Roofers Surbiton

Surbiton railway station, rebuilt in 1937, is one of the most celebrated Art Deco buildings on the entire British rail network, a Grade II listed structure built in reinforced concrete with a genuine flat roof, clean modernist lines, and no attempt to hide behind traditional brickwork the way most stations of its era did.

It's a genuine architectural landmark, and it set the tone for a wave of similar-styled development nearby, including a cluster of Art Deco flats built around the same period.

My name's John Quilligan. Roofing has been in my family for three generations, and Surbiton's mix of genuine 1930s Art Deco flat-roofed buildings alongside more standard Victorian and later housing means we're regularly working across both flat and pitched roofing here, often within the same street.

Knowing which era and style a property belongs to changes what a repair or replacement actually needs.

A genuine number of Surbiton's 1930s properties, in keeping with the area's Art Deco character, were built with flat roofs from the outset, not as a later extension added on.

These original flat roofs have usually been re-covered at least once or twice over the decades, and the fall, the built-in slope that lets water actually drain, can degrade or shift over that many repair cycles even when the surface covering looks reasonably new.

A flat roof that's original to a 1930s property is a different job to a flat roof over a recent rear extension. The underlying structure has had ninety years to move, settle, and accumulate old repairs on top of each other, and it's worth a proper inspection rather than assuming a straightforward re-cover will solve a problem that's actually about the roof's structure underneath.

St Andrew's Square is one of the few genuinely surviving Victorian squares in England, and it sits within its own conservation area in Surbiton.

A short distance away, particularly around Berrylands, the housing is mostly later 1930s development, built as the town expanded following the railway.

This means two properties a few streets apart can be operating under very different rules and expectations.

A Victorian property near the Square may have conservation requirements around materials and appearance that a 1930s semi off in Berrylands simply doesn't. We check this for your specific address rather than assume based on which part of Surbiton you're in.

My house has an original flat roof from the 1930s. Is it worth repairing again, or should I consider a full replacement? This depends on how many times it's already been re-covered and what condition the structure underneath is actually in, not just the surface. An original 1930s flat roof that's had two or three re-covers over the decades has usually had its fall, the built-in slope that drains water, disturbed slightly each time, which is often the real reason water keeps finding the same low spot. If the underlying timber deck is sound, a proper re-cover with the fall corrected can genuinely extend the roof's life by decades. If the deck itself has degraded from repeated water exposure, that's a different conversation, and we'll tell you honestly which situation you're in after a proper inspection, rather than default to whichever answer is the bigger job.

Is my property near St Andrew's Square likely to have conservation restrictions? The Square itself and the streets immediately around it sit within a designated conservation area, which can mean the council expects specific materials or approaches even for routine repair work, not just full replacements. This isn't the case for most of Surbiton, particularly the later 1930s development further from the centre, so it genuinely depends on your specific address. We check this as a standard part of the free inspection rather than assume either way.

Do you have experience with genuinely older Art Deco-era properties, not just standard Victorian ones? Yes. Surbiton's building stock is distinctive enough, with its Art Deco heritage and mix of original flat-roofed 1930s properties alongside more standard housing, that treating every job the same way would be a mistake. We look at what's actually in front of us, the era, the construction method, the roof type, before recommending anything.

How quickly can you get someone out for an active leak? Same day in most cases, seven days a week, regardless of which part of Surbiton you're in.

Do you charge for the inspection, even on an older or more unusual property? No. No call-out fee, ever, on any property, regardless of age, style, or what the inspection ultimately finds.