Roof repairs in Alderholt
Slipped concrete tiles, loose hips and verges, perished felt at the eaves, and cottage clay and slate, repaired across Alderholt and the SP6 hamlets.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Fix the fault on the roof you have
Yes, we repair roofs all over Alderholt, from one slipped concrete tile on a hipped bungalow to a split valley on an extended house or a cottage slate that has lost its nail. We find the point where water gets in, repair that point, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is coming in right now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us which room it is dripping into.
A lump of hip mortar has landed on the patio after a blustery night and the tile above it now rocks. A brown ring has turned up on the ceiling where the single storey extension joins the house. Or the bottom edge of the felt has perished and you can see it hanging into the gutter from the garden.
We look at the slopes from the ground, go up on a roof ladder where that is safe, and check the underside from the loft hatch. You get photographs of the fault and a written quote for it. If the whole roof has had its day, we say so.
The repairs
What goes wrong on concrete tile, clay and slate here
Much of the village went up after the war, and those houses are typically under concrete interlocking tile, around an older core of brick cottages under clay or slate. Each fails in its own way.
Slipped concrete tiles. On a roof of that age, plenty of tiles were nailed only every few courses, held in place by their weight and the lock with the next tile. When a nail rusts through or the batten under it softens, the tile creeps down and opens the lap. We lift the courses above, fit a tile of the same profile, and fix it with a clip or nail, because BS 5534 now expects every tile to be mechanically fixed. A handful of tiles is a morning from a roof ladder.
Hips and ridges on the bungalows. On a hipped bungalow the hips come down to all four corners, close to the eaves, and every one was bedded in sand and cement. Forty winters of frost crack that bedding and a hip tile starts to rock when wind gets under it. We either rebed the run in fresh mortar with a screw or clip into each tile, or strip the mortar and fit a dry hip and ridge system to BS 8612, which has nothing left to wash out. A bungalow's hips and ridge are about a day.
Verges on the gable end houses. Where a house has gables instead of hips, it is the verge that goes. The mortar under the end tiles drops out in chunks. A dry verge unit over each end tile, fixed into the batten ends, replaces the mortar and is a day for a pair of gables.
Felt rotting at the eaves. Under nearly every roof from that era is bitumen felt, and the strip that runs over the fascia into the gutter fails first. Daylight reaches it there, it goes brittle and tears, and water drips behind the gutter onto the fascia. We lift the bottom courses, cut the perished felt back, fit an eaves carrier tray to carry water into the gutter and lap a short run of new membrane over it. If the fascia behind has gone soft, that is fascias, soffits and guttering work on the same visit.
Shallow bungalow slopes. At a low pitch, a tile that has slipped an inch or was lapped short lets wind blown rain run back up under it. A leak that only shows when rain comes from one direction points at a lap or a lock, so tell us that when you ring.
Valleys and abutments on extended houses. An L shaped or extended house has a valley or an abutment where two roofs meet. On the newer houses a valley is usually mortar bedded valley tiles or a lead or GRP trough. The mortar cracks and the troughs split or clog. Where a lean-to roof meets a two storey wall, step flashing and soakers under the tiles carry the water, and lead that has pulled out of its joint shows up as a stain on the extension ceiling. We re-dress or renew the lead and repoint the joint above. Allow a day for a flashing and one to two for a valley, since the tiles either side have to come up.
Felt over garages, porches and extensions. These fail at blisters and splits, the upstand against the wall, and the outlet. A split over a dry, firm deck can be patched in a few hours. A deck that flexes underfoot has soaked up water and a patch will not stick to it. More on flat roofing in Alderholt.
The older cottages. About one home in five here dates from before 1919, mostly brick cottages with clay plain tiles or slate. A cracked clay tile is slid out and replaced with a reclaimed handmade tile that matches its colour, held with a hook or a tingle where it cannot be nailed. Slates slip when their nails rust, which is nail sickness. A few slipped slates get tingles, a lead or copper strip turned up under the bottom edge. Slates sliding all over one slope mean that slope wants stripping and re-nailing. On a cottage the chimney is the likeliest leak: the stepped lead, the soakers and the back gutter behind the stack. See chimney repairs. The few thatched cottages need a specialist thatcher, since we do not thatch.
When patching stops making sense. Tiles cracking across a whole slope, felt that crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, and battens soft enough to push a screwdriver into all mean the next repair will not be the last. That is a re-cover, which is work for our roofers in Alderholt.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, where the fault is and what is being opened up to reach it, each tile, slate, ridge or flashing being renewed and what with, making good, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
A like for like repair in Alderholt needs no planning application, because no conservation area covers the village, and the Planning Portal guidance on roofs sets out where that line sits. A small number of buildings in the parish are listed, the Church of St James among them, and if yours is one, read Dorset Council's page on listed building consent before any tile is changed.
