Roof repairs in Bryanston
Slipped slates, lifted hip lead, stacks and stone copings repaired in Bryanston, near Blandford Forum, DT11, Dorset, where a shallow slate slope can put the drip well away from the fault.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Slate, lead and stacks, repaired where the water gets in
Yes, we repair roofs in Bryanston, the old Portman estate village across the Stour from Blandford Forum in DT11, Dorset. A slipped or cracked slate, lifted hip lead, a leaking stack or coping, a split flat roof: we find where the water enters, repair it in matching slate or lead, and price it in a free written itemised quote after a free site visit.
Got water through a ceiling in Bryanston? Ring 07435 839745 and tell us whether the stain sits near a chimney breast, an outside wall or a corner of the room.
The warning is usually a grey slate in the border under the eaves, a brown ring on a bedroom ceiling well away from any obvious hole, or the top of a chimney breast that darkens in wet weather. On a shallow slope the cause can sit further from the mark than you would guess.
Thomas looks from the loft first, because the underside of the slates shows where the wet has run. The quote names what goes back and whether the rest of that slope has life left in it.
The repairs
Faults on slate, lead and stone, and the fix for each
Bryanston's listed buildings show what the older estate roofs are made of: natural slate, lead, stone gables and copings, and big brick stacks. If your house is built from the same things, these are the repairs it will ask for, and how we do each.
A slate that has slipped or cracked. Each slate hangs on two nails. When they rust through, which roofers call nail sickness, a sound slate slides down its course. We slide it back and hold it on a tingle, a copper or lead strip folded under its tail, or a stainless slate hook. A cracked one comes out with a slate ripper and a replacement goes in of the same size and the same thickness, matched to the A, T and S codes for natural slate where the grade matters. We never bed it in mortar, glue it or run mastic along it: mastic seals the lap that is meant to drain, and the batten below rots.
Hips and the ridge. On a hipped slate roof each hip is finished with lead dressed over a timber roll and held at the foot by a hip iron, or with a row of bedded cappings. Wind lifts the lead and it splits where it was stretched too far; mortar under a capping dries out and lets go. We dress lead back or renew it in short lengths that can move without tearing. Cappings are lifted, the sound ones kept, and relaid bedded and screwed to BS 5534.
Chimney stacks. A tall brick stack through a slate slope leaks at cracked flaunching, open joints, stepped flashings pulled from the mortar or soakers worn thin. The back gutter on the uphill side collects leaves, and once its lead cracks the damp shows on the chimney breast. We renew the flashings in lead and relay the back gutter to a proper fall. If the brickwork or the pots are the problem, that goes under chimney repairs.
Stone copings and gables. Where a gable rises above the slate under stone copings, the joints between the stones open and rain runs into the wall head, so damp shows high on an inside gable wall. We repoint the joints, in lime where the wall was built in lime (why cement is wrong on a lime wall), and check the lead where slate meets gable.
Dormers. A dormer set into a slate slope has lead on its flat top, soakers up each cheek and an apron across the foot. A leak shows at the window head or down one reveal. We lift the slates by the cheek, renew the soakers and re-dress the top.
Valleys. A lead valley splits at its laps or where it was nailed tight; a mortared one cracks along its length. Both get relaid in lead, lifting the slates either side and hanging them back on the same battens.
If your roof is tiled. A slipped concrete interlocking tile or clay plain tile goes back on its nibs with a nail or a clip, and a missing tile or broken tile is matched. A loose tiled ridge can go back as a dry ridge to BS 8612, with no mortar left to wash out.
Flat roofs and gutters. Felt splits along its seams, GRP cracks at a trim, and EPDM pulls away at an upstand. On a firm, dry deck a split is patched; a soft deck means the covering comes off. More on flat roofing in Bryanston. A blocked outlet, a gutter overflowing onto a wall, a cracked downpipe or a rotten fascia is fascias, soffits and guttering work.
Moss in the laps. Moss packs the joints, holds rain and lifts the slate above. We scrape it by hand; a pressure washer drives water under the laps.
