Lancashire · Burnley borough
Lancashire roofers covering Burnley: slipped slates, shared stacks, leaks
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- Covering Burnley and nearby
Slates sliding off a terrace roof, or a tea-coloured patch spreading above the bed? Peak Roofing is a roofing company based in Lancashire, covering Burnley and Padiham. On Burnley’s stone terraces the Welsh slate usually outlasts the nails holding it, and the chimney stack is often shared with next door, so we check the slates and both sides of the stack.
What goes wrong on Burnley roofs
Almost half of Burnley’s homes are terraces, and most of the old ones are gritstone under Welsh slate. The slate itself lasts. What gives up first is the nails holding it: they rust through, slates slide, and a gap opens that you can’t see from the street. With 43% of the town’s homes built before 1919, a lot of those nails have been up there for over a century, so where one slate has gone we check the ones around it too.
Stone terraces usually share a ridge line and a chimney stack with next door, so a fault on one house can show up inside the other. When we look at a terrace roof, we look at the stack from both sides and the slopes either side of yours.
Some of the oldest roofs still have, or once had, heavy sandstone flags. Flags are heavy, so the timbers under them get checked before any are lifted. Padiham’s terraces lean older again, with 48% built before 1919, and the same faults turn up there: nail-sick slate, shared stacks and tired felt over the back extensions.
Roof repairs in Burnley: what we check first
- Stacks shared with neighbours A terrace stack usually serves two homes, so its pointing, flaunching and lead matter to both.
- Nail-sick slates Welsh slate itself lasts well. The nails holding it usually rust through first, and slates start to slide.
- Felt over rear extensions Flat roofs on back kitchens and dormers are often where a terrace lets rain in first.
- Gutters against gritstone An overflowing gutter soaks the stone wall, and from inside that damp can pass for a roof leak.
Rain with hardly a dry season
Rain in Burnley is spread right through the year rather than saved for winter, and even the driest months bring plenty of wet days. A cracked slate or lifted lead here doesn’t wait for a dry spell to start leaking, and the stone rarely dries out between showers. That’s why we’d rather fix it now than patch it after the ceiling’s marked.
Wet stone also hides where the water is coming from. Damp can travel along a soaked wall or down the back of a stack before it shows indoors, so the stain over the bed isn’t always under the fault. We follow it back across the slates, the stack and the gutter rather than guessing from the ceiling.
Listed homes and conservation areas in Burnley
Burnley has ten conservation areas, including Burnley Wood, Canalside, Harle Syke, Padiham and Worsthorne, and the council asks owners to match the original materials. Repairs like for like are usually fine. Slater Terrace at Sandygate, eleven cottages over a warehouse under a hipped slate roof, is one of the town’s listed buildings. If your house is listed or inside one of those areas and you’re thinking of changing slate for something else, ask Burnley Borough Council first.
Burnley Borough Council
How a roof job runs
- Call or text Peak Roofing, or send the form, with what you can see.
- We look at the roof itself, not just the stain inside.
- You get the price before any work starts.
Roofing services covering Burnley
Questions
Burnley roofs: questions
My Burnley house still has stone flags on the roof. What should I know?
Flags were Burnley’s first roof covering, and they’re heavy, so the timbers underneath need checking before any are lifted. If the house is listed or in one of Burnley’s conservation areas, ask the council before changing the covering. Text Peak Roofing a photo taken from the ground and we’ll start from there.
The gutter keeps overflowing down our stone front. Could that be the damp inside?
Quite often. Gritstone soaks up what a spilling gutter pours down it, and the damp can come through at bedroom height, which looks just like a roof leak from inside. Clearing and re-aligning the run, or replacing it in uPVC with new fascias where the boards have rotted, usually stops it. See guttering and fascias.
Water runs down my chimney breast after heavy rain. Is the stack to blame?
On an older Burnley terrace it often is. Typical ways in are the lead where the stack meets the slates, cracked flaunching round the pots, and pointing that has washed out of the stone. Because the stack is usually shared, next door’s side gets checked as well. See chimney repairs.
Nearby
Roofers covering towns near Burnley
Also covered with Burnley: Padiham.
Where the facts on this page come from
- ONS Census 2021, TS044 Accommodation type (Nomis), output areas in the ONS 2022 built-up area: Households by accommodation type in Burnley: 13% detached, 31% semi-detached, 46% terraced, 10% flats (32,540 households). Read 2026-11-05.
- Valuation Office Agency: Council Tax stock of properties 2026, table CTSOP4.1 (build period), LSOAs in the built-up area: Homes by build period in Burnley: 43% before 1919, 13% 1919-1939, 24% 1945-1982, 20% since 1983 (England and Wales: 21% before 1919). Read 2026-11-05.
- Met Office: Stonyhurst climate station, 1991-2020 averages: 1,314.5 mm of rain a year, 175.4 days with 1 mm or more. Read 2026-11-05.
- Burnley Borough Council: conservation areas: Ten conservation areas: Burnley Wood, Canalside, Harle Syke, Hurstwood, Jib Hill, Padiham, Palatine, Top O' Th' Town, Burnley Town Centre, Worsthorne; care should be taken to match original/traditional materials and methods of construction Read 2026-11-05.
- Lancashire County Council: Burnley Historic Town Assessment Report (May 2005): 90% of pre-1914 structures built of gritstone, 10% brick, brick largely confined to industrial and commercial structures; roofs originally covered in sandstone flags, Welsh slate imported for some buildings because it was cheaper and lighter, many roofs since changed to lighter substitutes Read 2026-11-05.
- British Listed Buildings: Slater Terrace, Burnley (Historic England 1244978): Grade II; terrace of 11 cottages over a warehouse, c1848-50; coursed squared sandstone, hipped slate roof Read 2026-11-05.