Thatch roof

Njlram

Considering buying a house with a thatch roof in a conservation area. The idea of a thatch puts me off due to how expensive it is. I’ve been trying to find out if the roof can be replaced with tile (most houses in the area are tile) with no success. Does anyone know if this is a possibility? Thanks

Mutton_Geoff

Is the house listed? You can always ring the local council and have an informal chat with the planners and see what they say.

davidmcn

In theory it's possible, but you'd need planning permission, and thatched roofs are likely to be the sort of thing they're trying to conserve!

Has anyone converted from thatched to tiled since it became a conservation area?

lincroft1710

If you don't want a house with a thatched roof, don't buy one!!

Thatched cottages will usually attract a premium anyway and if you're in a conservation area the chances of you being allowed to replace it with tiles would be about zero.

Davesnave

The roof timbers would be totally unsuitable for tiling, so changing would be very expensive, even if allowed. With an out of character roof, the house would be worth less.

Thatch needs replacing every 20-30 years depending on type, so how long are you anticipating sticking around to enjoy the 'savings' of a tiled roof?

eddddy

I'd say it's very unlikely that you would get consent to change from thatch to tiles in a conservation area.

... Unless the house originally had a tile roof, and somebody replaced it with thatch which is out of character. In that case, the conservation team might be keen for you to return the house to it's original state.

(But TBH, I think that's an unlikely scenario.)

chappers

Davesnave wrote: »

The roof timbers would be totally unsuitable for tiling, so changing would be very expensive, even if allowed. With an out of character roof, the house would be worth less.

Thatch needs replacing every 20-30 years depending on type, so how long are you anticipating sticking around to enjoy the 'savings' of a tiled roof?

If you do the ridge every 10-15 years then you could extend the life of the main roof to about 40+.
My brother-in-law is going to have to re-thatch his house within the next 5 years and is considering slate in it and the costs are comparable to the last cycle of thatching. i.e. 2 ridge re thatches and a whole re-thatch.

To the OP I would say you have zero chance of changing a flat roof to slate/tile in a conservation area