Roofers in Faversham
24.2 road miles from Margate. Faversham re-roofs, repairs and chimney work start with a survey and photographs of your own slopes, and a single written price follows.
- May 2007 directionFaversham Town conservation area, with a May 2007 direction.
- 51 across SwaleSwale Borough Council holds 51 conservation areas.
- STG inspectsSTG Building Control, Rochester, 01634 331133.
Abbey ground, two Grade I churches and a roof-covering direction
Abbey ground
The scheduled St Saviour's Abbey site lies within about 500 metres of the centre; work to a monument needs its own consent.
Parish church
St Mary of Charity is Grade I and Anglican, so work there goes through the faculty system.
Front slopes
Swale's May 2007 direction for the conservation area names roof coverings on the principal elevations that face a public highway.
Faversham, parish of 20,434
Churches, a barn and an abbey site on one short list
| Council | Swale Borough Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | STG Building Control Partnership |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Faversham - Faversham Town |
| Population, 2021 | 20,434 (Faversham parish) |
| From Margate | 24.2 road miles, about 35 min |
| Listed entries within 900 m | 290 |
| Grade I churches listed in 1950 | St Mary of Charity; St Mary Magdalene |
| Scheduled monument within about 500 m | St Saviour's Abbey site |
Faversham parish had 20,434 usual residents at the 2021 Census, and the National Heritage List shows 290 listed entries within 900 metres of the centre, among them the Grade I churches of St Mary of Charity and St Mary Magdalene.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Swale Borough Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Abbey ground to scaffold
Faversham roofs, from two Grade I churches and an abbey site to the licence outside your gate
Three chapters: the listed churches and the monument, the front-slope direction in the conservation area, and the Rochester desk, scaffold licence and skip rules behind a re-roof.
Chapter 01 of 03
St Mary of Charity, the barn and the abbey site
Faversham is 24.2 road miles west of Margate, about 35 minutes by road, and on an older roof the first question is what has been listed close by. Historic England's list for England shows 290 entries within 900 metres of the town's mapped centre. Three Grade I buildings stand out: the Parish Church of St Mary of Charity and the Church of St Mary Magdalene, both listed on 29 July 1950, and the Faversham Abbey Minor Barn. A fourth entry is no building in use at all. It is the scheduled monument of St Saviour's Abbey, which takes in the remains of an Iron Age farmstead and Faversham Roman Villa, and it lies within about 500 metres of the centre.
Listing covers a whole building, roof included. Works that change a listed building's character need listed building consent under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and a roof is a large share of that character: the covering itself, the ridge (the high line where two slopes meet), the verge (the sloping edge over a gable wall) and the flashings (lead strips dressed between a roof and a wall or stack). On a listed Faversham house we read the entry, study the roof from the pavement and then from up close, and you receive pictures of every slope and chimney before any figure is written. Our lead roofing and chimney repairs pages cover the flashing and stack side, and a roof inspection is the usual first step.
Churches work differently. St Mary of Charity serves the Church of England, an exempt denomination, so repairs there go through the faculty system rather than listed building consent. At St Mary Magdalene the first job is to find out who uses the building. Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic and United Reformed churches each use systems of their own, while Quaker meeting houses, Unitarian chapels and buildings held by the Churches Conservation Trust all need listed building consent, as a house does.
A scheduled monument has a third route. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, in section 2, makes works to a scheduled monument an offence unless authorised, and the authorisation is scheduled monument consent. Whether a given house lies inside the scheduled area is a map question, answered before any scaffold is booked, so that a roof job never wanders onto protected ground by accident.
| Entry | Status |
|---|---|
| St Mary of Charity | Grade I, listed 29 July 1950 |
| St Mary Magdalene | Grade I, listed 29 July 1950 |
| Faversham Abbey Minor Barn | Grade I |
| St Saviour's Abbey site | Scheduled monument, within about 500 m |
| All listed entries within 900 m | 290 |
Source: Historic England listing data
Chapter 02 of 03
The May 2007 direction and Faversham's front slopes
Faversham Town is a conservation area, and the national planning dataset places it within about 0.75 kilometres of the town centre. Swale Borough Council says it has 51 designated conservation areas, Faversham Town among them, so the first check on any survey is whether your street falls inside one. The designation takes away the dormer rights that an ordinary house enjoys, and the limits on roof windows and similar additions are laid out in our planning guide for roof windows. We raise the boundary question at the survey, not at the quote.
What sets Faversham apart is an Article 4(2) direction made in May 2007. A direction under article 4 of the General Permitted Development Order removes named permitted development rights from every house inside a chosen boundary, and the council writes the list. Swale Borough Council's page on the Faversham direction names roof coverings on the principal elevations that face a public highway, and the leaflet behind it concerns unlisted houses. For a front slope inside the conservation area, swapping one covering for another is a question for Swale before it is a question for a roofer, and the answer can differ between the front and the back of one house. Swale's leaflet on the direction also says that repair and maintenance carried out strictly like for like, leaving the house looking the same, does not need planning permission.
