Eastry · 16.1 road miles north-east
Roofers in Eastry
A Grade I church, two Grade I houses and a conservation area share this village, so the survey starts with your address and what the paperwork says about it. We look, we explain what we found, and we price. You are told what was found.
- Eastry's Grade I church
- St Mary the Virgin, used for Church of England worship, so works go by faculty
- Re-covering a roof
- Dover District Council wants approval first when a covering is replaced, even if this is just like for like
- Scaffold on the road
- Kent County Council licence, £52 per week for 2026 to 2027; we arrange it with our scaffolder
- Drive from Folkestone
- 16.1 road miles, about 26 minutes by road
Under Eastry's Grade I skyline: three faults, three verdicts
What we found
Slipped slates along one hipped end, the rest tight
What it fairly needs
Refix them on new clips, and the sound ones stay exactly where they are.
What we found
Damp patch on a ceiling under a chimney stack
What it fairly needs
Open up the flashing and the stack first, then put a price to the work.
What we found
Gutter run sagging, with joints weeping at the seams
What it fairly needs
A new run on fresh brackets, laid to a fall, with the fascia checked.
The fair ledger
Three Grade I buildings, a conservation area and your Eastry roof
Eastry has a Grade I church, two Grade I houses and a conservation area, and Dover District Council sets its own bar for replacing a roof covering. All three entries below close on a stamp.
Entry 01Grade I neighbours
St Mary the Virgin, Eastry Court and Fairfield House: who gives consent
Three Grade I listed buildings stand in Eastry, and each has its own consent route, so work on or beside one starts with a question rather than a ladder.
Faculty for the church, consent for the houses
On Historic England's list, the Church of St Mary the Virgin (list entry 1363287), Eastry Court (1366610) and Fairfield House (1070186) all hold Grade I. St Mary's is used for Church of England worship, which puts any work to it under the faculty system, the Church's own permission route, instead of listed building consent from the council.
A listed house follows the Listed Buildings Act instead. Listed homes keep their permitted development rights for roof work; what they add is a second consent, needed once the work reaches the character that earned the listing. Where an Eastry house turns out to be listed, the quote waits until Dover District Council has been asked what consent the job needs, and the answer is written down beside the price, so the paperwork travels with the quote.
You can look an address up on the National Heritage List yourself, and we run the same search before we price anything, noting the date it was done. For lead at a stack or an abutment wall, our lead work and chimney repairs pages show how those jobs are done. A neighbouring house that is not listed follows the ordinary rules for its own address, and our planning permission guide sets out what falls beyond a plain re-cover.
One village, three marks
Lead lifted at a listed chimney
Consent first
Loose ridge on an unlisted house
Re-bed or dry-fix
Battens rotten over a single slope
Strip and re-batten
Myth: A listing means no one may touch the roof.
Fact: Listed houses are repaired and re-covered all the time; consent comes into it where the work would change what makes the building special.
Entry 02Council approval
Replacing a roof covering in Eastry: Dover wants to hear first
Dover District Council puts a re-cover among the jobs needing approval, however closely the new covering matches the old, and Eastry sits inside its district.
Approval before the first tile comes off
Dover District Council's building control team names "replacement of roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs even if this is just like for like" among the work that needs approval, and it names installing roof lights too. Eastry is in Dover's district, so the route is agreed with the council before any re-roof starts. A smaller repair that stops short of replacing the covering is a separate question, and the survey sorts one from the other on the day, slope by slope.
Building control work is done either in-house by a council or by a registered building control approver. For an Eastry address it is the in-house Dover team that we ask, and a Dover question never goes to another district's office.
Under the Planning Portal's guide, which is national, an application is not normally needed where less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. It adds that approval is needed if a new covering "increases the weight of the roof covering by 15 per cent or more". Dover is the stricter of the two, so it sets the order of work here: survey, then the council, then the written price for a full roof replacement or a lesser repair.
What comes into view when the covering goes
- Covering on top
- Batten it hangs from
- Underlay beneath
- Rafter carrying the lot
Replacing the covering uncovers the battens and underlay, so the survey can read them.
What sets the price
- How much of the covering changes
- What lies under the old covering
- Whether approval is needed first
- How the scaffold is set out
One written total price
Myth: A new covering that matches the old needs no approval.
Fact: In Dover District Council's district the swap counts as work needing approval, so the council is asked before any scaffold goes up.
