Saltwood · 5.2 road miles west of Folkestone
Roofers in Saltwood
A village with a Grade I castle, a Grade II* church and conservation areas close by. Describe the fault, or send a photograph, and what we conclude arrives with its reasoning before the price does.
- Castle
- Saltwood Castle, Grade I, with scheduled portions
- Parish church
- Grade II* St Peter and St Paul's, under the faculty system
- Conservation areas near the village
- Saltwood and Hythe
- Who licenses the scaffold
- Kent County Council licence, £52 per week for 2026 to 2027
Saltwood roofs: three findings, three verdicts
What we found
Lead lifting at a chimney stack
What it fairly needs
Find why, then reflash in the right code.
What we found
A roof near the castle grounds
What it fairly needs
Read the list entry first.
What we found
Valley lining split over rotten board
What it fairly needs
Strip the valley and relay it.
The fair ledger
A castle neighbour, lead at the stack and slate pitch in Saltwood
Saltwood has a Grade I castle and a Grade II* church, and its centre lies 0.99 miles from the coastline. Three entries take the consent question, the lead and the slate pitch, each ending in a verdict.
Entry 01Castle neighbours
A castle, its lodge and a church: whose permission applies?
Saltwood Castle is Grade I and partly scheduled, its former lodge is Grade II, and St Peter and St Paul's, the parish church, holds Grade II*. Each sits under a different set of consent rules.
One village, three sets of rules
Saltwood Castle (list entry 1344198) is listed Grade I, and its uninhabited portions are also a scheduled monument (list entry 1005178). Works to a scheduled monument need scheduled monument consent, and doing them without authority is an offence under section 2 of the 1979 Act on scheduled monuments. No roofer starts on such a structure on a handshake.
The Former Lodge to Saltwood Castle (list entry 1061093) is Grade II. A lodge or house on the list needs listed building consent from the district council whenever the work touches its character, yet it keeps its permitted development rights for roof work, so both questions are put together before a covering is lifted.
St Peter and St Paul's (list entry 1344199) still holds Church of England services. Its roof is dealt with under the faculty system and not through listed building consent, so neither the council nor our own opinion settles it.
Which conservation areas lie close to Saltwood?
The Saltwood and Hythe conservation areas both lie close to the village. Swapping a covering like for like normally remains permitted development in a conservation area as well, while an Article 4 direction may take away rights beyond that, so the district council is where your road gets checked. We write to it with your address and hand you the reply.
If your house stands near the castle
A roof is not listed merely because a listed building stands nearby. What changes is the care we take. We photograph the elevation facing the castle side first and record the roof as it stands, before any proposal is drawn up, and we ask whether your own house is recorded in the national heritage listing. If it is, the entry number given to the council points it at the right building. Whether a dormer could ever be added is a planning question for our planning guide for roof work.
Slipped slates, listed lodge nearby
Ask Folkestone & Hythe District Council first
Ridge bedding failing, slates sound
Refix the ridge
Entry 02Lead at the stack
Lead lifting at a chimney stack: reflash it, or find what moved
Correctly installed lead flashing can last for over 80 years, says MyJobQuote, so when it lifts at a chimney the question is why it lifted.
What decides the lead
Lead sheet is made in codes 3 to 8, and the specification names the code for each detail. Royston Lead's brochure sets code 4 against soakers, flashings, a pitched valley gutter and dormers, and code 5 against flashings, a valley gutter, parapets and dormers. A thin code on a detail that wants a thicker one is a fault built into the roof from day one.
A flashing lifts for a reason. The stack may have moved, the mortar joint the lead was dressed into may have worn away, or a stepped flashing may have lost its soakers beneath. We look at the cause before we recommend new lead, because if the cause is still there, new lead will lift in turn. A stack that has settled even a few millimetres away from the roof can pull a flashing off its joint, which is why we press along the joint with a thumb and look for daylight beside the brickwork. Once it is dealt with, the verdict is a repair: fresh lead dressed into a raked-out joint, and the rest of the roof left alone. If the stack itself has failed, the chimney repairs come first and the lead second, so the new metal is not asked to hold up a moving wall. We explain that order of work before you agree to anything. A visit to the stack from the scaffold, with the old lead peeled back, shows the state of the joint more truthfully than any view from the ground.
- Stepped flashing up the side
- Joint it is dressed into
- Soakers beneath it
- Flaunching round the pots
At the stack, the survey looks at
- Whether the mortar joint holding the lead has crumbled.
- How the lead is dressed over the covering, and whether it has split at a fold.
- The soakers, the small lead pieces that sit beneath each step of a stepped flashing.
- The flaunching, the mortar cap that holds the pots in place at the top of the stack.
