Question 1

What should I know about the roof on a Macclesfield terrace?

Accepted Answer

Three things: it is probably Welsh slate on original iron nails, so nail sickness is the likely eventual failure; the chimney stack is probably shared, which brings the Party Wall Act into any work on it; and there is often no private ground at the front for a scaffold, so it goes on the pavement under a council licence. Macclesfield's terraces are a specific building type with a specific set of roofing consequences, and knowing them saves both surprise and money. Start with the age. VOA council tax stock data puts central Macclesfield at 54.1% pre-1919, against an England average of 20.1%. That is a genuine concentration, and it is not true of the town as a whole — Tytherington is 1.5% pre-1919 and Weston is 80.3% built between 1945 and 1982. The centre is old; the town is not unusually so. Two roofs a couple of miles apart here are frequently different trades. In the centre that means Welsh slate on iron nails, which arrived in quantity once the railways made it cheap. The slate itself is excellent and will comfortably do a century or more. The nails will not: they corrode, and somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty years they start letting go one at a time. That is nail sickness, and it is why so many of these roofs are being stripped and re-laid now — with the sound slates salvaged and re-laid on treated battens with copper or stainless nails. The chimney is the second thing. In a terrace the stack usually sits on the party wall and is shared, even where only your flue runs through it. That makes any real work on it party wall work under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, requiring two months' written notice to the neighbour. It also means that if you take your half down, the neighbour's newly exposed face has to be weathered — and that is your job. The third is access, and it is the one that surprises people most. The Macclesfield Character Assessment describes the silk-era workers' cottages and three-storey weavers' garrets as 'built hard up against the pavement edge'. There is frequently no private ground at the front to stand a scaffold on, so it goes on the footway — which needs a licence from Cheshire East as highway authority, applied for in advance and chargeable. On a three-storey weaver's garret that is a serious piece of scaffolding. Fourth, and easily missed: the conservation areas. There are several across the town centre and beyond, and Article 4(2) directions at Christ Church and High Street remove permitted-development rights outright. A like-for-like slate re-cover is normally fine; a change of material may not be. Check before ordering. Fifth, the drains. Since 1 October 2011, drains shared between properties belong to the water company — and in a terrace your rainwater gully very often discharges into exactly that kind of shared run. A blockage past the point where your drain joins next door's is normally United Utilities' to clear, free.

Question 2

Silk town terrace roof

Accepted Answer

Three things: it is probably Welsh slate on original iron nails, so nail sickness is the likely eventual failure; the chimney stack is probably shared, which brings the Party Wall Act into any work on it; and there is often no private ground at the front for a scaffold, so it goes on the pavement under a council licence. Macclesfield's terraces are a specific building type with a specific set of roofing consequences, and knowing them saves both surprise and money. Start with the age. VOA council tax stock data puts central Macclesfield at 54.1% pre-1919, against an England average of 20.1%. That is a genuine concentration, and it is not true of the town as a whole — Tytherington is 1.5% pre-1919 and Weston is 80.3% built between 1945 and 1982. The centre is old; the town is not unusually so. Two roofs a couple of miles apart here are frequently different trades. In the centre that means Welsh slate on iron nails, which arrived in quantity once the railways made it cheap. The slate itself is excellent and will comfortably do a century or more. The nails will not: they corrode, and somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty years they start letting go one at a time. That is nail sickness, and it is why so many of these roofs are being stripped and re-laid now — with the sound slates salvaged and re-laid on treated battens with copper or stainless nails. The chimney is the second thing. In a terrace the stack usually sits on the party wall and is shared, even where only your flue runs through it. That makes any real work on it party wall work under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, requiring two months' written notice to the neighbour. It also means that if you take your half down, the neighbour's newly exposed face has to be weathered — and that is your job. The third is access, and it is the one that surprises people most. The Macclesfield Character Assessment describes the silk-era workers' cottages and three-storey weavers' garrets as 'built hard up against the pavement edge'. There is frequently no private ground at the front to stand a scaffold on, so it goes on the footway — which needs a licence from Cheshire East as highway authority, applied for in advance and chargeable. On a three-storey weaver's garret that is a serious piece of scaffolding. Fourth, and easily missed: the conservation areas. There are several across the town centre and beyond, and Article 4(2) directions at Christ Church and High Street remove permitted-development rights outright. A like-for-like slate re-cover is normally fine; a change of material may not be. Check before ordering. Fifth, the drains. Since 1 October 2011, drains shared between properties belong to the water company — and in a terrace your rainwater gully very often discharges into exactly that kind of shared run. A blockage past the point where your drain joins next door's is normally United Utilities' to clear, free.

