Roof repairs in Hangersley

The repairs

Faults on these roofs, and how each one is mended

Slipped slates on the brick cottages. From the later 1800s the usual cottage here was brick under natural slate. The slate outlasts everything around it. The iron nail through its head does not, and once that rusts the slate slides down the course and leaves a gap. We slide a matching slate in under the course above and hold it with a tingle, a strip of lead or copper nailed to the batten and folded up under the slate's tail, or with a stainless slate hook. The replacement is natural slate of the same size and colour, new or reclaimed. A few slates is a morning's work from a roof ladder. Slates loose right across a slope mean the nails have failed together, and tingles will not cure that.

Clay tiles that flake and drop. The oldest cottages and early twentieth century houses carry small clay tiles. Frost makes an old one flake or split into layers, and its nibs snap, so it drops out of its course. We lift the tiles above, hang a matched clay tile and nail it, and check along the course for the next ones about to go. Cracked bonnet tiles on the hips and cut tiles beside a valley are replaced the same way. Scalloped and beaver tail bands, and decorative ridge tiles, are matched shape for shape.

Deep eaves and bargeboards. Hangersley House on St Aubyns Lane, which the conservation area appraisal picks out, is an Arts and Crafts house with a clay tile roof and deep overhanging eaves, and some nineteenth century cottages nearby have decorative bargeboards at their gables. Under trees, a deep overhang stays damp and rot starts at the rafter feet and in the boards. We open the bottom courses, splice new timber onto soft rafter feet, and refix the tiles. A new bargeboard is cut to the old profile. The boards and gutters themselves are covered on fascias, soffits and guttering in Hangersley.

Concrete tile roofs on the later houses. The houses set back in clearings among the copses are mostly under concrete interlocking tiles on bitumen felt, with ridges bedded in mortar. A falling branch cracks a run of them, and the felt goes brittle where it drapes into the gutter, letting wind blown rain in behind the fascia. We replace cracked tiles with the same profile, reclaimed if the pattern is no longer made, and cut out the perished strip of felt at the eaves, letting in breathable membrane and an eaves tray.

Ridges, hips and verges. The mortar under a ridge or hip tile shrinks and cracks until the tile sits loose, and the next gale lifts it. We rebed each one with a mechanical fixing through the tile, or switch the run to a dry ridge and dry verge system, which is what BS 5534 now expects.

Chimney stacks. A tall brick stack on an old cottage can let water in at four points. Stepped flashings work out of their mortar joints, and the back gutter on the uphill side silts and overflows. The flaunching, the sloped cement bed holding the pots on top, splits and lets rain soak into the brickwork. Joints in the top courses open up. And a flue nobody uses takes rain straight down to a damp patch on the chimney breast. We renew the lead, repoint, reflaunch, and fit a ventilated cap to a dead flue. Bigger stack work sits under chimney repairs.

Moss on slopes the sun never reaches. Thick moss under a canopy holds water against the tiles, lifts their tails and, when it comes away, blocks the gutter and downpipe. We scrape it off by hand, never with a pressure washer, which drives water up under the laps.

A branch through the roof. With plots set among mature oaks and conifers, storm damage here can mean a limb through the tiles, not only a few lifted by wind. The branch comes off first, then a temporary sheet is battened over the hole, the rafters and battens around it are checked, and the covering is made good. You get dated photographs for your buildings insurance, and the ABI explains what the insurance industry means by a storm.

Garage and extension flat roofs. Felt blisters, splits along the upstand where it meets the house wall, and outlets choked with leaves. A split on a firm, dry deck can be patched in GRP or with a new felt cap. A deck that gives under your foot will not hold a patch, and flat roofing in Hangersley covers relaying it.

Repair or replace. Slates slipping across a whole slope, felt that crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, or a concrete roof patched in one place after another all mean the next repair will not be the last. Then the quote prices the repair and the re-cover side by side, and the re-cover is work for our roofers in Hangersley. Our main roof repairs page covers leak tracing in more depth.

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 Hangersley that runs from a felt roofed garage reached off a stepladder, to a slate roofed brick cottage with a tall stack, to a two storey house set back behind trees where a scaffold has to be carried in from the lane. 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.

Who you are dealing with

A local firm you can check

Hangersley is 9.4 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the hamlet, St Aubyns Lane and the BH24 lanes around it towards Poulner and Linford. Planning here belongs to the New Forest National Park Authority, and building control to New Forest District Council. 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.