Roofers in Bray and Greystones

Roofing in Bray: a Victorian seaside town

Bray grew into a seaside resort after the railway reached it in 1854, and hotels and residential terraces were built near the seafront in the decades that followed. Many of those period houses, along with the terraces on and around Quinsborough Road, still have natural slate roofs, tall chimney stacks with lead flashings, valley gutters between roof slopes and rear returns with their own small roofs. The town boundary was extended several times in the twentieth century, and most of the houses in the estates built since then have concrete tile roofs. We cover Bray from our base in Dublin 7, and we have worked on roofs in both Bray and Greystones.

The seafront faces east onto the Irish Sea, and the 1.5 km promenade runs from the harbour to the foot of Bray Head. The Wicklow Mountains shelter the town from the prevailing south-westerly winds, but houses near the sea take the full force of easterly gales and the salt they carry. Salt air rusts the nails that hold slates in place, so on older coastal roofs slates slip sooner than they would inland, and wind-driven rain finds its way under lifted ridges and cracked flashings.

On concrete tile roofs from the middle of the last century, the usual problems are mortar-bedded ridge and hip tiles working loose, worn tiles holding moss, and old underlay that has perished at the eaves. Chimney flashings are a common leak point on both kinds of house.

Greystones, Delgany and the towns south of Bray

Greystones began as a fishing village and grew after its railway station opened in 1855. It has grown quickly in recent decades, and the census population rose from about 18,000 in 2016 to 22,009 in 2022. Charlesland, built just south of the town in the early 2000s, has more than 1,000 homes. Roofs on newer estates like these tend to have concrete tiles, dry ridge systems and flat-roofed extensions, and leaks on them usually come from flashings around roof windows and chimneys, valleys, or flat roofs that were added later.

Delgany, closely connected to Greystones, and Enniskerry, which was laid out as a planned estate village around the 1840s, have older houses where slate roofs, chimneys and lead work need careful repair with matching materials. Kilcoole, 3 km south of Greystones, grew by about 60% between the 1996 and 2016 censuses. All of these towns are in County Wicklow, so if your house is a protected structure or sits in an architectural conservation area, check with Wicklow County Council before larger roof works.

Shankill, Killiney and Dalkey

North of Bray, Shankill, Killiney and Dalkey are in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and the county boundary runs along Old Connaught Avenue. Killiney and Dalkey have many Victorian houses and large seaside homes with slate roofs exposed to the same sea air as the Bray seafront, while Shankill has housing estates from the 1970s alongside newer, higher-density housing. For conservation questions on these properties, the council to contact is Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. See our page for roofers in Dún Laoghaire for more on the coastal suburbs further north.

Roof repairs we carry out in Bray and Greystones

We work on pitched, slate, tiled and flat roofs for homes and businesses, and supply and fit all materials. The roof work we carry out around Bray includes the following.

• Roof repairs for leaks, slipped or broken slates, cracked and missing tiles, and loose ridge and hip tiles.
• Chimney flashing and flaunching repairs, and relining or replacing leaking valleys.
• Emergency roof repairs after storms, through our 24/7 emergency line, to make the roof safe and watertight before permanent repairs.
• Flat roofs on extensions, rear returns, garages and dormers, using felt and torch-on systems, for repair or full replacement.

We also do gutters, fascias and soffits, which we can look at while we are on the roof.

Getting a quote

We inspect the roof before quoting and explain what we found, including whether a repair will do or whether part of the roof is due for replacement. Quotes are free, with no obligation. Call 085 172 1435 or 01 685 3713, send a WhatsApp, or use the enquiry form. Bray and Greystones are part of the wider area we cover, which you can see on our roofers in South Dublin page.

Recent work near you

Photos from our own jobs in Bray and Greystones. See more on our roofing work page.

More answers on our roofing FAQs page.

Related

• Roof repairs
• Emergency roof repairs
• Flat roofs
• Roofers in Dún Laoghaire
• Roofers in South Dublin
• Slipped slates: why they happen and how they are fixed