Roofers in Appledore

Land inside a National Landscape, the newer name for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, carries a label, and the label has no power to grant or refuse an application. The High Weald team advises. Ashford Borough Council makes the decisions, and swapping a worn covering for a new one is handled the same way on either side of the boundary. Roof extensions are a different matter on land inside it, and our planning guide for roof work sets out where the limits fall.

Whether a given address lies inside the boundary is for the map to say, so look at it before assuming either way. The boundary reaches into the area around the village without taking in the centre, which means two houses a short walk apart can sit on different sides of it. Check the map for your own address; at the survey we can go through it together on a phone or a printed sheet.

On the roof itself the work is the same either way: covering, battens, flashings and gutters, each described in writing before any price is set. A full re-cover is worked out slope by slope, and our roof replacement service explains how the decision between patching and replacing is reached. A sound roof with a few failed tiles is a repair, and the report says so in plain words. Where the covering sits on a pitched frame, our pitched roofing service shows how the battens and underlay beneath it are read, because a tile that looks fine from the lane can be sitting on a rotten batten.

Chute House is list entry 1300008 and Forstall Hall is list entry 1362883, each first listed on 16 August 1962. Listed homes keep their permitted development rights for roof work, and listed building consent is required on top whenever the work touches what makes the building special. Ashford Borough Council is the body that gives it. Quote the entry number when you write; it takes the officer straight to the right building.

The conservation area is a second question for houses near it. Ashford Borough Council counts 43 across the borough and keeps the map, and an address is either on it or off it, which only the map can show. Article 4 directions can take further rights away, so ask Ashford Borough Council about yours.

For a listed roof the survey follows a set order.

• The covering, slope by slope, with photographs of any slipped, cracked or patched areas.
• The ridge and hips, and whether the bedding under them has loosened.
• Lead around each chimney, and whether it can be dressed back instead of replaced.
• The gutters, and the boards that carry them.

The written findings go to the council with our proposal before a price is agreed. Our chimney repairs service covers the stack work that follows a lead survey.

A listed roof may not be a single decision. Part of it may need a refix and part a replacement, so the report separates them slope by slope, with a photograph for each, and the proposal names which parts are repair and which are replace. That lets the council judge a small, specific change instead of a general one, and it lets you see exactly what the price pays for.

Scaffold is part of the same picture. Appledore's lanes are where a scaffold might stand on the road, and where it does, a walk-around scaffold must leave a minimum distance of 1.2 metre between the scaffold and carriageway for pedestrian access, according to Kent County Council. We look at the road before booking so that a permit is not a late surprise.