- Whether the stack itself leans, which no flashing can cure.
Our lead work service covers the dressing, and our chimney repairs service covers the masonry above it.
Code 4
the lead sheet code Royston lists for soakers and flashings
the specification sets the code
Pitch, hooks and the data sheet
Cupa says BS 5534 gives natural slate a minimum roof pitch of 20 degrees where exposure is moderate, for a slate 500 mm long laid with a 115 mm overlap, and adds that hooks are not to be relied on for any pitch below 25 degrees. Those figures belong to one size of slate and one grade of exposure, so we read the maker's data sheet for the slate on your roof and never lean on a rule of thumb.
If your roof is slate, a slipped slate is not a verdict until the survey has asked why it slipped. A failed nail, a rotted batten and a missing clip each lead to a different job. One refix on sound battens is a repair. A run of slates dropping across a slope, with battens that crumble when pressed, points towards a strip and relay, and we show you the battens in photographs so the case is plain to you. Where the roof can stay, it stays.
Entry 03Slate pitch
Slate roofs: the pitch, the hooks and the exposure all get checked
Saltwood's centre is 0.99 miles from the coastline, and Cupa writes that a coastal area is graded for higher exposure. For slate, exposure and pitch are read together.
Myth: A single slipped slate proves the roof has nothing left to give.
Fact: Where the battens and the slates beside it are sound, putting it back is the fair answer, and the survey tells us which case you have.
- The slate that has dropped
- Batten it hangs from
- Clip holding its tail
The National Landscape at the edge
The Kent Downs National Landscape reaches the ground close to Saltwood, but the middle of Saltwood sits beyond its edge. The boundary map, not a guess, tells you whether a given address falls inside. The designation is not a planning authority: Folkestone & Hythe District Council decides applications while the Kent Downs team advises, and a plain re-roof proceeds under the standard rules. Our slate roofing service explains how the survey is carried out.
A Saltwood roof you want a straight opinion on?
Ring or send photographs, and a visit is fixed so the lead, the slopes and the gutters are all looked at together.
Out to Saltwood by road
Saltwood is 5.2 road miles west of Folkestone, about 13 minutes by road, and at the 2021 Census the parish had 857 usual residents. Photographs taken from the ground and the loft hatch tell us most of what we need before a visit, and a note of when the problem shows, in rain or after wind, helps as much as the picture does. The survey comes next, and the one written total price comes after that.
Saltwood slopes, the castle listing and chimney lead
What gets checked on a slate roof in Saltwood before it is refixed?
Cupa says natural slate has a minimum pitch of 20 degrees at moderate exposure, for a 500 mm slate with a 115 mm overlap, and no hook fixings below 25 degrees. The centre of Saltwood is 0.99 miles from the coastline, and Cupa reports a higher exposure grade for coastal areas. So we measure the pitch, read the data sheet for your slate, and test the battens before touching a single slate.
Does Saltwood Castle's listing change what I can do to my own roof?
Not unless your own house is listed. The castle is Grade I, its uninhabited portions are a scheduled monument and the former lodge is Grade II, but those entries describe those buildings only. What matters for your house is whether the list names it in its own right. If the list does, the district council's listed building consent covers work that alters its special character, and we quote the entry number to the council.
Is a licence needed for scaffolding in a Saltwood street?
Only where it stands on the public highway, and then Kent County Council issues it at £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, a permit covering 7 calendar days. Kent County Council's guidance says the skip or scaffolding company should submit the application for you. With every pole on private ground, the scheme does not apply, and the survey settles which applies. We arrange the licence with our scaffolder.
Does re-roofing in Saltwood need Building Regulations approval?
Start from the Planning Portal's test: less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof affected, with a new covering 15 per cent or more heavier needing approval. The council has no percentage of its own. Folkestone & Hythe District Council's Building Control team, reached on 01303 853538, answers questions about a particular house, so we recommend ringing before the scaffold goes up.
Does the Kent Downs boundary near Saltwood change a re-roof?
The middle of Saltwood sits beyond the edge of the Kent Downs National Landscape, but the designation reaches land close to the village, so the boundary map is worth opening for your address. The Kent Downs team advises while Folkestone & Hythe District Council decides. A plain re-roof proceeds under the standard rules. Dormers are a different subject, and our planning guide is the place to read about them.
How long should new lead flashing last at a Saltwood chimney?
MyJobQuote says lead flashing that is correctly installed can last for over 80 years, and longer for the higher codes. That statement turns on the words correctly installed: the right code for the detail, dressed into a sound joint, over soakers that are still in place. A flashing that lifts early has told us the dressing or the joint failed, not that lead was a poor choice.
Tell us what your Saltwood roof is doing
You'll get one written total price.