Roof Maintenance Guide for Hampshire & Surrey Homeowners
A simple, practical guide to keeping your pitched, slate or flat roof sound through every season — and catching the small problems before they become costly leaks.
Your roof is the hardest-working part of your home. It sits through every frost, every downpour and every gale, quietly keeping the structure beneath it dry. Yet most homeowners in Fleet, Basingstoke, Farnborough and the surrounding towns only think about their roof once something has already gone wrong. A little routine attention — twice a year, and after any major storm — is genuinely the difference between a roof that lasts forty years and one that fails at fifteen.
This guide sets out the four checks we recommend every homeowner carry out, what to look for, and when to call in a professional. None of these checks require you to climb a ladder — a good pair of binoculars and a torch for the loft is all you need.
Inspect from the ground twice a year
Walk around your home each spring and autumn and look up at the roofline with binoculars. You are checking for slipped, cracked or missing tiles, gaps in the ridge mortar, and any flashing that has lifted away from chimneys or valleys. Catching a single slipped tile early costs pennies; leaving it lets water track under the neighbouring tiles and rot the battens beneath.
Keep gutters and valleys clear
Blocked gutters overflow back onto the fascia boards and soak the underlay, which is one of the most common causes of preventable roof decay in Hampshire and Surrey. Clear leaves and moss from gutters every autumn, and check that the valley gutters between two roof slopes run freely. If water pools anywhere on the roof, it will eventually find a way in.
Check after every storm
High winds and driving rain are the single biggest threat to pitched and flat roofs in southern England. After any named storm, look for debris on the ground that has come off the roof, check loft spaces for daylight showing through, and feel the insulation for damp patches. A quick post-storm check is far cheaper than a ceiling that has been slowly soaking for weeks.
Deal with moss before it spreads
Moss holds moisture against the tile surface, and in freezing weather that moisture expands and cracks the tile. A light moss covering is harmless, but thick growth should be brushed off gently and the roof treated to slow regrowth. Never pressure-wash a pitched roof — it strips the protective granules from concrete and clay tiles and shortens their life dramatically.
When to call in a professional roofer
If your ground-level check turns up slipped tiles, cracked flashing, daylight in the loft, or damp patches on a ceiling, it is time to call a roofer. The same is true if your roof is over twenty years old and has never been surveyed — an honest, experienced roofer can tell you whether a small repair will see it through another decade or whether a re-roof is the safer long-term investment.
At MFM Roofing we carry out straightforward, no-pressure roof surveys across Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire, and we will always tell you plainly what we find. We never recommend work that is not needed, and we back every repair with the pride that comes from fifteen-plus years on local roofs.
Worried about your roof? Let's take a look.
Book a free, honest roof survey across Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire. We'll tell you exactly what we find — nothing more, nothing less.