Roof repairs in Brockenhurst
Cracked plain tiles, slipped slates, loose decorative ridges, chimney lead and dormer leaks, mended in matching material across Brockenhurst.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Mending one fault on a Brockenhurst roof
Yes, we repair roofs in Brockenhurst: a cracked clay plain tile, a slipped Welsh slate on a Victorian villa, a loose length of decorative ridge, lead that has lifted at a chimney or a dormer, and a split in the felt on a flat roof. We find the fault, mend it in a material that matches, and write the price down after a free site visit.
If water is coming into a room right now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us which room and which side of the house it is on.
Maybe a broken tile has turned up on the path after a storm and there is a missing tile in the slope above. Maybe there is a brown ring on the ceiling below a dormer, or a damp patch on the inside of a tile-hung gable wall upstairs.
Each of those is a patch, not a new roof. We look from the garden, the loft and, where a roof ladder is safe, the roof itself, and you get photographs and a written price for that one fault. Repair or replace comes down to how much life is left in the covering. Where the answer is a re-roof, that is work for our roofers in Brockenhurst, and we will say so plainly.
The repairs
Clay tile, slate and the lead between them
Brockenhurst has two quite different kinds of roof. The older village core, around Brookley Road, the church and the lanes off it, is mostly clay plain tile, with Welsh slate on the Victorian and Edwardian villas. Around that sit the post-war houses and bungalows, mostly under concrete interlocking tile.
Cracked and slipped plain tiles. Clay plain tile is still the commonest roof in the older village. Each tile hangs by two nibs, or on the oldest cottages by a wooden peg. When a nib snaps or a peg rots, the tile slides down and leaves a gap. Frost also lifts the face off a soft old tile until it lets water through. We ease the tiles above apart, slide in a salvaged tile of the same size, curve and colour, and hold it on a stainless tile hook. Never let anyone fill the gap with a concrete tile: it is thicker, it will not lie flat among clay, and water finds the step.
Decorative ridge tiles and finials. Many of the steep clay and slate roofs here carry crested or patterned ridge tiles, with a finial at the gable end. When the mortar under a section breaks up, the ridge rocks in the wind, cracks, and lets rain in along the top of the roof. We lift the loose sections whole, clean them off and rebed them with a mechanical fixing through each one. A broken piece gets matched from reclaimed stock or made to pattern. Swapping it for a plain half-round ridge from a builders' merchant spoils the roof and, on a listed house, is not a repair at all.
Tile hanging on gables. Plain, scalloped, beaver tail and bands of patterned tile hang on many Brockenhurst gables, with fine examples off Rhinefield Road. A hanging tile is held by nails alone. When the nails rust, tiles slip and the wall behind takes driven rain, which shows as damp on the inside of the gable. We refit it tile by tile, keeping the pattern and the bands in line, usually from a tower rather than a full scaffold.
Welsh slate on the villas. Park Close off Butts Lawn is a good example: late Victorian houses that were all built with slate. Nail sickness shows as odd slates sliding. One broken slate gets cut out with a slate ripper and replaced with a reclaimed Welsh slate of the same size and thickness, held on a copper tingle or a disc rivet. On a hipped slate roof, check the hips too. A lead hip roll that has lifted, or mortar that has dropped out of a slate hip, lets water straight down the hip rafter. We dress the lead back down, or rebed and fix the hip.
Chimneys. Chimneys leak at the stepped flashing, the soakers down each side, and the back gutter on the uphill face where water and leaves collect. Perished flaunching round the pots lets rain straight down the stack, and a loose pot is a safety problem as well as a leak. We renew the lead, rebed the flaunching and reset the pots. Taking a stack down should only follow proper advice. See chimney repairs.
Dormers. A pitched dormer leaks at the lead on its cheeks and the apron under the window. Many of the Brookley Road shops have dormers, and some dormers in the village are flat-roofed. A felt, GRP or EPDM top on one of those that has blistered, or split at the upstand against the tiles, lets water into the room below. Patching over a sound deck is a short job. A soft deck needs re-covering, see flat roofing in Brockenhurst.
