a new covering over it only hides the damage until the next wet winter. Our flat roofing page sets out how we decide, and the survey photographs show you the deck before you have to take our word for it.
Edges are where flat roofs usually give up first: the upstand where the roof meets a wall, the trim along the front edge, the seams around a rooflight. We photograph those joints close up, since a wide shot of a flat roof tells you very little.
Check 4 of 4Scaffold, VAT and the written price
What the quote should include
Scaffold that reaches the pavement or the road needs a licence. The highway authority for Cranbrook is Devon County Council, and the application it takes comes through the scaffolding firm that is working for the customer. A licence costs £158 for the works dates, up to 12 weeks, and the council wants 10 working days to process it; a site visit adds £103.95. So the scaffolding firm files early, and the start date follows the paperwork. We tell you what each day on site will involve. Neighbours need to get past too, so we keep the pavement and drive clear where we can, and clear the waste as the job goes along, not in one heap at the end.
What decides the price
- Scaffold on the road, or kept on your drive
- Weeks the licence must cover
- Whether the quote includes VAT
- How much roof the survey finds worn
Will VAT be charged on my roof job?
VAT on repairs, and on a re-roof for an existing home, is charged at the standard 20% rate, according to GOV.UK. The domestic reverse charge is a scheme between CIS-registered businesses and does not reach a homeowner paying a roofer. When comparing quotes, check whether each one includes VAT and the scaffolding, since a total that leaves either out cannot be set beside one that has both.
Does a re-roof here need building control?
On the Planning Portal's test, nobody normally has to apply while less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. For an East Devon address, ask the district council's building control team or a registered building control approver. Our roof replacement page covers what a full re-roof involves, from stripping to the last ridge tile. If bats or nesting birds are found, work pauses while you decide how to proceed.
After the survey you get a written total, one figure for the whole job. Send your Cranbrook address and the symptoms, and a surveyor will come out.
Walked the roof?
- 1 read
- 2 not read yet
- 3 not read yet
- 4 not read yet
When you have read the checks, we walk the roof and show you the photos.
Cranbrook roofs: listed cottages, flat roofs and VAT
Is a roof on one of Cranbrook's listed cottages repaired differently?
The method can be the same, but the material and pattern matter more. For a listed home such as Hillside Cottage, consent is needed for anything that alters its character, so putting back the same slate or tile is the simple route. A different covering is a consent question first. We photograph the roof so the case is clear.
Why does water sit on the flat roof of my Cranbrook extension?
Usually the finished fall has been lost. BS 6229:2025 sets a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and a roof should be designed for 1:40 so it still drains. An outlet choked with leaves, or a deck that has dipped, gives the same symptom. The survey tells you which one it is, and the photographs show you the deck itself, close up.
Is VAT charged on re-roofing a house in Cranbrook?
Work on an existing home, whether repair or re-roof, carries the standard rate, 20% according to GOV.UK. The domestic reverse charge covers supplies between CIS-registered businesses, not a homeowner paying a roofer. Ask each roofer whether the total includes VAT and the scaffold, since two totals only compare fairly when both are in or both are out.
Does a new conservatory roof in Cranbrook need Building Regulations approval?
A replacement conservatory roof must meet Building Regulations, which the Planning Portal describes as keeping it safe structurally, efficient with energy and ventilated properly. Ask your building control body before work starts. Weight, glazing and insulation all affect the answer, and we note each of them at the survey so you can pass the details on.
A Cranbrook roof, surveyed before it is priced
Describe what you have noticed on your Cranbrook roof, and a time to look will be fixed.