Question 3

Victorian terrace roofing Macclesfield

Accepted Answer

Three things: it is probably Welsh slate on original iron nails, so nail sickness is the likely eventual failure; the chimney stack is probably shared, which brings the Party Wall Act into any work on it; and there is often no private ground at the front for a scaffold, so it goes on the pavement under a council licence. Macclesfield's terraces are a specific building type with a specific set of roofing consequences, and knowing them saves both surprise and money. Start with the age. VOA council tax stock data puts central Macclesfield at 54.1% pre-1919, against an England average of 20.1%. That is a genuine concentration, and it is not true of the town as a whole — Tytherington is 1.5% pre-1919 and Weston is 80.3% built between 1945 and 1982. The centre is old; the town is not unusually so. Two roofs a couple of miles apart here are frequently different trades. In the centre that means Welsh slate on iron nails, which arrived in quantity once the railways made it cheap. The slate itself is excellent and will comfortably do a century or more. The nails will not: they corrode, and somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty years they start letting go one at a time. That is nail sickness, and it is why so many of these roofs are being stripped and re-laid now — with the sound slates salvaged and re-laid on treated battens with copper or stainless nails. The chimney is the second thing. In a terrace the stack usually sits on the party wall and is shared, even where only your flue runs through it. That makes any real work on it party wall work under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, requiring two months' written notice to the neighbour. It also means that if you take your half down, the neighbour's newly exposed face has to be weathered — and that is your job. The third is access, and it is the one that surprises people most. The Macclesfield Character Assessment describes the silk-era workers' cottages and three-storey weavers' garrets as 'built hard up against the pavement edge'. There is frequently no private ground at the front to stand a scaffold on, so it goes on the footway — which needs a licence from Cheshire East as highway authority, applied for in advance and chargeable. On a three-storey weaver's garret that is a serious piece of scaffolding. Fourth, and easily missed: the conservation areas. There are several across the town centre and beyond, and Article 4(2) directions at Christ Church and High Street remove permitted-development rights outright. A like-for-like slate re-cover is normally fine; a change of material may not be. Check before ordering. Fifth, the drains. Since 1 October 2011, drains shared between properties belong to the water company — and in a terrace your rainwater gully very often discharges into exactly that kind of shared run. A blockage past the point where your drain joins next door's is normally United Utilities' to clear, free.

Question 4

Terraced house roof problems

Accepted Answer

Three things: it is probably Welsh slate on original iron nails, so nail sickness is the likely eventual failure; the chimney stack is probably shared, which brings the Party Wall Act into any work on it; and there is often no private ground at the front for a scaffold, so it goes on the pavement under a council licence. Macclesfield's terraces are a specific building type with a specific set of roofing consequences, and knowing them saves both surprise and money. Start with the age. VOA council tax stock data puts central Macclesfield at 54.1% pre-1919, against an England average of 20.1%. That is a genuine concentration, and it is not true of the town as a whole — Tytherington is 1.5% pre-1919 and Weston is 80.3% built between 1945 and 1982. The centre is old; the town is not unusually so. Two roofs a couple of miles apart here are frequently different trades. In the centre that means Welsh slate on iron nails, which arrived in quantity once the railways made it cheap. The slate itself is excellent and will comfortably do a century or more. The nails will not: they corrode, and somewhere between eighty and a hundred and twenty years they start letting go one at a time. That is nail sickness, and it is why so many of these roofs are being stripped and re-laid now — with the sound slates salvaged and re-laid on treated battens with copper or stainless nails. The chimney is the second thing. In a terrace the stack usually sits on the party wall and is shared, even where only your flue runs through it. That makes any real work on it party wall work under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, requiring two months' written notice to the neighbour. It also means that if you take your half down, the neighbour's newly exposed face has to be weathered — and that is your job. The third is access, and it is the one that surprises people most. The Macclesfield Character Assessment describes the silk-era workers' cottages and three-storey weavers' garrets as 'built hard up against the pavement edge'. There is frequently no private ground at the front to stand a scaffold on, so it goes on the footway — which needs a licence from Cheshire East as highway authority, applied for in advance and chargeable. On a three-storey weaver's garret that is a serious piece of scaffolding. Fourth, and easily missed: the conservation areas. There are several across the town centre and beyond, and Article 4(2) directions at Christ Church and High Street remove permitted-development rights outright. A like-for-like slate re-cover is normally fine; a change of material may not be. Check before ordering. Fifth, the drains. Since 1 October 2011, drains shared between properties belong to the water company — and in a terrace your rainwater gully very often discharges into exactly that kind of shared run. A blockage past the point where your drain joins next door's is normally United Utilities' to clear, free.

What should I know about the roof on a Macclesfield terrace?

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