House sparrows - best time to repair roof without disturbing

We have a lovely community of house sparrows in our road in Bristol which has grown in recent years, and is delightful. 

The sparrows roost in gaps behind several of the house front fascia barge boards, including ours, however we now really need to repair our fascia board.

Can we do this without disturbing the sparrows, or at least do it a time of year that will disturb them the least? Or even, can we repair our barge boards in a way that will still allow the sparrows to stay?

Thank you for any advice or tips you can share. 

  • We have tried putting up nest boxes, including an RSPB sparrow terrace, but they prefer the many gaps in the roofs up and down the road!
    We do need to repair our roof, is there a time of year that will disturb them the least?
  • Ours finished nesting (second brood left 26th July). So I would say any time from late August till February would be a good time. September could well be the best time as not only is it highly unlikely any would be nesting, it is also one of the driest times of the year (or at least it is for us here in the Scottish Borders)

    If you do have any late nesters I would guess they would be at least feeding young so they would be very obvious, they're noisy buggers, so hard to miss, if so just wait until they fledge.
  • Thank you both. We will try to get the work done this autumn, that’s helpful, and move our nest boxes up higher near the eaves.