Selling · 23 road miles north-west
Roofers in Selling
Selling stands within the Kent Downs National Landscape, with a Grade I church and conservation areas near its middle. Say what the roof is up to, and the survey works out what it fairly needs and what can stay as it is.
- Protected landscape
- Kent Downs National Landscape, the AONB until it was renamed
- Parish church
- St Mary's, Grade I, with works run through the faculty system
- Conservation areas near the middle of Selling
- Selling, Sheldwich and Shepherd's Hill, designated by Swale Borough Council
- Parish population
- 864 usual residents at the 2021 Census
Selling roofs as the survey reads them
What we found
Gutter bracket pulled out of soft fascia
What it fairly needs
Cut back the fascia, refit the bracket.
What we found
A dormer wanted on a Downs house
What it fairly needs
The planning guide, then Swale.
What we found
Underlay split from eaves to ridge
What it fairly needs
Re-lay that slope on new battens.
The fair ledger
Site exposure, a Grade I church and the areas round Selling's centre
Selling lies within the Kent Downs National Landscape and counts St Mary's Church among its Grade I buildings. Three entries follow: fixings on open ground, the church and a listed cottage, and the conservation areas, with a verdict on each.
Entry 01Open ground
Inside the National Landscape, Selling roofs are fixed for their own ground
The Kent Downs designation covers Selling, yet it takes no planning decisions. Swale Borough Council makes those, and a fixing count is reckoned from the site itself.
Designation, decisions and exposure
Before the name changed, the Kent Downs designation was called an AONB. Its team gives advice to the authorities and decides nothing on a planning application, which stays with Swale Borough Council. A straightforward re-cover of a roof follows the usual rules; a dormer brings its own planning question, which the planning guide for roof work answers in full. The boundary lines published by the Kent Downs team settle whether a given address lies inside, and a village name proves nothing about it.
Exposure is a different matter. Cupa, a slate maker, lists exposure to wind and to rain as the main factors, and it says buildings on slopes and hills will be graded with higher exposure. For slates and tiles, BS 5534 sets out how to calculate fixings for a slope once the battens, the exposure and the wind uplift are known. Our slate roofing service shows how that count is applied to a real roof, ridge and verge included.
- Slate that has slipped
- Batten behind it
- Clip that holds the tail
What a fixing survey records
- Mortar beds that have cracked, or shrunk back from the tile they were meant to hold.
- Whether the ridge already has a mechanical fixing, and what state it is in.
- How the verge is held, and whether the first tiles along the edge have started to lift.
- Whether the battens underneath are sound enough to take new fixings at all.
- The underlay at the eaves, where a failure shows from inside the loft as a stain or a drip.
- The ridge ends, where a loose tile is easy to miss from the ground.
Where a fixing fails the survey, the verdict says whether the fix is a re-bedding, a dry-fix ridge or something larger, and gives the reason in writing, so you can weigh it against what a neighbour was told. A sound repair is priced as just that, and where a roof needs more you hear it before any work is agreed.
BS 5534
the standard that sets how fixings are counted
Marley: a code of practice, not law
Entry 02Church and cottage
St Mary's Church and Bailiffs Cottage: two listings, two different routes
St Mary's, listed Grade I, still holds Church of England worship, so roof work on it goes by faculty. Bailiffs Cottage at Harefield Farm is Grade II, and its route differs.
Two listings, two routes to approval
St Mary's carries list entry 1343628. St Mary's still serves as a Church of England place of worship, and that sends any works to it through the church's faculty system, not through listed building consent. Nothing about that arrangement reaches a private house standing nearby, whose roof is a question of its own.
Bailiffs Cottage at Harefield Farm, entry 1356133, shows the other road. A listed house still enjoys permitted development for roof work, and listed building consent comes in as well whenever the work would alter what makes the building special. We put the question to Swale Borough Council before a listed roof is priced, and what it answers comes back to you in writing. Should the whole covering have to come off, our roof replacement service lays out the order of work.
We begin by asking whether the repair can be made in the material already there. The fewer things that change, the fewer questions the council has to answer, and the sooner you have a decision you can act on.
How do I find the list entry for a house in Selling?
Search your address on Historic England's national list. Each listed building has an entry number there, and it is worth quoting whenever you write to Swale Borough Council. If you would sooner not search, send us the address and we do it before the survey, so the question of a listing is answered before anyone climbs a ladder, and you are never surprised by it halfway through a job.
