Rainworth · NG21
Roof Repairs In Rainworth
Which side of the Rainworth Water bridge do you live on?
Repairs for Rufford Colliery's two housing estates and the newer streets around them, whichever council you fall under
Rainworth is one village under two councils. The line between Mansfield District and Newark & Sherwood crosses Southwell Road East close to the bridge over Rainworth Water, and that matters if your job ever needs planning permission. It matters less to the roof. Most of the older houses on both sides were built by the same colliery company for Rufford pit, the first lot from 1912 and a much bigger estate in the twenties, and they have aged together. The roof repairs we do in Rainworth are mostly the jobs a hundred-year-old roof asks for: perished ridge mortar, tired stacks, slipped tiles and battens that have finally given up.
Book a free roof survey in Rainworth
Leave your details and we'll ring you back to arrange a survey. The visit is free, you're under no obligation once we've been, and a roof that doesn't need work gets called a roof that doesn't need work.
Fully insured
Free surveys in Rainworth
Itemised fixed prices
8 minutes from base
Who does the work
Exposed roofs, finished properly
Up on the high ground, Rainworth catches wind the valley towns never feel, and ridge tiles and verges take the punishment. Chris, a local roofer who's been in the trade since his teens, has more than 20 years of putting that sort of damage right.
Jobs are run efficiently, but the roof comes first, and it's left watertight even if the light has long gone. The team share that attitude and are proud of the work they turn out.
1,000+
Repairs carried out
10 years
Workmanship guarantee, on paper
Free
Surveys, quotes and honest bad news
No upselling
A patch that will hold gets recommended as a patch
Two estates and a boundary between them
Before the pit, Rainworth was a small place on the Mansfield to Southwell road. Lord Savile leased his coal to the Bolsover Colliery Company, sinking began in 1911, and the colliery took its name from his Rufford estate. Sinking was not without cost: in February 1913 a water barrel fell down the shaft and killed fourteen of the sinkers. The first homes were around 128 cottage-style houses on a grid between First and Fourth Avenue off Southwell Road East, built from 1912 to 1919 on the Mansfield side of the old boundary. They had front and back gardens, facing gables, pantiles and stepped brick corbels carrying the chimney stacks at the terrace ends. Many of those details are still visible today.
The second wave was bigger. In the twenties the company built about 400 houses just over the border, in the triangle between Kirklington Road, Python Hill Road and South Avenue. The estate was big enough that locals called it the White City. Following the Tudor Walters guidance of the time, it had wider roads and bigger gardens, and the architect Percy Houfton gave it steep pitches for pantiles and two types of roof tile. Rufford stopped producing coal in 1993. Its spoil now forms the bowl of the Rainworth Water nature reserve, and the old colliery land is being planted as new forest. The houses built to serve it are about a century old now.
The roof repairs Rainworth needs most
Emergency Roof Repairs
When a ridge tile lands on the path or water comes through a ceiling in Rainworth, we're eight minutes away. We make it safe and watertight on the first visit, then come back with a proper price for the permanent repair.
See the service : emergency roof repairs in Rainworth
Roof Replacement
Where a Rufford colliery house is on its original battens and the tiles are past saving, patching just delays the bill. We quote a full strip and re-cover with a breathable membrane, new battens and every rafter checked.
See the service : roof replacement in Rainworth
Flat Roof Repairs
Plenty of the twenties houses have since had a rear kitchen or bathroom extension under felt. We repair sound ones and re-cover failed ones in EPDM or GRP, with the wall abutment flashed so the damp doesn't come back.
See the service : flat roof repairs in RainworthWe also do every other service on the menu in Rainworth, from fascias to full re-roofs.
A Rainworth roof repair, done properly on either side of the line
The council boundary decides your paperwork and the age of the house decides your roof. Neither should end up being your headache.
The right council named
If your job needs permission or building regulations sign-off, we'll check which authority covers your address before anything is submitted. It saves weeks of being bounced between Mansfield and Newark.
Pantile-era roofs understood
Houfton's steep pitches were designed for clay pantiles. Some survive, many were swapped for concrete. We work out what's on yours and repair it in a way that suits it, not whatever is in the van.
Corbelled stacks checked
End-of-terrace stacks on the earliest avenues sit on stepped brick corbels. When the pointing goes, water gets into the brickwork under the stack. We look at that first, because it can't be seen from the street.
