Nationwide Roofing Southern delivers professional roofing services across Wonersh. With over 50 years of experience, we provide high-quality roofing solutions backed by free surveys and quotes.
Or speak with our friendly team:
Roofing in a village like Wonersh, where a good share of the houses are listed or inside the conservation area and most of the rest are large and old, tends to come with a request for paperwork before it comes with a request for a price. We are used to that. Nationwide Roofing Southern has been roofing for over 50 years, we are members of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors and we are CHAS accredited. Every Wonersh job carries full public liability and employer’s liability insurance, with certificates available on request, and the roofing systems we install come with a written warranty covering labour, materials and damage.
What we also bring is the habit of surveying properly before quoting. On the roofs around Wonersh the expensive part is rarely the tiles; it is the junctions, the lead and the timber, and none of those can be priced from the lane. The survey is free, the quote is written, and both come before anything is agreed.
Or speak with our friendly team:
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.
A great many of the older houses in and around Wonersh are built of Bargate stone, the hard, honey coloured sandstone quarried around Godalming, often with small chips of ironstone pressed into the mortar joints in the local fashion. It is a handsome wall and a difficult one for a roofer, because everywhere a roof meets it there has to be lead, and lead needs a straight, sound joint to be chased into. Rubble stone does not offer one. The result, on house after house, is flashing that was bedded in mortar rather than properly let into the wall, soakers that were never fitted, and chimney and abutment details that have been sealed over with mastic every few years since the last roofer gave up on them.
Those junctions are where Wonersh roofs leak, far more often than through the tiles themselves. When we survey a stone built house here we look first at the chimneys, the abutments where a lower roof runs into a higher wall, and the back gutters behind stacks, and when we work on them we cut and dress the lead to suit the stone rather than the other way round. It takes longer and it lasts, which on a house that has been mastic patched for thirty years is the point.
Or speak with our friendly team:
New roofs in Wonersh are usually over extensions to older houses, and the hard part is where the new roof meets the old wall. We design and install the complete system, structure, underlay, covering and leadwork, and on a stone built house we detail the abutment into the stone properly at the outset, with stepped and cover flashings cut to suit the wall, so the junction is not the leak in five years’ time.
When a Wonersh roof has reached the end of its life we strip it back, deal with any timber that needs it, and re-cover with underlay, new battens and clay tile or slate matched to the house, following the settled line of the old roof rather than forcing it straight. All the lead at chimneys and abutments is renewed as part of the same job, since a new roof with the old flashings is only half a new roof.
Failed lead at chimneys and abutments, slipped and broken plain tiles, loose ridge tiles and leaking valleys make up most of the repair work we do in Wonersh. We trace the water to where it is actually getting in, which on a large roof is often nowhere near the stain, and price the repair against what is genuinely needed rather than sealing over the symptom again.
Extensions, garages, dormers and the flat roofs over wings of the larger houses around Wonersh all need waterproofing that will last, and most of the older ones are on felt that has already been patched. We install and replace flat roofs in EPDM, GRP, single ply and hot melt systems, matched to the size of the roof and what drains onto it, and we get the falls and outlets right so water leaves the roof rather than sitting on it.
Wonersh’s older roofs are clay plain and peg tile on steep pitches, with slate on some of the Victorian houses and clay or concrete tile on everything since. We repair and replace all of them, match hand made and machine made clay so a repaired slope does not stand out from the street, and re-detail the ridges, verges, valleys and flashings that give these roofs most of their trouble.
The larger houses around Wonersh often have a flat roof over a wing or a garage that is seen from the bedroom windows, and a green roof turns it into something worth looking at while sheltering the waterproofing from sun and frost. We build green roof systems on a waterproof layer specified for the purpose, and confirm the structure can carry the saturated growing medium before anything goes on.
Hot melt waterproofing is applied as a liquid, reinforced as it sets, and finishes as a single seamless layer with no joints for water to find. Around Wonersh it comes into its own on larger flat roofs, on podium decks and on roofs that will be covered by a terrace or a green roof, where the waterproofing has to work unseen for decades.
Or speak with our friendly team:
The village street is the oldest roofing in Wonersh: timber framed and stone houses under steep clay plain tile and peg tile roofs, a few in slate, with the tall chimneys and awkward abutments that come with buildings that were extended sideways over the centuries. Around Wonersh Park and along the lanes to Blackheath, Bramley and Shamley Green are the larger Victorian, Edwardian and interwar houses, with big hipped clay tile roofs full of valleys, dormers and secondary roofs over wings and bays. Up on Blackheath itself the houses sit among pines on sandy ground. And around the edges of the village is the twentieth century housing, under concrete or clay tile, with the extensions, garages and flat roofs that have been added since. Each of those needs different roofing, and we work on all of them.
Or speak with our friendly team:
Most of what we do in Wonersh is repair: renewing lead at chimneys and abutments, replacing slipped and broken plain and peg tiles, re-fixing ridges and verges, clearing and re-lining valleys, and tracing leaks on large roofs where the water surfaces a long way from where it gets in. When a roof is past repairing we strip and re-cover it with underlay, new battens and clay tile or slate matched to the house, keeping its settled shape. We build new roofs on extensions and rebuilds, install and replace flat roofs in EPDM, GRP, single ply and hot melt, and put green roof systems on extension and garage roofs where the structure allows. Every job, from a single tile to a whole roof, starts with a free survey and a written quote.