Post-war houses and bungalows. On concrete interlocking tile, the mortar under the hips and ridge cracks and falls out, and verge mortar drops away from the gable. We refit loose ridges and hips as a dry fixed system to BS 8612, fit clips to verge tiles that have lifted, and reline a valley whose trough has split. A valley that only leaks in autumn is often just blocked with leaves, and clearing it and the gutter, outlet and downpipe below may be the whole job, see guttering in Brockenhurst.
Thatch. The handful of thatched roofs in Brockenhurst need a specialist thatcher, as we do not thatch.
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.
Brockenhurst is inside the National Park, so the New Forest National Park Authority, not the district council, is who we check with. We look your address up on the National Park Authority's interactive property map before pricing, because a repair on a listed house is judged differently.
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 Brockenhurst that might be a shop with a flat above on Brookley Road and a flat-roofed dormer at the front, a slate-roofed villa set back behind a hedge in Park Close, or a post-war bungalow outside the conservation area with its hips an easy reach from the drive. 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. In a south westerly gale it is the verges, the ridge ends and the lead round a chimney on that side that give first, so tell us which side of the house the water is on. Any temporary sheet we fit after a storm is there to keep the room dry until the lasting repair. 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.
Worth knowing
If your house is listed, a repair has a different rulebook
Brockenhurst has 23 listed entries, most of them in the conservation area, with the Church of St Nicholas at Grade II*. On a listed house the question is not whether the repair is like for like but whether it touches the character of the building, because works affecting the character of a listed building need consent.
Putting back one slipped plain tile with a matching one is a repair. Swapping lead flashings for a cheaper substitute, taking down or capping a chimney, losing decorative ridge tiles or finials, rebedding in hard cement mortar, or changing to a different tile or slate is where consent comes in. Doing that without consent is a criminal offence for whoever carries out or orders the work, owner and roofer alike (section 9 of the Act), which is why we will not start a change until consent is in place.
Before we take anything off, we photograph and record what is there, and sound old tiles, ridge and finials are set aside and put back. The written quote says what is being kept and what is being replaced like for like, so you can show the Authority if it asks. Any change goes to the National Park for consent before a scaffold goes up (National Park heritage and conservation guidance). The village also has about 180 unlisted buildings of local interest, and the same care is worth taking on those.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Brockenhurst, The Weirs, Setley and Balmer Lawn are all covered. 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 Brockenhurst
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Brockenhurst
Can you match a decorative ridge tile or finial?
Usually. A cracked section is matched from reclaimed stock by pattern, colour and length, and where nothing matches, a replacement can be made to the pattern. The sound sections are lifted whole and rebedded, so most of what you see on the ridge afterwards is the original.
My house is listed. Do I need consent to mend the roof?
Not for putting back a slipped tile or slate with a matching one. You do if the work changes the character of the house, such as a different covering, lost ridge detail, a lowered chimney or a cheaper flashing material. If in doubt, ask the National Park Authority before work starts, and we will give you a written description of the repair to send them.
The flat-roofed dormer over our flat leaks. Who arranges the repair?
On most tenancies, your landlord, because the law makes a landlord keep the structure and exterior in repair, gutters included (section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985). If you own a leasehold flat, it is usually the freeholder or managing agent under the lease, so tell them in writing. We can quote whoever is responsible and send photographs of the fault.
How much should a roof repair cost?
That depends on getting to the fault, what the fault turns out to be, and whether matching material has to be found. A tile over a bungalow porch and a ridge on a three storey Brookley Road building are very different jobs. We explain how that works on how we price a job, and the free site visit ends with a written itemised price.
Free quote
Tell us what your Brockenhurst roof is doing
Send your postcode and what you have noticed: a tile on the path, a rocking ridge, damp by the chimney or under a dormer. We come out, find the fault and write down the repair.