Myth
Changing the roofing material on a street-facing slope needs nobody's permission.FactSwale Borough Council's Article 4(2) direction of May 2007 names roof coverings on frontages facing the public highway.
Myth
A heavier tile can go onto the old timbers without anyone checking the frame.FactThe Planning Portal says a covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs approval, with an engineer or surveyor consulted first.
Source: Swale Borough Council; Planning Portal
Beside it sits the ordinary national test. The Planning Portal puts the line at 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof: below both figures, a re-roof does not normally need Building Regulations approval. Approval is needed once the replacement covering raises the weight carried by 15 per cent or more, and the Planning Portal suggests a structural engineer or a surveyor should look at the frame first, since it is the frame that takes the extra load.
Flats sit outside all of this. Under the General Permitted Development Order a dwellinghouse excludes any block of flats and any single flat inside one, so altering the outside of a converted house in Faversham normally means an application to Swale Borough Council. For a house divided into flats, the freeholder or the management company is the person to ask about the roof, and that conversation comes before the survey is booked.
Chapter 03 of 03
The Rochester desk, the scaffold licence and the skip
Building Regulations for a Faversham roof go through the STG Building Control Partnership, which serves Canterbury, Gravesham, Medway and Swale. The Rochester office is the Foord Annexe at Eastgate House, High Street, Rochester ME1 1EW, and its number is 01634 331133. A registered building control approver, a private business on the Building Safety Regulator's register, is the alternative for work that needs approval, and private building control existed before that register began on 6 April 2024.
Scaffolding that stands on a Faversham street needs a licence under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980. Kent County Council holds that power as highway authority, so the licence is a county matter, not a Swale one, and the scaffolding firm lodges the application with Kent County Council on a lead time of 5 working days. The charge is £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, the applicant needs public liability insurance of £5 million to register for any scaffold or skip licence, and a £78 site inspection can follow when Kent County Council judges one necessary.
A skip standing on the road carries its own Kent County Council permit: £45 per week for 2026 to 2027, applied for 5 working days beforehand, with the skip up to 5 metres long and 2 metres wide. A skip that must stand on the footway needs Kent County Council's express approval and a clear walkway of 1.5 metres. We plan the waste around that, so old battens (the thin timber rails that tiles hook onto) and underlay (the sheet laid below them) go when we go.
Kent County Council's scaffold conditions are practical: 1.2 metres of separation from scaffold to carriageway, uprights whitened to 2.5 metres, and a lamp after dark where scaffolding stands in or within 45 centimetres of the carriageway. Kent County Council highways take pre-application questions on 03000 41 81 81.
For the weather, the Met Office's Manston averages for 1991 to 2020 are the East Kent figures to hand, and they describe Manston, not Faversham: about 613 mm of rain a year, about 110 days with 1 mm or more of rain and 21.43 days of air frost. Under BS 5534 the fixing schedule is worked out for the exposure of the actual site, so the Manston numbers set the scene and your roof sets the specification.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Faversham
From Faversham to Selling, inside one district
Faversham shares Swale Borough Council, STG Building Control and Kent County Council's highway licences with Selling, so roof paperwork in both places runs along the same lines from first survey to scaffold.
Faversham questions on the direction, the faculty and the STG desk
Does the Faversham Article 4(2) direction reach a front roof slope on my house?
Swale Borough Council's direction for the Faversham conservation area, made in May 2007, names roof coverings on the principal elevations that face a public highway. A slope facing the street is therefore where Swale's rules bite first. Ask Swale to confirm your address; we read the answer before pricing and word the job description so it fits any application.
Who inspects a re-roof in Faversham when approval is needed?
The STG Building Control Partnership covers Swale, from its Rochester office, postcode ME1 1EW, on 01634 331133. The Planning Portal draws its line at 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, and a registered building control approver is the private alternative to STG.
Is St Mary of Charity handled like a listed house for roof repairs?
No. It is Grade I and in use by the Church of England, an exempt denomination, so work goes through the faculty system rather than listed building consent. A house beside it follows the ordinary route. St Mary Magdalene is Grade I as well, and the system that applies there depends on who uses the building.
Which body licenses scaffolding outside a Faversham house?
Kent County Council, as highway authority, receives the scaffolding firm's application with 5 working days' notice. The 2026 to 2027 charge is £52 per week, and Kent County Council grants a skip's road permit separately, at £45 per week. Swale Borough Council handles planning and not the highway, so it is the wrong door for either.
What changes if my roof sits near the St Saviour's Abbey site?
The abbey site is a scheduled monument within about 500 metres of the town centre, and works to a scheduled monument are an offence unless authorised by scheduled monument consent. Whether your house lies inside the scheduled area is a map question we settle before booking scaffold, so the roof job stays on the right side of the boundary.
Send us the Faversham front slope
Photograph the front slope and send it over, or arrange a visit; one total price in writing follows the survey.