Roof repairs in Holton Heath

The repairs

Tiles, hips, valleys and lead on Holton Heath houses

Holton Heath has a lot of bungalows, and most of its houses went up between the fifties and the nineties. So the typical roof here is concrete interlocking tile laid over bitumen felt, with the ridge, hips and gable verges bedded in sand and cement. Clay plain tile or slate only turns up on the odd older cottage.

A concrete tile out of line. An interlocking tile hangs on its nibs over a batten, and on a lot of older roofs only every second or third course was nailed. When a nail rusts through or a batten end goes soft, the tile slides and its side lock opens. We lift the tiles above, re-hang it or fit a new one, and hold it with a tile clip, which is what BS 5534 now asks for. If your profile is discontinued, we hunt for a reclaimed match first. Re-hanging a few tiles on a bungalow slope takes a morning, working off a roof ladder. Tiles sliding right across one slope mean the fixings have gone together, and that is a re-cover conversation with our roofers in Holton Heath.

Hips on the bungalows. A hipped bungalow has four hips running down to its corners, every one sitting on a bed of mortar. Frost opens hairline cracks in that bed until a tile rocks, and a strong wind lifts it off. We either rake out the old bedding, re-bed the run and screw each tile down, or fit a dry hip and ridge system to BS 8612, on a ventilated roll with mechanical fixings and no mortar left to crumble. A full set of bungalow hips plus the ridge is around a day.

Gable verges. On the houses with gable ends, the mortar under the last tile along each edge drops out in lumps and lets the wind under the course. A clip-on dry verge fixed into the batten ends is the longer answer, and a pair of gables is normally a day.

Valleys where two roofs meet. Chalets and L-shaped houses have valleys. Some are laid with mortar bedded valley trough tiles, which crack along the bedding. Others are an open valley in lead or GRP, which can split or fill up with needles and leaf. We clear and test it first, then re-bed, re-line or re-dress it. Re-laying a valley means lifting the cut tiles along both sides, so allow one to two days.

Cement fillets at walls. Many roofs of this age were finished with a sand and cement fillet where a lower roof meets a house wall. The fillet shrinks away from the brick, and water gets in behind it and shows as a damp line down the wall inside. We cut the fillet out, slip lead soakers under the tiles and fit a stepped cover flashing chased into the brick joints above.

The chimney stack. A stack can let water in at four places: the back gutter behind it, the lead flashing at the sides, the flaunching round the pots, or the pots themselves. Tell us whether the damp shows beside the chimney breast or out on the ceiling in front of it, because the two point to different parts. More on chimney repairs.

Brittle felt at the eaves. The bitumen felt under these tiles perishes first where it drapes over the fascia into the gutter, because that strip sees daylight. Once it tears, rain runs down behind the gutter and the fascia board stays wet. We lift the bottom course, cut the dead felt back, fit an eaves felt support tray and lap new membrane over it. If the timber has softened, that is fascias, soffits and guttering work on the same visit.

Flat roofs on garages and extensions. Felt, GRP and EPDM all give way in the same places: blisters, split laps, the upstand against the house wall, and the outlet. A patch works over a deck that is dry and firm. If the deck gives underfoot it has taken water and a patch will not bond. See flat roofing in Holton Heath.

After a gale. On a low bungalow roof the wind takes tiles from the verges, the hips and the eaves course first. We sheet the gap, re-hang what we can and match the rest, and our dated photographs can go with an insurance claim. If a named storm went through, the Met Office page on how storms are named is worth keeping with those photographs.

Repair, or time for a new covering? A fault in one place gets one repair. Nails failing across whole slopes, felt that crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, or a slope dipping between the rafters mean the next repair will not be the last. Then the quote sets the repair and the re-cover side by side, and you choose. More on our approach to roof repairs.

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 Holton Heath that could be a hipped bungalow whose eaves are in reach of a roof ladder, a chalet with dormer cheeks and two short valleys, or a nineties detached house with a garage roof tucked against its side wall. 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

Holton Heath, from Station Road and the railway halt to the homes off the A351 and Sandford Road, sits in BH16 and the parish of Wareham St Martin, 10.7 miles west of our Boscombe base, with Dorset Council as 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.