Looking up the boundary line
Living near the centre tells you the conservation area is close, not that your house is inside it. Dover District Council publishes the conservation areas in its district, 57 in all, and the boundary of each is on its heritage pages. Your address is checked against the boundary before a price goes on paper, because the answer decides which questions come next.
Ordinary re-roofing is normally permitted development even in a conservation area, but an Article 4 direction can remove further rights. Whether a direction reaches your road is for Dover District Council to confirm, so check with the council before any work is booked. We write down what it tells us and put that beside the price, so nothing is left to memory.
A house outside the boundary simply carries on to the survey. Where it is inside, the quote sets out the council's answer first and the roof work second. Anything that goes past a plain re-cover, a dormer for instance, is covered in our planning permission guide, and a visit to the loft shows whether the fairer answer is a repair or a re-cover for the roof you have.
Entry 03Village boundary
Eastry's conservation area: your address and Dover's published boundary
A conservation area sits near the centre of Eastry, and Dover District Council is the body that says whether a given roof falls inside it or beside it.
Is my Eastry house inside the conservation area?
Only Dover District Council's published boundary can say for one address. The Eastry conservation area is near the village centre, so a house in the middle is worth checking, and we look it up with the council before we price. A house on the edge of the village may sit outside it, and the lookup settles that too.
A boundary answers the paperwork question; the survey answers everything under the covering.
Is your Eastry roof one for the council's boundary, or for the heritage list?
Send us the address and a photograph. We look it up, mark the roof repair, replace or check, and then give you one written price for the work.
Out to Eastry
Eastry lies north-east of Folkestone: 16.1 road miles and around 26 minutes of driving. At the 2021 Census the parish had 2,388 usual residents, and the survey, the council check and the scaffold booking are planned together, so a single visit covers the slopes, the guttering and the loft.
Ridge, licence and gutter questions from Eastry
Straight replies for a village holding a church, a court and a conservation area.
Can a loose ridge on an Eastry house be re-bedded instead of re-roofed?
Yes, where the covering beneath it is sound. The survey reads how the ridge is held, whether the mortar has cracked or washed out, and whether the battens under the covering are firm. A ridge can be re-bedded with a mechanical fixing or swapped for a dry-fixed one. Marley, a tile maker, calls mortar by itself "no longer relied upon" for holding a ridge, so a patch of fresh mortar is not the repair we would offer. If the covering has failed, you are told.
Is a scaffold licence needed for roof work on an Eastry street?
We arrange it with our scaffolder. Kent County Council issues the highway licence for scaffolding here and charges £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, for each permit of 7 calendar days. Kent County Council's householder guidance says it is the scaffolding company that should submit the application on your behalf, and renewals are asked for 5 working days before a permit ends, which matters for any job that outlasts its first permit. The scaffold dates are shared with neighbours in good time.
Which building control team deals with a new roof in Eastry?
Dover District Council's own team. Dover counts "replacement of roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs even if this is just like for like" as work needing approval, so the council is told before a re-roof is started, and its team can ask for details. The national Planning Portal test, less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof, is background only, and Dover's wording is the stricter, so its answer comes first.
What does a survey of an Eastry roof actually look at?
A survey starts at the ridge and hips, works down through the valleys and the lead at chimneys, and finishes with the gutters, fascias and downpipes. Inside, a loft visit looks for daylight, damp staining and soft timber beneath the covering, and the battens are inspected wherever an arm can reach them. Each part gets a repair, replace or check label, and the price follows once the council's answer is in, where one was needed. Photographs of each finding come with the written price.
Can Eastry gutters be replaced without touching the roof?
Yes, where the fascia behind them is sound and the roof edge is not leaking. The run needs a fall towards the outlet, and Brett Martin advises 1 mm for every 600 mm. We check the brackets, the joints and the outlets along the run, and replace the stretch that has failed, leaving the covering above it alone. Our gutters, soffits and fascias work covers the wider job where the boards behind have gone as well. A sound run stays on the wall.
My Eastry chimney leaks in rain: is it a repair or a rebuild?
The stack itself decides it. Where the pointing has crumbled but the brickwork stands, the work is repointing and fresh flashing. Where the stack leans or its courses have shifted, a rebuild is the fairer answer, and the quote says why. MyJobQuote says correctly installed lead flashing can last for over 80 years, so a lifted strip is mended before anything is torn out, and a sound stack is left as it is. Photographs of the stack come with the price.
Tell us what your Eastry roof is doing
A photograph of the stain or the slipped slate is enough to begin. You'll get one written total price.