Replacing garage roof - flat to slate pitched? (bit long)

[CaptainWentworth]

DH and I recently bought our first house, a mid terrace built in 1903. One of the thing we knew needed doing when we bought it was replacing the garage roof. The house has the typical Victorian layout, involving the kitchen extending out of the back of the house on one side with bathroom and one bedroom above. At some point in the 1970s a garage was added onto the back of the kitchen, taking up all the remaining yard directly behind the kitchen 'wing' to the back wall, leaving a narrow strip of yard to the side.

The garage currently has a flat roof - no idea how old the roof is, but it's basically completely disintegrating, and is being made much worse by the current wet weather. The rain is now falling directly through a large hole! It seems to have been made with fibreboard under the felt, which has now taken on the consistency of wet Weetabix.

I was initially keen to replace the flat roof with a pitched slate one to match the rest of the house, as I think slate is far more attractive and it will eliminate the worries I have about flat roofs being difficult to maintain and leaky. However it will obviously cost more, and I'm a bit worried it might look odd - one roofer told us we'd need a pitch of 25 degrees for slates (I've read that it should be at least 22.5) which would mean raising the wall by about 1m on one side, and none of the other houses in the terrace have anything like that at the back (although a couple opposite across the back lane do). Also the neighbour on that side is a bit grumpy so not if he could stop us.

We've had three roofers out to get quotes, although only one of them has got back to us so far - £1500 ish for a flat roof and £3200 for pitched slate, although those figures also include a bit of chimney repointing.

WWYD? Any opinions or advice will be much appreciated!

Oops - the bit about the neighbour should say 'don't know if he could stop us'!

although i have replaced a flat with a pitched, that was because it was at the front of the house and made the house look a million times better.

in your circs, i would get a flat roof with a guarantee- if it is done properly it would probably last 15 years without any issues.

also, raising the wall by 1 metre on a terrace would have a potential impact on neighbours, if the garden is only twelve foot wide or so. They would have a good reason to be grumpy. the key to living in a terrace is not to piss off your neighbours!

Won't you need planning permission?

I'd probably just go for a flat roof but just a word of warning about the guarantee - have had a similar issue with our windows. A guarantee from a roofing company is only useful if the company continues to trade - if in 5 years time when you notice a problem with the roof, if the company has gone bust in the meantime, the guarantee is useless. Go for a national company with a good reputation with a guarantee that can be registered with an insurer or similar.

DO you need the garage? I'd be inclined to spend the money on demolition so you get a proper garden.

You can't go higher than 2.5m if its on or within 2m of the boundary.

A good roofer will make a good flat roof. I think in your situation I would get another flat one. Ask the roofer for examples of his work - i.e names and addresses and contact the people - ask if they are happy and problem free. I have had someone knock on my door before and ask about my patio and I didn't mind at all.

I think a slate roof would be nicer to look at, and in the grand scheme of things longer lasting, but I would not like my neighbour to increase our boundry wall by 1m as it will affect the light. I'm not sure about PP but I would think you might need it.

Hello! Read with interest as we are mid way through doing exactly this although our garage is at end of garden and the increase in wall height to allow for slate pitch will be on wall that backs onto street at back rather jan neighbours. We needed to get PP as wall was going over 2.5m and have had three quotes all of around £4k. Think there are some slate at c17 degrees but then thy work out v expensive. However I think the pitched will look loads better than the flat. Good luck with what you decide

Hey all, just wanted to say thanks for responses before I go to bed. I did phone the council about planning permission and they thought we wouldn't need it, but that was before we had any proper dimensions to work to. Good idea about seeing people's work - could also ask the neighbours in the next street (that back onto other side of back lane) who did their pitched roofs - there's one in particular that looks v smart.

I did consider knocking down the garage, but that would cost just as much I would imagine what with hiring power tools to break up the concrete floor, rebuilding the walls on two sides and so on. It's the only parking we have, and the on street parking at the front is pretty difficult. It's fairly easy to get my VW Lupo in there so is quite useful - also space to store other stuff. Although it doesn't have a dropped kerb either, and the council want £430 to do that! May just get some wood chocks...

Thanks for all the food for thought.

I've given you the height for buildings on the boundary if you don't need planning consent.

Sorry mistlethrush, I'm not sure what you mean- do you mean we can't go over 2.5m at all, or that we would need planning consent if we wanted to? (which I think is what Gwithianrocks said). I haven't spent much time looking into the planning aspect TBH as I thought we should decide whether we wanted a pitched roof at all before getting into all of that. Can anyone recommend somewhere to look for a summary of planning regulations with regard to this sort of thing?

I noticed another garage on the back of a terrace on the way to work this morning that actually had a double pitched roof - not sure if that's the correct term, but it had a ridge down the middle. Maybe that would be better re neighbours and light? We wouldn't be affecting light into any of their windows if that makes a difference.

Just a note, a pitch roof is a better idea, as my dp house has had it on their garage size of a bungalow 4 30yrs now as a pitch, the nighbours roof is flat and has been replaced about 4 times in the time the garage mini bungalow was built.

If you need to keep it then I think a pitched slate roof would look far nicer.
SPeak to your planning dept about the height issue and ask local builders too.

You can also use the pitch for storage in a pitched roof. Would it be possible to have a triangle shape roof with the highest point in the middle and two slopes, or does it need to be one big slope?

I'd looked at the regulations for you CaptainW but here is one version for you if you want to look at it yourself.

If you go above 2.5m for a building within 2m of the boundary, you will need to apply for planning consent because it falls outside the permitted development that you're deemed to have consent for without applying.

Nothing wrong with flat roofs these days.

Use a contractor registered with these people and you should be OK.

Thanks again for all the replies- I think we are starting to come down slightly on the side of a flat roof, as it will be far less cost and hassle, and there are lots of other things we want to do to the house that we could put the price difference towards. I think you're right about flat roofs being better these days Pendeen- one of the guys we got round (who is a member of that federation) was talking about some kind of modern poured roof that should last 30+ years.

Also we had a good wander round the local area today and peered up a few back lanes, and there really aren't many house like ours that have pitched roof garages- of the ones that do, the monopitch ones do loom a bit on the built up side; a dual pitch looks far better. I do still fancy slate but at the moment sticking to flat seems like the more sensible option.