Roof repairs in Canford Heath

Roof repairs

Stop the drip, then mend what let it in

If water is coming in now, ring 07435 839745 and say which room it is in and which part of the ceiling is wet.

A ridge tile sits crooked after a gale, with grey grit in the gutter below. A stain has crept across the kitchen ceiling right under the join with a single storey extension. Or the felt roof over the garage has a soft spot and a puddle that never seems to dry.

Thomas gets up where it is safe, looks along each slope, then checks the underside from your loft hatch with a torch. You see photographs of the fault and get a quote for that fault alone, or hear plainly if the whole roof is past saving.

What we fix

Faults on the estate's concrete tile roofs, one by one

Canford Heath is mostly 1970s and early 1980s houses, with later phases into the 1980s and 1990s. Nearly all sit under large concrete interlocking tiles over bitumen felt, with mortar along the ridge, hips and gable verges, and felt flat roofs on garages, porches and extensions. Clay tile and slate are scarce here.

A ridge that rocks after wind. Look for a kink in the ridge line or lumps of mortar in the gutter. We lift the loose ones, knock off the old sand and cement, and either rebed them with a screw through each tile or change the run to a dry ridge, since BS 5534 now expects ridge tiles to be mechanically fixed. One or two loose tiles is a couple of hours, and if only those are loose, we leave the rest alone.

Verge mortar dropping onto the side path. If the mortar strip under the end tiles of a gable has gaps, or bits of it lie on the path, those tiles are held by little more than their side lock. Dry verge units clipped to each tile and screwed into the batten ends replace the mortar, about a day for a pair of gables. Pointing fresh mortar into the gaps does not last.

A cracked tile or a snapped nib. Each interlocking tile hangs on its batten by two nibs on the back. A broken nib, or a tile cracked by a careless knee, lets the tile slide and open the lap. We slide in a tile of the same profile and clip it. If a 1970s profile is no longer made, a sound tile borrowed from a hidden slope does the job. A handful of tiles from a roof ladder is a morning.

Rotten felt at the eaves. Daylight at the edge of the loft and a black, ragged end to the felt mean the strip that should carry water into the gutter has perished, so rain runs behind the gutter and soaks the fascia. We lift the bottom courses, cut back the dead felt, fit an eaves carrier tray, lap new breathable membrane over it and refix the tiles, about a day for each side of the house. A fascia rotted through is fascias, soffits and guttering in Canford Heath, done on the same visit.

Valleys and walls where an extension joins. Where a house here has been extended, the new roof meets the old at a valley or an abutment, and a stain in the corner of a room under that join is the sign. We lift the tiles either side and relay the valley in lead or a dry valley trough, or refit soakers under a stepped lead flashing chased into the brickwork. A flashing is about a day and a valley one to two. We will not smear mastic over a split and call it mended.

Rain driven up a shallow slope. Some later houses have low pitches, near the lowest the tile maker allows. A leak that only shows when heavy rain comes from one side, points to water pushed up under the laps, not a broken tile. We check the pitch and head lap first, since a new tile there would leak the same way. If a slope sits below its tile's minimum, re-covering it in a tile made for that pitch is the honest fix.

Garage, porch and extension flat roofs. Old felt gives way at blisters, at the upstand where it turns up the wall, at a loose edge trim and round the outlet, and puddles that stand for days speed it up. Where the deck under a split is still firm and dry, a patch is a few hours of work. A deck that gives underfoot has soaked up water and wants renewing, with a new covering in felt, GRP or EPDM. See flat roofing in Canford Heath.

Chimneys and storms. Not every house on the estate has a stack, but where yours does, the stepped lead, soakers and back gutter behind it are a leak source of their own, covered under chimney repairs. After a gale, a gap in the tiles needs a temporary sheet before the next rain. See emergency roof repairs.

Moss on the north slopes. It lifts tile edges, holds water in the laps and clogs the gutters and downpipes. Clearing it is a repair, not a reason for a new roof.

When a repair stops being worth it. Tiles loose across several slopes, felt that tears wherever a tile is lifted and battens soft enough to take a screwdriver mean the next patch buys a season at most. That is a re-cover, and work for our roofers in Canford Heath.

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.

Canford Heath sits outside every conservation area in BCP, as the council keeps the list, and has no listed buildings, so putting back a matching tile, rebedding a ridge or relaying a valley needs no planning application. Building control only comes into it if a repair grows into replacing a large part of the roof.

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. If you are in a Canford Heath flat, tell the managing agent as well as us, because the roof over a block is usually theirs to 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.

Call now: 07435 839745

Flats and rented homes

Leak in a top floor flat? Find out whose roof it is first

Canford Heath has a fair number of flats, and if you own one on a lease, the roof is almost certainly not yours to repair. Leases nearly always give the roof and main structure to the freeholder or a management company, paid for through the service charge. With water getting into a top floor flat, tell the managing agent or freeholder in writing that day, with photographs, the dates it rained and where the water shows, and keep a copy. Do not hire a roofer for the main roof yourself and expect to be repaid. Water from a blocked outlet on a flat roofed block can surface two floors down, so an early report protects your neighbours too.

The freeholder or management company can ask us to look and quote, and they get a free visit and a written, itemised price. Where each flat's share of a bigger job goes over a set amount, the freeholder must first consult every leaseholder under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which adds weeks. If you rent, a landlord must keep the structure and exterior in repair, including gutters, so report it to your landlord or letting agent. If you own your house, the roof is yours: just ring us.

Nearby, and next door

Roof repairs near Canford Heath

Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Canford Heath, and the other trades we offer in Canford Heath itself.

Everything we do in Canford Heath Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover