Roof repairs in Hamworthy
Open ridge joints, gale-lifted verges, chimney and bay lead, and felt garage roofs, repaired across the Hamworthy peninsula.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
One fault, found and fixed
Yes, we repair roofs right across Hamworthy: an open ridge joint on a seventies semi, a verge lifted by a gale off Holes Bay, a split lead top over an inter-war bay, or a blistered felt garage roof. We trace where the water actually gets in, repair that spot, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is coming through a ceiling now, ring 07435 839745 and say which room and which floor.
Maybe a stain along the landing ceiling only grows when rain comes in from the harbour side. Maybe a verge tile on the gable end has dropped out of line and you can see batten behind it. Maybe the felt on the garage roof holds a puddle for days and the car underneath has started getting dripped on. Or the loft of a house built a few years ago is wet on cold mornings and dry by the afternoon.
Each has a different cause. Thomas goes up where it is safe, checks the underside from the loft hatch, photographs the fault and prices that fault in writing.
The repairs
Ridges, flashings and flat patches: what a Hamworthy roof asks for
Nearly half the homes here went up between the war and the early eighties, typically under concrete interlocking tile on bitumen felt. Add inter-war semis, a lot of flats and a handful of older houses, and the repairs follow the roofs.
Open ridge and hip joints. On a sixties or seventies roof the ridge and hip tiles sit in sand and cement. When the joint between two tiles cracks open, rain runs in along the ridge board and down a rafter, and the stain shows up well away from the ridge. Pointing over a cracked bed only hides it for a season. We lift the loose tiles, clean them, and rebed them with a screw or clip in each one, as BS 5534 now expects. The hips on a hipped bungalow are usually within reach from a roof ladder. A ridge on a two storey semi needs a tower or scaffold. Either is roughly a day.
Verges after a blow. Gable ends facing Lytchett Bay or Holes Bay take the wind full on. The mortar under the end tiles lets go in lumps, then the tiles rock and lift. We take the loose ones off, check the undercloak and the batten ends, and either rebed with mechanical fixings or fit a dry verge unit clipped to each tile.
Slipped and cracked tiles. A tile creeps down when its nail rusts or the batten under it rots, which opens the lock and the head lap. On a shallow pitch, wind driven rain then walks straight up under it. Others crack under the boots of whoever fitted an aerial or satellite dish, and show as daylight from the loft. We slide in a matching tile and clip it. Where a sixties profile is no longer made, finding a match is part of the price.
Perished felt at the eaves. The strip of felt that should carry water into the gutter goes brittle and tears, and water runs behind the gutter onto the fascia. We lift the bottom course, fit an eaves carrier tray and a short lap of new membrane, and relay the tiles. A soft fascia behind it is fascias, soffits and guttering in Hamworthy, and can be done on the same visit.
Chimneys letting water in. On the post-war and inter-war houses a leak that shows either side of a chimney breast is usually the stack, not the tiles. The stepped flashing has pulled out of its joint, a soaker has split, the back gutter behind the stack is holding leaves, or the flaunching on top has cracked. We re-dress or renew the lead and repoint the joints above it. See chimney repairs.
Bays and valleys on inter-war semis. The houses from the twenties and thirties often have a bay with its own small roof in lead or felt, and a valley where a front gable meets the main slope. Old lead splits along its folds, and a valley that drains two slopes lets a lot of water through a small crack. A bay top is usually a day. A valley takes one to two, because the tiles either side have to come up.
Flat roofs on garages and extensions. Many of the sixties and seventies garages and back extensions are still on felt. They blister, split, lift at the upstand against the wall, and pond where the deck has sagged. If the deck under a split is dry and firm, a patch will hold on it. A deck that gives underfoot will not, and then the answer is a re-cover in GRP or EPDM: see flat roofing in Hamworthy.
The few older roofs. A pre-1919 house in Lower Hamworthy or along Blandford Road may carry slate or clay plain tile. A slipped slate goes back on a hook or a tingle, and a cracked clay tile is replaced in kind.
Gale damage. After a storm the first job is making the roof weathertight and safe. The permanent repair is priced once it can be seen properly.
When a repair is the wrong answer. If tiles are slipping on every slope, the felt crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, or the battens are soft, another patch just buys one more winter. That roof wants re-covering, which is the job of our roofers in Hamworthy.
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.
Putting back a tile, a length of lead or a ridge in the same materials needs no planning application in Hamworthy, because none of BCP Council's conservation areas reaches this side of the bridges (the council keeps the list). Hamworthy has a handful of listed buildings, and if your house is one of them, check the council's listed building records first, since even a small repair to a listed building can need consent.
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 Hamworthy that could be a hipped bungalow with its eaves at head height, a two storey seventies semi with the ridge out of ladder reach, or a block of flats whose roof is reached through a hatch or from a scaffold. 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. If you are in a top floor flat, tell us, because the fault may be on a roof shared by the whole block and the freeholder or managing agent has to order the 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.
Newer homes
A newer roof? Check who owes the repair first
A fair number of homes in Hamworthy were built this century. Most new homes are sold with a structural warranty that usually runs for about ten years, and for the first couple of years the builder is normally responsible for putting defects right. So if your roof is that young, find the warranty paperwork, report the fault to the builder or the warranty provider, and take dated photographs before you pay anyone to touch it. A repair done by someone else and not recorded can make the claim harder to prove.
The faults on these roofs are different from the sixties stock. Dry ridge and dry verge units go on with clips and screws, and when a few were missed, the caps lift and blow off: BS 8612 sets out how they should be fixed. A breathable membrane with poor loft ventilation can drip condensation that looks exactly like a leak, which is what BS 5250 deals with. Lead or plastic trays where a flat or terrace roof meets a wall are sometimes badly dressed. We can look, photograph and write down what we find, and whether it looks like a defect or wear, before anyone works on it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover all of Hamworthy, BH15, from the ferry port and Poole Bridge out along Blandford Road to Rockley Park, Cobbs Quay and Turlin Moor, about 7.7 miles from our base in Boscombe. BCP 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 Hamworthy
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Hamworthy, and the other trades we offer in Hamworthy itself.
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Hamworthy
Is the drip in my loft a leak or condensation?
Look at when it happens. A leak follows rain, and usually wind from one direction. Condensation shows on cold, still mornings, beads on the underside of the felt or membrane and on nail tips, and dries through the day. The cure for condensation is air moving at the eaves and the ridge, not work on the tiles, so it is worth knowing which before anyone quotes.
My house is under ten years old. Who pays for a roof fault?
Check the paperwork first. In the first couple of years the builder is normally responsible, and after that a structural warranty may still cover some defects. Report it to them before paying for a repair, and keep photographs. If you want an independent view, we can inspect and write down what we see.
Do I need permission to repair my roof in Hamworthy?
Not for a like for like repair. No conservation area covers Hamworthy. Some buildings here are listed, and if yours is one, check the council's listed building records before work starts.
What happens on the first visit if a gale has lifted tiles?
We make the roof weathertight so the damage cannot spread: loose tiles refixed or taken off, gaps covered, anything hanging made safe. We photograph what the wind did, which helps if you claim on your insurance, and then price the permanent repair in writing.
If a roofer falls off my roof, am I responsible?
On a domestic job the duties under the construction regulations pass to the contractor, as CDM 2015 and domestic clients explains. Working safely at height is our responsibility, which is why access is a line on your quote.
Free quote
Tell us where the water shows
Send your postcode and what you have spotted: a stain, a loose tile or a puddle on the garage roof. We come and look, then put the repair in writing.