Whole terrace thinking
Repairs on a short colliery terrace often stop at a party wall. We'll point out when the weak spot runs next door, and we're happy to price both houses together if the neighbours want to share the scaffold.
No surprises in the loft
Old battens, missing felt and tired timber are common under Rainworth roofs. We photograph the loft at survey stage, so if the job grows, you've already seen why.
"Plenty of Rainworth callers don't know which council covers them, and on Southwell Road East the answer changes partway along the road."
From the Rainworth jobs Roof Repairs Mansfield has taken on
How a Rainworth roof repair runs
First contact
Phone, or use the form. Tell us roughly where the problem is and when it shows up. A rough description is all we need at this stage.
Survey, roof and loft
Rainworth surveys cover the ridge and hip bedding, the corbelled stacks on the older avenues, valleys where later extensions meet the main roof, and the loft from inside. If anything looks like it may need permission, we also confirm which council covers the address.
The findings, with photos
We show you photos of what we found and explain what failed first and what follows if it's left. Then we say whether it's urgent.
A price that holds
One written figure, broken into lines. Access costs are listed separately, so you can tell how much of the price is scaffolding.
Doing the work
Tiles are refixed or replaced to match, ridges rebedded or switched to a dry-fix system, and stacks repointed and re-flashed. On the older houses where the battens have perished, we strip and re-batten the affected section instead of nailing new tiles into old wood.
Handover
You get photos of the finished repair, the debris goes away with us, and the 10 year written guarantee is yours before the van leaves Rainworth.
Ten years, in writing, before we leave the drive
Every roofer in Nottinghamshire will tell you their work is guaranteed. Ask to see the paper and the conversation often changes. Ours doesn't: work booked through Roof Repairs Mansfield carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee as a physical document, dated, signed and handed over with the completion photos - not a line in an email you'll never find again. Materials sit on top of that with their manufacturers' own cover, which differs product to product, so your paperwork names the cover that actually applies to your job.
A guarantee that long only makes commercial sense if repairs are done in a way that doesn't invite a return visit. Around Mansfield that means respecting what the housing actually is: coverings and fixings from the colliery era that fail as systems, not as single tiles, and mortar that has been quietly powdering since the pits shut. So failed material gets stripped back to something sound before new goes on, mortar gets matched to the age of the brick, and anything we can't make right on the day gets said out loud rather than covered over.
The blunt version: if water we were paid to stop finds its way back through our work inside 10 years, we return and put it right at our own cost. That promise has to be cheap to honour - and it is, because of how the work gets done the first time.
10 yrs
Written workmanship cover
1,000+
Repairs carried out
Insured
Public liability held
Named
Manufacturer cover per job
What to do in Rainworth
Rainworth's pit landscape has turned into some of the better wildlife sites in the county, and Sherwood's biggest public forest is just up the road.
Rainworth Heath
A 16-hectare Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust reserve off Rufford Colliery Lane, and one of the last stretches of heathland left in the county. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with dry and wet heath, peaty pools and bell heather, and with luck you might see nightjars, woodlarks and common lizards. Hebridean sheep do the grazing. Visit April to July for the best of it.
Find it on Google Maps : Rainworth Heath
Rainworth Water Local Nature Reserve
A walk from the village centre, in a deep bowl formed when Rufford Colliery's spoil was piled steeply around the stream. Thousands of trees were planted to hold the slopes together and are now mixed woodland, around pools, shallows and marshy ground where dragonflies, damselflies and dingy skipper butterflies turn up. Dogs are welcome on a lead.
Find it on Google Maps : Rainworth Water Local Nature Reserve
Sherwood Pines Forest Park
Forestry England's big pine forest off the B6030, a short drive north of Rainworth past Clipstone. Waymarked walking and cycling trails start at the visitor centre, which has a café and a bike shop. Mountain bikers come for the graded trails, and there's a Go Ape treetop course for anyone who'd rather climb.
Find it on Google Maps : Sherwood Pines Forest ParkRainworth on the map
8 minutes from our yard on Sandy Lane, NG18 2LT. Planning applications here go to Split: Mansfield DC / Newark & Sherwood.
Word from around the town
What homeowners across the Mansfield patch made of the work, in their own words.
