Every Cornerstone roofing project carries a 10-year insurance-backed warranty, alongside the relevant material guarantee from the manufacturer.
Reliable, high-quality work before, during, and after the scaffold comes down.
Balcombe is a wooded village in the High Weald, a few miles north of Haywards Heath, set among steep valleys, woodland and the lakes around the Ouse Valley Viaduct. All that tree cover is hard on a roof: shaded north-facing slopes hold damp, moss and algae take hold, and leaf fall blocks gutters and valleys. Cornerstone Roofing has handled that kind of work across Balcombe for 35+ years, and every job carries our 10-year insurance-backed warranty.
We cover the full range of roofing across Balcombe: pitched and flat roofs, roof repairs, fascias and soffits, guttering, leadwork and chimney work. The village is a mix of older Wealden cottages under clay tile and Victorian housing that came with the railway, much of it under natural slate, so local work runs from matched repairs to full re-covers. With so many roofs under tree cover, keeping gutters and valleys clear is often half the battle. Site visits to look over a roof are free and come with no obligation.
Most Balcombe roofs are pitched, with natural slate common on the Victorian housing and clay tile on the older cottages. Under heavy tree cover the usual problems are moss and organic growth holding moisture against the covering, slipped slates, and tired lead in the valleys where leaves collect. Our pitched roof specialists spec each roof around its existing covering and its exposure to the trees around it, and where original slate or handmade tile can be reclaimed we re-lay it on new battens with breathable underlay and fresh lead flashings.
Shingles are an overlapping, single-thickness covering laid in courses across a sound deck. They depend on the underlay, the deck condition, and a ventilated batten cavity behind the visible covering. Get any of those wrong and the lifespan drops sharply.
Natural slate is a generational roof covering. Properly laid on fresh battens, with a breathable underlay and sound lead flashings, a slate roof will outlast most owners. We cover slate repairs, slate replacement, and full re-slate work across Mid Sussex.
Stone is a heavy traditional roof covering. The slates are graded by size and laid in diminishing courses (largest at the eaves, smallest at the ridge), which loads the supporting timbers significantly more than a tiled equivalent. Any stone-roofed enquiry calls for a structural survey of the deck and timbers before a quote.
Tile is the most common pitched covering across Sussex. Clay tile (handmade or machine-made) and concrete tile (interlocking or profile) both feature widely on the local stock. Tile lifespan is generally longer than the underlay beneath it, which means a roof can still look sound from the street while the underlay has reached the end of its life. We cover tile repairs, re-bedding of ridges, tile replacement, and full re-covers across Mid Sussex.
Flat roofing in Balcombe has to live under trees. The village sits in a wooded High Weald valley, and the extensions, garages, outbuildings and porches carrying the flat roofs here are mostly overhung by something. On a plot like that a flat roof is dealing with what lands on it just as much as with what falls on it.
Leaf litter, needles and twigs do not run off a shallow fall the way water does. They settle, they hold moisture against the covering, and they work their way to the outlet. A shaded roof then never gets the sun that would dry it out, so moss and algae take on the surface and the covering stays wet for weeks together. None of that is a fault in the membrane. It is a fault in what is sitting on top of it.
What a wooded plot does to a Balcombe flat roof:
Because the rainwater goods are half the job on a roof like this, we look at the gutters and outlets at the same time as the covering, and specify falls and outlets that will still be working in November. Our flat roof team fits EPDM, GRP, built-up felt, single-ply and liquid systems, chosen on the span, the shade and how much clearing the roof will realistically get.
Modern reinforced multi-layer torch-on felt is a long way from the single-layer felt that gave the material its older reputation. Properly specified, with metal trims and drips at every edge, it gives a watertight finish well into 20-year territory. Felt remains the most economical like-for-like replacement for an existing felt flat roof.
EPDM is a synthetic rubber membrane sold by the roll and laid as a single sheet across most domestic flat roofs. One sheet means no overlaps and no welded joints to fail later. Lifespan comfortably reaches 25 years and beyond on a properly prepared deck.
Green roofs turn a flat surface into planting, additional thermal insulation, and drainage attenuation. They need a sound waterproof base underneath (typically EPDM or a bituminous build-up), proper drainage outlets, and a structural assessment of the supporting joists or deck because the loaded weight is significantly higher than a standard flat finish.
GRP (glass-reinforced plastic, often called fibreglass roofing) is laid wet over a sound deck and cures into a single seamless skin. It’s strong enough to be walked on and available in a range of finishes. Lifespan typically reaches 25 years and beyond on a properly prepared substrate.
Liquid coatings give a continuous, joint-free skin across complex roof details, including parapet cappings, roof-light or vent penetrations, and abutments where a flat meets a pitched tile. They can also be applied as a recoat over an existing failing membrane that’s otherwise structurally sound, which extends the roof’s life without a full strip-out. Most modern liquid systems are vapour-permeable and UV-stable.
Single-ply membrane comes as factory-made synthetic sheets, fixed mechanically, fully bonded, or held in place by ballast, with joints heat-welded on site. Long sheet widths reduce the number of seams on larger flat areas. Lifespan is comparable to EPDM when properly installed.
The roof repairs we are called to most in Balcombe come straight from the woodland setting: slipped slates and tiles, moss and debris holding water on shaded slopes, blocked valleys and gutters, and worn lead around chimneys. We survey honestly before quoting, and where the timbers and battens are sound, targeted roof repair work is almost always better value than a re-cover. An active leak gets a temporary cover first to protect the inside, then a scheduled return for the proper fix, all under our 10-year insurance-backed warranty.
Alongside main roof work we take care of leadwork (chimney flashings, valleys and parapet details), guttering renewal, fascia and soffit replacement, and chimney repointing or rebuilds. In a village this wooded the guttering and valleys take a real beating from leaf fall, so they are often the first things to need attention. While the scaffold is up we will point out anything else worth doing, because handling it in one visit costs less than returning later.
Roofs under heavy tree cover, like much of Balcombe, need a roofer who understands how a woodland setting and damp, shaded slopes shorten a roof’s life, and who will repair rather than replace where the structure allows. Cornerstone brings 35+ years across Mid Sussex, a UK Roofing Awards 2025 Finalist project, and a 10-year insurance-backed warranty on every roof. We survey honestly and quote you straight.
Balcombe is a village in the High Weald a few miles north of Haywards Heath, surrounded by woodland, steep valleys and the lakes near the Ouse Valley Viaduct. Its housing ranges from old Wealden cottages to Victorian homes built around the arrival of the railway, with later additions in between. The heavily wooded setting that makes the village so attractive also keeps many roofs shaded and damp, which is much of the reason roofs here need the attention they do.
