Nationwide Roofing Southern provides reliable roofing services across Shoreham-by-Sea. With over 50 years of experience, we offer tailored roofing solutions with free surveys and quotes.
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Shoreham Beach is not a normal coastal street, and its roofs are not normal coastal roofs. It sits on a shingle spit with the Channel on one side and the Adur on the other, so a roof there is exposed from more than one direction and gets no shelter from anything. Much of what was built there is low, wide and flat roofed, which means large areas of covering, long perimeter details and very little pitch to help water away. Those are the roofs that punish poor edge detailing fastest, and they are a different job from a pitched roof half a mile inland.
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We prioritise timely project completion with minimal disruption to your home or business, ensuring you receive dependable roofing solutions when you need them.
Our fully accredited and qualified team adheres to the highest industry standards, ensuring safe, professional roofing installations and repairs.
We use premium materials to create long-lasting, weather-resistant roofs that protect your property for years.
We keep every system in house rather than fitting the one we happen to specialise in, so the advice is about your roof and not about our kit:
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A new roof starts underneath the covering. We strip back, check the battens, underlay and rafters, and put right whatever the old roof was hiding before anything new goes on. On exposed Shoreham property the fixings and the perimeter details are usually in worse shape than the covering itself, so that is where the attention goes. Everything is laid to the manufacturer’s specification so the warranty stands behind it.
Roofs here get replaced because exposure has worn them out rather than because of one failure. Tiles slipping after every blow, mortar gone from ridge and verge, flat coverings lifting at the edges. A re-roof is also the one moment when insulation and ventilation can be sorted properly, so they are worth settling then rather than afterwards. We will tell you honestly when a roof still has years left in it.
Most of what we are called to here is wind driven. Perimeter trims lifted on a flat roof, ridge and hip tiles worked loose, flashings that have started to peel back. We trace a leak to where the water is getting in rather than to where it shows on the ceiling, which on a wide flat roof can be several metres apart. Small repairs done early cost far less than what follows if they are left through a winter.
Flat roofs are not an afterthought in Shoreham, they are a good share of the housing. We install and repair felt, single ply, EPDM and GRP fibreglass systems, set the falls so water actually reaches the outlets, and detail the upstands, trims and abutments properly. On a large exposed flat roof the perimeter is the whole argument: get the edge right and the field looks after itself, get it wrong and wind does the rest.
Clay tile and natural slate through the older town, concrete interlocking on the later estates. We match size, profile and colour as closely as we can source when new material is needed, and weathered material never matches new exactly, so we say so before you commit. On an exposed elevation the fixing specification matters as much as the tile, because a correctly fixed roof and a nominally fixed one look identical until it blows.
A green roof needs a deck that will carry the loading, the right falls, and a waterproofing layer designed to sit beneath a growing medium. In Shoreham the practical candidates are usually flat areas on extensions, garages and outbuildings, and newer development where the weight was designed in from the start. We survey before specifying anything and will say plainly if a roof is not suited to one.
Hot melt is a monolithic waterproofing system, laid hot so that it bonds completely to the deck with no seams or laps to fail. It earns its place where a leak would be expensive and disruptive to trace, and where the waterproofing sits beneath something else: a podium deck, a roof terrace, a car park or the build up of a green roof. Because the membrane bonds fully to the substrate, water cannot track between layers, so a defect stays where it happened rather than surfacing somewhere else entirely.
In Shoreham that suits the larger flat areas around the port and on newer residential blocks, and any roof carrying a terrace above the waterproofing. It is one of our own core systems rather than something we subcontract, and we survey the deck and the existing build up before specifying it.
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Away from the beach, Shoreham is an old town. The streets around the historic core run to clay tile and slate on properties that have been re-covered more than once, with mortar bedded ridges and lead details that have had a long working life. Inland toward the Adur valley and up towards Lancing and Southwick there is Victorian and inter war housing, and post war estates on concrete interlocking tile. Two halves of one town, needing two different conversations.
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Nationwide Roofing Southern has been roofing across the South East for over 50 years. We are members of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors and we are CHAS accredited, with full public liability and employer’s liability insurance in place on every job and a certificate available on request. Our system warranties cover labour, materials and damage. Surveys and quotes are free, come in writing, and carry no obligation.
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If a Shoreham roof is leaking, lifting at the edges, or simply old enough to be worth a proper look before winter, the survey costs nothing. We look at the roof and the loft rather than judging it from the pavement, and put in writing whether it needs replacing, repairing or leaving alone, with a price against it.
