Roofers in Broadstairs
3.1 road miles from Margate. Repairs, re-roofs, chimneys and leadwork across Broadstairs and St Peters, priced only after we have looked at the roof and sent you photos of it.
- Planning: ThanetBroadstairs planning applications go to Thanet District Council.
- Designated 1970Broadstairs conservation area, designated 5 June 1970.
- Inspected by ThanetThanet's own Building Control team, 01843 577522.
Listed fronts, the 1970 boundary and coastal grading
Grade II fronts
Lancaster House, Bradstow House and St Mary's Chapel are listed, and listing can add a consent step to roof work.
The 1970 boundary
Thanet's Broadstairs conservation area dates from 5 June 1970 and has been enlarged twice, so we check your street against it.
Coastal grading
Cupa, a slate supplier, grades seaside buildings as more exposed, so every fixing is sized to its own site.
Broadstairs and St Peters
The record behind a Broadstairs roof survey
| Council | Thanet District Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | Thanet District Council's own Building Control team |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Broadstairs, designated 5 June 1970 |
| Population, 2021 | 25,116 (Broadstairs and St. Peters parish) |
| From Margate | 3.1 road miles, about 7 min |
| Listed entries within 900 m | 76, National Heritage List |
| Grade II, first listed 1969 | Lancaster House, Bradstow House |
| Grade II, first listed 1974 | St Mary's Chapel |
Broadstairs shares a council and a Building Control team with Margate, but its own conservation area dates from 1970, and two of its Grade II houses were first listed in 1969.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Thanet District Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Broadstairs, listing to licence
Broadstairs roofs, from the listed houses to the street outside them
Three chapters on the listed buildings, the conservation area boundary, and the scaffold, skip and weather facts that shape a re-roof on a Broadstairs street.
Chapter 01 of 03
Lancaster House, Bradstow House and the listed roofs
Broadstairs is 3.1 road miles south-east of Margate, about 7 minutes by road, and on a roof there one question comes before any other: is the building listed? Historic England's National Heritage List shows 76 listed entries within 900 metres of the town's mapped centre point, so the check is worth making before anyone puts a ladder up. Three entries show the range. Lancaster House and Bradstow House were both first listed on 11 February 1969, and St Mary's Chapel followed on 20 September 1974. All three are Grade II.
Listing covers the whole building, and the roof is part of it. Section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires listed building consent for works that affect a listed building's character, and a roof carries plenty of that character: the slope, the covering, the ridge (the top line where two slopes meet), the chimney stacks and the lead flashings (the dressed strips that seal a roof against a wall or a stack). Changing the covering to something different, altering a ridge detail or taking down a stack can each touch that character, which is why the list entry comes first.
Before we price a roof on a listed house, we read the entry for it, look at the roof from the street and from close up, and then pass you the pictures of every slope and chimney we looked at. Where the work needs consent, Thanet District Council decides the application, and we describe the job so the paperwork matches what will happen on the roof. We keep slates, tiles, lead and mortar matched to what is already there unless you and the council agree a change. Our slate roofing and lead roofing pages go further into the materials.
Chapels and churches follow their own rules. Where the Church of England still worships in a building, the ecclesiastical exemption applies and a faculty is the route; Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed and Baptist buildings use their own denominational systems; and Unitarian, Quaker and Churches Conservation Trust buildings need listed building consent, the same as a house. A scheduled monument needs scheduled monument consent. So for a Grade II chapel such as St Mary's, the first step is finding out who uses the building and which of those routes applies, before a scaffold is booked or a slate is lifted.
Chapter 02 of 03
Inside the 1970 boundary and its two extensions
Thanet District Council records the Broadstairs conservation area as designated on 5 June 1970. It was extended on 21 October 1986, and again on 23 July 2009, when the boundary grew to the north and to the south. Thanet lists 27 conservation areas across the district, and the same table also names St Peter's, Kingsgate and Reading Street, so the first job on any survey is to see which area, if any, your street falls inside. The national planning dataset places the Broadstairs area within about 0.75 km of the town centre.
A conservation area changes the planning picture. It counts as article 2(3) land under the General Permitted Development Order, which narrows what a house can add to its roof without an application, and the conditions for roof windows and additions are set out in our roof window planning guide. For a repair or a re-covering, the useful test is section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990: a job that leaves the outside of the house looking materially the same, from any side, falls outside the meaning of development altogether. Thanet's own conservation-area page adds that planning permission is less often required where the work is like-for-like.
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| 5 June 1970 | Designated by the council |
| 21 October 1986 | First extension |
| 23 July 2009 | Extended north and south |
| Thanet today | 27 conservation areas in the district |
Source: Thanet District Council, conservation areas page
Flats sit outside the householder rules. A building of flats, or a flat inside one, is not a dwellinghouse for permitted development, so changing how the outside of a converted house looks normally means an application to Thanet District Council whatever area it is in. For a house split into flats, we ask who holds the roof, the freeholder or a management company, before a survey is booked.