Or speak with our friendly team:
If a stone built house in Wonersh has a chimney or an abutment that keeps leaking, a large roof that has not been looked at in years, or a flat roof on an extension that has been patched before, the survey is free and so is the written quote. Send us the address and a note of what you have seen, and we will come and look at it. Request your free Wonersh roof survey.
Or speak with our friendly team:
Wonersh is sheltered compared with the coast, but a westerly comes up the Wey valley with enough force to lift ridge tiles and work at chimney pointing, and the higher ground at Blackheath takes more wind than the village street. The bigger factor here is water rather than wind: the village is heavily wooded, so leaf fall blocks valleys and gutters every autumn, shaded slopes stay damp and grow moss, and the junctions where a roof meets a stone wall hold water against the lead for weeks at a time. Frost then does its work on wet mortar and old clay. Salt is not a factor this far inland.
Yes. Wonersh has a designated conservation area covering the historic core of the village, 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. Surrey Hills AONB status adds another planning layer. We recommend checking with Waverley Borough Council’s planning team before any roof work begins, and we will work to whatever specification the council approves.
Wonersh has a strong stock of timber-framed Tudor and Jacobean cottages with clay-tile and natural-slate pitched roofs, alongside Victorian villas and inter-war detached and semi-detached housing. Newer estate housing and modern infills around the village edges run concrete interlocking tiles, with hot melt or EPDM on flat extensions, garages and dormers. Each comes with a different maintenance pattern.
Look for what has come down first: branches across the slopes and a fresh load of leaves in the valleys and gutters are the usual Wonersh finds. Then check the slopes for slipped, cracked or missing tiles, the ridges and hips for tiles that have moved, and, on a stone built house particularly, the lead around the chimneys and along any abutment for anything that has lifted or torn, because those junctions are where a Wonersh roof most often lets water in. Inside, look at the top floor ceilings and the chimney breasts, and in the loft if you can get to it. If something is open, have it covered or looked at before the next front rather than waiting to see whether it leaks.
Because it was rarely fitted properly in the first place. Lead flashing needs to be let into a straight, sound joint in the wall and wedged and pointed there, and a Bargate stone wall with its irregular blocks and galleted joints does not offer one. So on many Wonersh houses the flashing was simply bedded on the surface in mortar, with no soakers under the tiles, and it has been pulling away and being sealed over ever since. Add the movement of an old timber framed roof against a rigid stone wall and the joint opens a little every year. The fix is to cut the lead to suit the stone, use soakers and stepped flashings where the roof abuts, and fix it so it can move without tearing. Done that way it lasts for decades.
Yes. Surrey is part of the area we cover, alongside Sussex, Kent and London, and Wonersh sits in the middle of the Surrey Hills part of it, south east of Guildford. We survey and quote for roofing work in the village and the settlements around it, including Bramley, Shamley Green, Blackheath, Chilworth and Shalford. If you are not certain whether your address is one we cover, ask. It costs nothing to find out and the survey is free either way.
Yes. The lead around a chimney, meaning the front apron, the stepped flashings up each side, the soakers under the tiles and the back gutter behind the stack, is roofing work and it is one of the commonest repairs we do in Wonersh. On a stone chimney the lead usually needs to be renewed rather than re-dressed, cut to suit the stone and fixed so it can move, and the back gutter behind the stack is worth particular attention because it is where leaves collect and water sits. We look at the whole chimney detail on the survey and the quote sets out exactly which pieces of lead are being renewed and why.
Almost always because the abutment was never detailed properly for stone. Where a lower roof runs into a higher wall there should be soakers under each course of tiles and a stepped cover flashing let into the wall above them, so water on the wall is thrown out over the tiles. On a rubble stone wall the flashing is often just a strip of lead bedded on the face in mortar, or a line of mastic, and once that cracks the water runs straight down the wall and under the tiles. Sealing it again buys a season. Rebuilding the detail with soakers and a properly cut and fixed cover flashing, sized for the stone it is going into, is what stops it, and it is a repair rather than a re-roof.
Yes, and they make up a good share of the work here. The larger Victorian, Edwardian and interwar houses around Wonersh have big hipped roofs with several valleys, secondary roofs over wings and bays, dormers, and often a flat roof or two, so the number of junctions is what sets them apart, and a leak on one can surface a long way from where the water gets in. We survey the whole roof rather than the wet patch, trace the water to its entry point, and quote for what is actually needed, whether that is a single valley re-lined or a full re-roof with all the leadwork renewed.
Yes, and on a stone built house it is not optional. With the tiles off, every chimney, abutment and valley is open and accessible, and new lead can be cut, sized and fixed to suit the stone at a fraction of the effort of doing it later from a scaffold. A re-roof that keeps the old flashings keeps the old leaks, because on a Wonersh house the flashings are usually what was failing in the first place. Our re-roof quotes set out the leadwork as part of the job, and our system warranty covering labour, materials and damage applies to the roof as a whole.
Or speak with our friendly team:
Or speak with our friendly team:
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.