Thatch. We do not thatch. A thatched roof needs a specialist thatcher; our part is only a tiled or slated roof beside it, or the lead where the two meet.
After a storm, and when repair stops making sense. After a gale we sheet the gap until matching slate is found. Repair or replace comes down to the fixings: if slates are letting go right across one slope, the nails have failed together and more tingles only delay it. That slope wants re-slating, a job for our roofers in Bryanston. A few slates take a morning; a hip or a run of flashing is about a day.
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.
Bryanston lies inside the Blandford St Mary and Bryanston Conservation Area, so the same slate or lead going back on is maintenance, while a different covering changes how the roof looks and is a question for Dorset Council first. Several of Bryanston's buildings are listed, and on any of them works affecting the character of a listed building need consent, so listed building consent can apply even to a repair that uses a different material or detail.
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 Bryanston that might be a single storey porch roof reached from a ladder, a two storey house whose shallow hipped slate needs a tower to reach the hips, or a brick stack rising through the ridge that needs a platform around it. 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. On a hipped slate roof in Bryanston, tell us which corner of the house the wet is nearest, because a leak close to a hip or a stack narrows the search. 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.
Low pitch
A low-pitched slate roof leaks sideways
The Historic England entries for Bryanston keep describing one kind of roof. Bryanston Farmhouse has low pitched slate roofs. The mid nineteenth century Portman estate farm buildings south of Bryanston Home Farmhouse have low-pitched hipped slate. Norman Shaw's house, now Bryanston School, has a hipped slate roof. That says nothing certain about your house, but if your roof is shallow slate too, the pitch decides the repair.
On a steep slope rain runs straight down the face. On a shallow one it moves slowly and spreads sideways under the slate below before it finds the next joint. That is why BS 5534 asks for bigger slates and a longer headlap as the pitch drops. So the drip can be several slates across from the gap, and we check either side and upslope of the stain first. A replacement a size short leaves a short lap, which on a low pitch is a fresh leak. A leak near a room corner under a hipped roof sends us to the hip lead.
Swapping shallow slate for tile is no way out. A clay plain tile needs a far steeper pitch than slate, as do many interlocking tiles, and inside the conservation area it is a change of material the council looks at. Keep the slate, match it, and hang it on a hook.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bryanston in DT11, over the river from Blandford Forum, from our base at 80a Wolverton Road in Boscombe. Dorset Council is the planning authority for the village. 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 Bryanston
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Bryanston, and the other trades we offer in Bryanston itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Bryanston
Everything we do in Blandford Forum Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Bryanston
How much should I pay for a roof repair?
We will not give a figure before seeing the roof, because the same slipped slate costs very different amounts over a porch and over a two storey hip. What moves it is how the fault is reached, whether matching slate has to be found, and whether the battens and felt around it are sound. You get the lot itemised in writing, and how we price a job explains the lines on it.
Is there a best time of year to repair a slate roof?
A dry, mild spell suits it best. Lead dresses cleanly when it is not freezing, mortar should not go on in frost, and flat roof coverings bond better when the deck is dry. None of that is a reason to sit on a leak: a wet roof gets a temporary cover first and the permanent repair is done in the next workable weather.
Can I replace my shallow slate roof with cheaper tiles?
Usually not on a low pitch, because most tiles need a steeper slope than slate to shed water. In Bryanston a new covering would also change how the roof looks inside the conservation area, and on a listed building it needs consent. If the slate is past saving, talk to our roofers in Bryanston about re-slating.
Will my insurer pay for storm damage to the roof?
That is your insurer's decision, not ours. It is worth reading the three questions the Financial Ombudsman asks about a storm claim and the ombudsman on gradual damage before you claim, because a hip whose lead crept loose over years counts as wear. What we can give you is dated photographs of the damage and a written itemised quote for the repair.
Free quote
Tell us what your Bryanston roof is doing
Send the address and what you have noticed: a slate in the border, a stain by the chimney or damp high on a gable wall. We come out, trace it and put the repair in writing.