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Shoreham-by-Sea sits on the West Sussex coast at the mouth of the River Adur, immediately west of Brighton and Hove. The open Channel exposure means salt-laden air corrodes metal flashing, fixings and untreated lead faster than further inland. South-westerly autumn gales test ridge tiles, slate clips and chimney pointing on every roof in the town, and the river-mouth setting adds extra damp on north-facing slopes. We specify marine-grade fixings and account for the corrosive coastal environment on every Shoreham-by-Sea job.
Yes. Shoreham-by-Sea has multiple conservation areas covering the historic Old Town, the Beach area, parts of the riverside and the Marlipins-area streets, with listed buildings throughout. Conservation area rules and listed building consent are the homeowner’s responsibility and can restrict roof shape, slope, tile material and rooflight placement. We recommend checking with Adur District Council’s planning team before any roof work begins, and we will work to whatever specification the council approves.
Shoreham-by-Sea’s housing stock is varied. The Old Town runs to timber-framed and brick cottages with clay-tile pitched roofs. Victorian and Edwardian terraces spread across the town with natural-slate or clay-tile pitched roofs and lead-lined valley gutters. Beach-area, seafront and marina developments include modern apartment blocks and houseboats, with the houseboat community on the Adur a particular Shoreham-by-Sea feature that brings unusual flashing and weathering questions. Newer estates use concrete interlocking tiles, with hot melt or EPDM on flat extensions, garages and dormers, often using marine-grade fixings. Each comes with a different maintenance pattern.
After a strong southerly or south-westerly off the Channel, look for slipped, cracked or missing slates and tiles, dislodged ridge or hip tiles, debris in valley gutters and parapet boxes, and damp patches on top-floor ceilings or chimney breasts. Salt-corroded fixings on older lead flashing are a particular vulnerability on Shoreham-by-Sea coastal-edge properties, and houseboats and marina-side homes need an extra check on flashing seals after high winds. If you spot anything, get it covered or assessed before the next weather front arrives.
Exposure from more than one direction. A property on the spit has the Channel on one side and the Adur on the other, with nothing in between to break the wind, so a roof there takes load from angles an inland roof never sees. A lot of the housing is also low, wide and flat roofed, which means large areas of covering and long perimeter details. That combination is unforgiving: the field of a flat roof rarely fails first, the edges and trims do, and wind finds them.
Where the insulation sits. On a cold roof it goes at ceiling level, leaving the space above it cold and needing ventilation so moist air can escape. On a warm roof the insulation sits above the structural deck, directly under the waterproofing, so the deck stays warm and there is no cold void to ventilate. Warm construction is generally the better answer on a flat roof and it is usually what we would specify on a replacement, though it does raise the finished level, which matters where the roof meets a door threshold or a window.
Often yes, but it is a decision to make before the roof is built rather than afterwards. A roof you walk on needs the structure to carry the extra load, a waterproofing system that will take foot traffic and whatever surface goes over it, and drainage that still works with something sitting on top. Once a terrace is down, any fault underneath means lifting it to reach the problem. That is exactly the case where hot melt earns its place, because it bonds to the deck with no seams for water to travel along.
More than people expect. Nesting material blocks valleys, gutters and flat roof outlets, which is what turns rain that should have run away into standing water. Birds also work at loose mortar and lifted flashings and make a small gap a larger one. On the coast it is a recurring maintenance issue rather than a one off, and the roofing consequence is the part we deal with: clearing what is causing water to back up and putting right the tiles, flashings and details that have been damaged.
Usually something you can see from a window rather than a leak. Water still sitting on the roof a day or two after rain means the falls or the outlets are not doing their job. Blistering, splits at a seam, or a trim lifting at the edge all say the covering is moving. Inside, look for staining at the junction where the flat roof meets the wall, because that abutment is where most flat roofs let go. A flat roof that has started to hold water is on a clock, and the sooner it is looked at the smaller the job.
Both, and they need different conversations. The older streets run to clay tile and slate on buildings that have been re-covered more than once, with mortar bedded ridges and lead details at the end of a long working life. The beach houses are mostly flat roofed, wide and fully exposed. Same town, genuinely different jobs, which is why we survey rather than quote from a description over the phone.
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At Nationwide Roofing Southern, we are members of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) and we are CHAS accredited. Our accreditations reflect our commitment to high-quality service, strict safety standards, and lasting results. Whether it’s repairs, installations, or maintenance, you can trust our skilled team to deliver reliable roofing solutions that meet industry expectations.