Building control is a separate test
Planning and Building Regulations ask different questions. Thanet District Council runs its own Building Control team, on 01843 577522, and points owners to the Planning Portal to see whether consent is needed. Under the Planning Portal's test, a re-roof touching less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof does not normally call for an application, while approval is needed once a new covering would weigh 15 per cent or more above the one it replaces. A heavier covering on an old frame is where we ask a structural engineer or surveyor to look before work starts.
Chapter 03 of 03
Scaffold, skips and weather on a Broadstairs street
Any scaffold standing on a Broadstairs footpath or street needs a licence under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, and that licence is issued by Kent County Council as highway authority rather than by the district. Kent County Council's own page puts the application in the scaffolding company's hands, so the firm putting up the tube and boards lodges it, and we agree the dates with them once the survey has fixed the extent of the job.
Kent County Council charges £52 per week for scaffolding on the highway in 2026 to 2027, and every application, renewals included, must land with the council at least 5 working days in advance. The scaffolding company must hold public liability insurance of at least £5 million, and an inspection visit, where Kent County Council thinks one necessary, costs £78. The licence conditions require the scaffold to be kept no closer than 1.2 metres to the carriageway, with the vertical standards painted white for 2.5 metres from pavement level.
Kent County Council issues a separate permit for any skip left in a Broadstairs street: £45 per week for 2026 to 2027, applied for 5 working days ahead, and no more than 5 metres long or 2 metres wide. We plan the waste around it, so old slates, battens (the timber strips that slates and tiles hang from) and underlay (the membrane beneath them) leave the street when we do.
Broadstairs sits on the coast, and the Met Office averages for Manston, 1991 to 2020, record roughly 613 mm of rainfall annually, with the wind at 10 metres averaging 9.86 knots, rising to 11.21 knots in January. The same Manston record counts about 110 days a year with 1 mm or more of rain and 21.43 days of air frost. Cupa's guidance grades a building near the sea as more exposed, so the fixings on a Broadstairs roof are calculated for the site's exposure under BS 5534, never copied from an inland job.
Put together, a Broadstairs re-roof runs in a fixed order, and you hear from us at each stage. The four steps below run from the first look at the roof to the pavement being clear again, and nothing moves on to the next step until you have agreed the one before it.
Broadstairs, from first look to clear pavement
Look and photos
We see the roof from the street and up close, then send you the pictures.
Check the record
Listing, the conservation area map and the building control route for your address.
Licence and permit
The scaffolder applies to Kent County Council ahead; any skip gets its own permit.
Work and clear
Fixings set for the site, a daily update, and the waste gone with us.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Broadstairs
Along the Thanet coast from Broadstairs
Broadstairs shares Thanet District Council, its own Building Control team and Kent County Council's highway licences with Margate, Ramsgate, Westgate, Birchington and Minster, so the paperwork for a roof follows one route across the district.
Broadstairs listing, licences and building control
Does the Broadstairs conservation area affect roof work on my house?
It can. Thanet District Council designated the Broadstairs conservation area on 5 June 1970 and enlarged it in 1986 and 2009. As article 2(3) land it narrows what can be added to a roof without an application, though Thanet's page points out that replacing like with like makes it less likely that a Broadstairs owner must apply. We check the boundary against your address and explain which case your job falls into before we price it.
Who checks Building Regulations on a Broadstairs re-roof?
Thanet District Council's own Building Control team, reached on 01843 577522. The council sends owners to the Planning Portal, whose test treats a job as normally needing no application when under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Switching to a covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs approval whatever share of the roof it covers.
What changes if my Broadstairs house is Grade II listed?
Listed building consent comes into it. Section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires consent for works affecting a listed building's character, and Thanet District Council decides the application. Your National Heritage List entry is the starting point, and we read it before pricing. We match materials and details to what is there and describe the work plainly for the application.
Who arranges the scaffold licence for a house in Broadstairs?
It is the scaffolding firm's job to apply to Kent County Council at least 5 working days before the licence starts. Kent County Council's scaffold fee for 2026 to 2027 is £52 per week, and the firm needs public liability cover of at least £5 million. Kent County Council highways answer questions before an application on 03000 41 81 81, and a skip parked in the road is permitted on its own terms.
Is there an Article 4 direction covering Broadstairs?
Thanet District Council's page places its Article 4 directions in three conservation areas, Ramsgate, Ramsgate Marina extension and Pegwell, and the Broadstairs conservation area is not one of the three. A direction withdraws specified permitted development rights across a defined area, and councils can make new ones, so before any change to the outside of a house we ask Thanet District Council to confirm the position for your address.
Your Broadstairs roof, looked at first
Send us a photo or book a visit to your Broadstairs roof; the written price follows the survey, as one total.