Roofers in Glasnevin

Red-brick, slate and chimneys in Glasnevin and Drumcondra

The older parts of Glasnevin and Drumcondra were built as the city spread north in the late Victorian and Edwardian years. The roads off the Drumcondra Road and around the Botanic Gardens are lined with red-brick terraces and semi-detached villas, most of them roofed in natural Welsh slate, with tall chimney stacks on the party walls and a two-storey rear return carrying its own small roof.

On these houses the slate is often still sound after a century, and the trouble comes from what holds it and what seals around it. The iron nails rust through and slates slide out one by one, which is the nail sickness found on most roofs of that age. Lead flashings around the stacks crack and lift, and the valley where the return roof meets the main roof wears thin.

Some terraces also have a parapet across the front with a lead-lined gutter hidden behind it, or a valley gutter running between two slopes. When leaves and silt block one of those, the water has nowhere to go but into the roof space, and the first sign is often a stain on a top-floor ceiling.

1930s semis and later houses in Dublin 9

Further out, along Griffith Avenue and up towards Glasnevin North, Whitehall and Santry, the housing moves on to 1930s and later semi-detached houses. Many were built with clay or early concrete tiles, hipped roofs and bay windows, and have since been re-roofed in concrete tile, sometimes more than once.

A hipped roof has more ridge and hip lines than a simple gable, so cracked hip mortar and loose hip tiles are typical faults on these roads, along with the small felt or lead roofs over bays and porches. Painted timber fascias from that era are often rotten at the corners, which is where uPVC fascia and soffits usually come in.

Conservation areas, trees and rented houses

Prospect Square in Glasnevin is an Architectural Conservation Area, many of the red-brick roads in Glasnevin and Drumcondra are zoned as residential conservation areas, and some houses are protected structures. Like-for-like repairs, such as replacing a slipped slate with matching natural slate or renewing lead flashing in the same position, keep the roof as it was. Changing the covering, for example from natural slate to fibre cement, may need planning permission, so check with Dublin City Council before anything beyond a repair.

The mature trees around the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Cemetery, the Tolka and Griffith Avenue drop a lot of leaves into gutters and hidden valleys every autumn, and a clean before winter saves a lot of trouble. Close to DCU and the city centre, many houses in Drumcondra and Glasnevin are let, and we carry out roof and gutter work for landlords as well as owner-occupiers.

Roofing services in Glasnevin and Drumcondra

We work on slate, tiled and flat roofs across Dublin 9 for homeowners, landlords and businesses, supplying and fitting all materials.

• Slate roof repairs, refixing slipped slates with matching natural slate and repairing leaks at chimneys, valleys and returns.
• Downpipe unblocking and gutter clearing, including hidden valley and parapet gutters, and gutter repairs to cast iron and uPVC runs.
• Flat roof repairs on rear returns, kitchen extensions and garages, using felt and torch-on systems.
• Urgent leak repairs and storm damage, 24/7 on 085 172 1435.

Around Glasnevin

Glasnevin is just east of our home patch in Cabra, with Finglas to the north-west, and our roofers in North Dublin page covers the rest of the north side, out to Dublin 15. South of the river, period houses with very similar slate roofs are covered on our roofers in Rathmines page.

More answers on our roofing FAQs page.

Related

• Roofers in North Dublin
• Roofers in Cabra and Dublin 7
• Roofers in Finglas
• Roof repairs
• Gutter repairs
• Slipped slates: why they happen and how they are fixed