"The back bedroom ceiling had a mark that came and went for two years and I'd stopped even noticing it. When Babet hit it turned into a proper leak overnight. They came out two days later, found a split flashing round the chimney - nowhere near where the stain was - and had it done in a morning. Showed me photos of the fault before and after. The quote and the invoice were the same number, which I'm told is rarer than it should be."
"Ours is one of the old colliery houses and the ridge had been shedding bits of mortar onto the path for months. I expected to be told we needed a new roof - the bloke next door had been quoted for exactly that by someone else. Instead they rebedded the ridge, refixed four tiles and told me the rest of the roof was fine for years yet. Charged a fraction of what I'd braced myself for."
"Water was streaming down the front of the house whenever it rained hard and I assumed the worst about the roof. Turned out the gutter had lost its fall and was tipping everything over the edge in one spot. They reset the brackets, sorted a joint, checked the gully at the bottom and were gone within a couple of hours. Also pointed out a slate that wants watching next year rather than fixing now - appreciated that."
"Bought a 1900s terrace near the town centre and the survey flagged the chimney. Two other firms quoted to take it down entirely. These lads went up, told me the stack itself was sound and it just needed repointing with the right mortar, new flaunching and a cap on the dead flue. Three years on the chimney breast is bone dry. Kept the chimney, saved about two grand."
"The extension roof had ponded for years and every couple of winters someone would patch it and it would come back. They were the first to explain the actual problem - no fall on the deck - and quoted to sort that rather than just laying another layer of felt over it. New rubber roof, water actually runs off it now. You get told the truth, which is worth paying for on its own."
Been a customer?
A short review is the most useful thing you can give a local firm - it tells the next household in Mansfield with a dripping ceiling who they can trust with it.
The rest of our patch
Every town and village below gets the same free survey and ten year guarantee, from Warsop down to Kirkby and from Shirebrook across to Ollerton.
Roof repair prices in Rainworth
Most Rainworth colliery houses are two storeys with roofs you can reach by ladder, so small repairs are often quick and cheap. Prices rise with the steep pitches on the twenties estate, where work near the ridge may need a roof ladder or a tower, and with corbelled stacks that need scaffolding round them. The biggest swing is underneath. If a section of original battens has rotted, we re-batten it instead of patching on top, and we price that as its own line so you can see it.
See the price guideRoof repair questions from Rainworth
Is Rainworth under Mansfield or Newark & Sherwood for planning?
Both, depending on your address. The boundary crosses Southwell Road East near the bridge over Rainworth Water. The Newark & Sherwood District Council side is the civil parish of Rainworth. The Mansfield side has no parish council and sits in Mansfield District Council's Ransom Wood ward. Like-for-like roof repairs on an ordinary house need no planning permission on either side, so for most jobs it doesn't matter. If you're adding dormers, changing the roof shape or doing anything that needs building regulations approval, check your address with the council first, or ask us and we'll check it for you.
How old are the colliery houses in Rainworth?
The oldest company houses, between First and Fourth Avenue off Southwell Road East, went up from 1912 to 1919 while Rufford Colliery was being sunk. The larger estate between Kirklington Road, Python Hill Road and South Avenue followed in the 1920s. Both were built by the Bolsover Colliery Company to designs by Percy Houfton's practice. So the older housing in Rainworth is roughly a hundred years old or a bit more, which is when mortar bedding, original battens and chimney pointing tend to run out of life.
Should I repair or replace the roof on my Rainworth house?
It depends on what's under the tiles. If the roof was re-covered in the last few decades on new battens and felt, a targeted repair is almost always the right call. If it's still on its original timbers, with bare battens and no membrane, repairs get harder to justify each time, because every visit disturbs more of a roof that's already fragile. We'll show you photos from the loft and tell you honestly which side of that line you're on.
Why did my roof start leaking when the house next door was re-roofed?
On terraced and semi-detached colliery houses, the two roofs meet at the party wall. When one side is stripped, the tiles and bedding at the joint get disturbed, and if the new roof isn't finished properly against the old one, water gets in on your side. It's fixable. We'd look at how the junction was finished and rebuild it cleanly, and if your neighbour's roofer is still around, it's worth letting them know first.
Rainworth roof playing up? Let's look at it this week.
Wherever you are in Rainworth, the survey is free and the price comes in writing, with loft photos. If the job needs paperwork, we'll tell you which council to send it to, so you won't be sent back and forth between two offices.