Cracked ridge mortar, tiles sound
Rebed the ridge on fixings
Listed cottage, new covering wanted
Consent route first
Rotten eaves boards behind the gutter
Renew boards and gutter
What goes to the council with a listed roof
- The list entry number, which lets an officer pull up the building at once.
- Photographs of the covering as it stands today, from the ground and from the scaffold, with the ridge and every verge in frame.
- A plain description of every change, the small ones included, such as a new flashing or a replaced vent tile.
- The new covering named and set beside the one it replaces.
Designation first, building rules second
Inside a conservation area, plain re-roofing remains permitted development, though a direction under Article 4 may withdraw further rights, which is a reason to check with Swale Borough Council about your particular house. At the survey we put your address to the council and attach its reply to our verdict.
Building rules are a second matter. On the Planning Portal's test, a re-roof normally stays clear of a building regulations application if it touches under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. Approved Document A, the structural part of the Building Regulations, treats a rise of more than 15% in roof loading as a significant change, so the weight of any new covering is part of what we weigh up. For Swale, building control is the job of the STG Building Control Partnership (01634 331133), and our survey asks the questions it would ask later. Asking early means the weight, the area and the fire performance of a new covering are settled on paper before the first tile comes off.
Entry 03Three designated areas
Selling, Sheldwich and Shepherd's Hill: test your address against all three
Swale Borough Council has designated conservation areas called Selling, Sheldwich and Shepherd's Hill near the village centre. Each address is tested against them before any work is planned.
What sets the price
- Height and reach of the roof
- Condition of the battens beneath
- Any council route to be agreed
One written total price
Myth: A National Landscape stops a house being re-roofed.
Fact: It does not. The district council makes the decisions, an ordinary re-roof is dealt with under the standard rules, and a change such as a dormer is what raises a planning question.
What shapes the written price
Two roofs of equal size can call for very different work, and a price that ignores the difference is a guess. Reach decides how the scaffold goes up and how long it stays. The state of the battens decides whether a slope is re-fixed or stripped. A listing or a designation decides what must be agreed with the council before a tile is lifted. All three are weighed before a figure is written, and the figure arrives as one total with the access included. Our pitched roofing service describes how a slope is read.
The drive from Folkestone to Selling
Selling lies north-west of Folkestone, 23 road miles along the road and about 31 minutes behind the wheel. At the 2021 Census the parish had 864 usual residents. A photograph of the trouble makes a fair opening, and if you would rather talk first, the phone and WhatsApp numbers sit on every page. Once we have seen the roof in person, the written total price reaches you, and the decision rests with you.
Selling roofs beside the church and inside the Downs
Are roof fixings in Selling worked out differently because of the Kent Downs?
Not because of the label: the Kent Downs National Landscape is a landscape designation, not a wind grading. Cupa, a slate maker, says buildings on slopes and hills are graded as more exposed, so the fixing count for a slate or tile roof in Selling comes from a BS 5534 calculation for the house's own position, not from a roof somewhere else. Marley points out that the code is not required by law, and also that a fixing plan no longer leans on mortar by itself to hold a ridge.
Does the National Landscape decide whether I can re-roof my Selling house?
No. The Kent Downs team advises the planning authorities and is not one itself, so Swale Borough Council decides. A plain re-cover follows the standard rules, and a dormer brings its own planning question, which our guide to roof work answers. The Kent Downs team publishes the boundary, and we check your address against it during the survey and tell you what it shows.
Is the scaffold licence in Selling something I have to arrange?
Kent County Council is who licenses scaffolding standing on the road, at £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, and Kent County Council's guidance for householders names the scaffolding firm as the applicant. We arrange it with our scaffolder. A scaffold erected only on your own ground sits outside the highway licence, and the survey shows which of the two your house needs, long before a start date is set. Renewals are lodged in good time when a job runs longer than one permit.
My Selling house stands beside the church. Does that alter a roof job?
St Mary's is listed Grade I, Church of England worship carries on there, and its own works go through the faculty system. That does not stretch to a house nearby. If your house is itself listed, listed building consent may apply and Swale Borough Council is asked first. Give us the address and we check the national list before the survey, so you know the position early, and so the council is asked the right question the first time.
Does re-roofing in Selling need a building regulations application?
Under the Planning Portal's test, not normally, as long as the work touches less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof. A new covering 15 per cent or more heavier in weight needs sign-off however small the roof is, so its weight is raised at the first visit and recorded in the written survey notes. The STG Building Control Partnership handles Swale's building control, and its number is 01634 331133 whenever a job looks close to either limit.
Tell us what your Selling roof is doing
You'll get one written total price.