Cost
What decides the price of a roof repair
No rate per square metre, because a slipped tile over a porch and the same tile above a three storey gable are one repair and two very different jobs.
Getting to it. In Alderholt that can be a hipped bungalow whose hips are within reach of a roof ladder, an eighties two storey detached with a valley over the garage, or a brick cottage with its chimney rising from the ridge. A tile over a porch or a bungalow eaves can often be reached from a ladder and a roof ladder. A ridge, a chimney or a valley on a two storey house usually wants a tower or a scaffold, so a small repair can still need a proper platform. The work at height rules decide that, which is why access is its own line on the quote and not hidden inside the repair.
Finding the cause, not the stain. Water runs along the battens and the underlay before it drips, so the mark on the ceiling is rarely under the fault. Tracing it back to a cracked tile, a lifted flashing, a perished valley or a ridge joint that has opened is part of the job, and a repair priced before anyone has looked is a guess.
What the repair uncovers. Lifting a few tiles shows the battens and the underlay around them. If they are sound the repair stays small. If the felt has perished or the battens have rotted, you get a photograph and a separate written price before anything more is done. Where patching stops being worth it is a conversation you have with the facts in front of you.
Comparing quotes? Ask what fault they actually found and where, whether access is included, what is being replaced and with what (a matched tile, new or reclaimed slate, which code of lead), whether the ridge and verge are being bedded in mortar or mechanically fixed, and what happens if more is found once the roof is open. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it is leaking now
Water coming through a ceiling
Ring rather than use the form. Put a bowl under the drip, keep anything electrical away from the wet patch, and if a ceiling is bulging keep everyone out from under it. The first visit is about finding where the water gets in and making the roof weathertight, and the permanent repair is priced in writing once the fault can be seen properly. When you ring about an Alderholt roof, tell us the covering and where the drip is. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
Matching tiles
Finding a tile that fits a forty-year-old roof
The eighties is the busiest decade in the village's housing, so many Alderholt roofs carry a concrete tile profile about forty years old. Before a slipped or cracked tile is swapped, we identify that profile and its fixing. An interlocking tile only keeps water out if its side lock and head lap marry up with the tiles around it. A tile that is nearly the same leaves a gap in the lock, and wind blown rain finds it.
If the profile is still made, that is simple. If not, a reclaimed tile of the same profile comes first. Next come sound tiles taken from a slope nobody looks at, such as the back of the garage, with the nearest new profile laid there. Last, if nothing matches, one slope is re-covered by our roofers in Alderholt. Check the garage or loft for spares the builder left, and if you can safely see a tile's underside from the loft, send us a photo.
New concrete tiles look brighter than weathered ones for a while. With no conservation area here, that is a matter of looks and not planning, so you can weigh appearance against cost. A listed house is the exception.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Alderholt, from Crendell and Cripplestyle to the houses along Daggons Road and Ringwood Road, all SP6 3, is 12.5 miles from our base in Boscombe, and Dorset Council is the planning authority. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Nearby, and next door
Roof repairs near Alderholt
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Alderholt, and the other trades we offer in Alderholt itself.
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Our other trades in Alderholt
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Alderholt
Is my eighties concrete roof worth repairing, or is it time to replace it?
If the tiles are sound and the fault is at the edges, repair it. On a roof of that age the tiles themselves can have plenty left in them while the mortar at the hips, ridge and verges has had its time, and that is a repair. It tips towards a re-cover when tiles are cracking across the slopes, the felt tears wherever a tile is lifted and the battens are soft.
My bungalow's hip mortar is cracking. Should it be rebedded or dry fixed?
Either works when done properly. Rebedding keeps the mortar look, with a mechanical fixing in each tile. A dry hip has no mortar to crack. The written quote can price both.
My cottage is thatched. Can you repair it?
No. A thatched roof needs a specialist thatcher, and we do not thatch. If a tiled porch, extension or outbuilding joins the thatch, we can repair that roof and the lead where it meets the wall.
Will my insurer treat this as storm damage?
That is the insurer's decision to make. Read the three questions the Financial Ombudsman asks about a storm claim before you claim, and the ombudsman on gradual damage, since hip mortar that cracked over years is wear. What we can give you is dated photographs of the damage and a written description of the fault.
Can a roof repair be done in winter?
Most of it, yes. Clip fixing, dry hip and verge work, lead and tiles can go ahead in most dry weather. Mortar bedding should not go on in frost, so in a cold spell we make the roof weathertight first and bed the hips or ridge once the frost has passed.
Free quote
Tell us what your Alderholt roof is doing
Send the postcode and what you have noticed: a tile, a stain or mortar on the ground. We come out, look properly and put the repair in writing.