About Roding Valley Roofworks

What this is

Roding Valley Roofworks is a set of written notes about flat roofs in and around Ongar. It reads the local building stock and explains, in fairly plain terms, how flat roofing behaves and what tends to fail.

We are a small team who spend time thinking about roofs across this part of Essex. The writing here is where we set down what we've noticed.

What it covers

Most of the site is organised by place and by roof type. A few examples of what you'll find:

• flat sections on Shenfield's inter-war homes and how they get re-roofed
• rubber coverings on North Weald Bassett bungalows and outbuildings
• Chigwell garden rooms, garages and their flat tops
• Loughton bay roofs, porches and the repairs they call for
• why Harlow was built with so many flat roofs in the first place

How it's written

Answer first, then the detail. We try to describe what a roof is actually doing rather than reach for jargon, and we're honest about the cases where a repair only delays the inevitable.

Where an article names a town, it's because the housing there has its own quirks worth spelling out — not to pad a list of places.

Who it's for and how to reach us

The local area

For a wider picture of Ongar and Essex, Wikipedia is a useful reference.