Roofers in Banff & Macduff

Listed buildings and conservation areas

A great deal of Banff — the Georgian streets around Low Street and High Street, and the properties near Duff House — is either listed or inside a conservation area. On those roofs you cannot simply choose the cheapest covering. Natural slate means natural slate, lead means lead rather than a proprietary substitute, and changes to the roof line or the chimney can need consent before anybody lifts a tool.

We will tell you where we think your property stands, but the formal answer comes from Aberdeenshire Council's planning service, and on a listed building it is worth getting that in writing before committing to the work. A roof done without the consent it needed is a problem that follows the house.

Georgian roofs are a different job

Steep pitches, tall stacks carrying four or six flues, lead valleys and parapet gutters behind the front elevation, and slate laid in diminishing courses so the slates get smaller as they go up the roof. Relaying that correctly means keeping the gauge, not just covering the area. Where a previous repair has dropped a band of uniform Spanish slate into a diminishing-course roof, you can see it from the street, and putting it right is a large part of what we do in Banff.

Macduff and the braes

Macduff rises steeply from the harbour, and the terraces climbing the hill are the tightest access we work in anywhere. Narrow streets on a serious gradient, limited parking, and scaffold that has to be built on sloping ground and tied properly. It is all doable; it just needs planning rather than turning up and hoping. Tell us the street when you ring and we will know what we are dealing with.

Typical work here

• Natural slate repairs and re-slating in matching size and gauge
• Chimney stacks repointed in lime, flaunching renewed, pots re-set
• Lead parapet gutters and valleys relaid in correct bay lengths
• Sarking replaced where damp has got to the boards