Roof repairs in Lilliput
Slipped tiles and slates, loose ridges, split lead and leaking flat roofs, repaired across Lilliput once the cause of the leak is found.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Lilliput roof repairs
One fault, found and fixed
Yes, we carry out roof repairs in Lilliput, whether it is a single slipped slate, a ridge tile rocking on dry mortar, a lead flashing pulled out of its joint or a split in a flat roof. We trace the leak to where it starts, repair that part, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is dripping into a room right now, ring 07435 839745 and say which ceiling it is coming through.
Maybe a slate has slid down the slope and come to rest on the gutter. Maybe a yellow tide mark has spread across the ceiling of a room under a flat roof, and it grows after every downpour. Or a chimney breast upstairs feels damp, and the mortar round the pots looks cracked from the garden.
Each of those has one cause, and a repair is only worth paying for once it has been found. We look at the roof from the ground, get up where it is safe, then go into the loft with a torch. You get photographs of the failure and a written price for that repair alone.
The repairs
Leaks, loose tiles and failing lead in Lilliput
Tracing the leak first. Rain that gets past a tile runs down the felt or along a rafter before it drips, so the stain on your ceiling can sit well below the real gap. In the loft we look for daylight, wet timber and tide marks on the underlay, then check the likely sources above: chimney, valley, abutment, ridge.
If your roof is clay plain tile. Each small tile hangs on the batten by two nibs and is nailed only every few courses. When a nib snaps or a nail rusts, the tile slides and opens a gap in the course below. We slip in a matched tile, reclaimed if the colour needs it, and hold it with a tile hook where the course above cannot be lifted without breaking more.
If your roof is concrete interlocking tile. The face wears with age, and tiles along the gable ends lift where the verge mortar has washed out. A cracked or missing tile is a straight swap. Where an old profile is no longer made, we borrow one from a hidden slope.
If your roof is natural slate or fibre cement slate. A slate hangs on two nails. When they corrode through, the slate drops, which is nail sickness. One or two are refixed with a copper tingle or a slate hook. A whole slope doing it is past tingles, and that talk belongs with our roofers in Lilliput. Man made slates to BS EN 492 can usually be matched from current ranges.
Salt on the fixings. Lilliput is within a mile or so of open sea, and the harbour shore is closer still. Salt air eats steel nails and tile clips on the side facing the water first, so when we refit one tile we check its neighbours and replace any rusted fixing with a corrosion resistant one, fixed as BS 5534 sets out.
Ridges, hips and verges. Once the bedding mortar under a ridge or hip tile cracks, the tile rocks, water gets under it and a gale can take it. We lift the run, clean the tiles and either rebed them in fresh mortar with a mechanical fixing through each one, or fit a dry ridge and dry verge to BS 8612.
Flashings, soakers, back gutters and valleys. Where a slope meets a wall, a dormer cheek or a stack, lead keeps the water out. Stepped flashings pull out of the brick joints, soakers split under the tiles and the back gutter behind a chimney fills with moss and leaves. We redress or renew the lead, not smear sealant on it. A valley lined in lead or GRP is relaid with the tiles either side lifted.
Chimneys. A stack lets water in through cracked flaunching round the pots, open joints in the brickwork and tired lead at its base. If the lead is sound and the brickwork is the problem, that is chimney repairs, and new flashing on its own will not stop the damp on the chimney breast.
Flat roofs. If your flat roof is hidden behind a low wall, it drains through an outlet in the parapet or down through the deck. When that outlet silts up, water ponds against the upstand and finds any tired lap. We clear the outlet, cut out blistered or split felt, patch GRP or EPDM, and re-form the upstand, following BS 6229. A soft deck will not hold a patch. For a new covering, see flat roofing in Lilliput.
Gutters and the roofline. A gutter that overflows onto a fascia, or a downpipe joint that has opened, can soak a wall and look just like a roof leak. We check it before blaming the tiles. See also fascias, soffits and gutters in Lilliput.
Storm damage. After a storm we make the roof safe with a temporary sheet and photograph the damage for your insurer, who will weigh the three questions the Financial Ombudsman asks about a storm claim. For a roof that is open today, see emergency roof repairs.
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 matching tile, slate or length of lead is a repair, and Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains where a repair ends and a change begins. Lilliput has a conservation area and one listed house, and the section below explains what that means for a repair there.
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 Lilliput that could be a bungalow whose eaves you can reach from a ladder, a two storey house set up a sloping garden where the tower has to stand on uneven ground, or a flat roofed house behind a parapet with no way up except 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 your flat roof sits behind a parapet, check for pooling from a window and leave the outlet to us. 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.
Conservation and listing
Repairs inside the Evening Hill conservation area
Lilliput has its own small conservation area, Evening Hill, designated in 1992 and drawn around Crichel Mount Road, Avalon and Minterne Road. No appraisal has been published for it, so there are no written rules on roof materials, and matching what is already there is the safe way to repair.
A like for like repair in the same clay tile, slate or ridge profile is ordinary maintenance. Before changing anything visible from the road, such as a different tile, a dry ridge or dry verge that alters the look of the edge, or a new rooflight, check with BCP Council first (the council keeps the list of its conservation areas), and photograph the roof before work starts.
Landfall on Crichel Mount Road is Lilliput's one listed house, Grade II*, a modernist house with a flat roof behind a parapet. Works that affect its character need listed building consent, and a new membrane or altered upstands and outlets can count. Ask BCP through the council's listed building records before booking any roof work, and we will price the repair to the specification the council agrees.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Lilliput and the rest of BH14, from Lilliput Road up to Crichel Mount Road, from our base in Boscombe. 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 Lilliput
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Lilliput, and the other trades we offer in Lilliput itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Lilliput
Everything we do in Lilliput Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Lilliput
Am I liable if a roofer is hurt on my roof?
On work to your own home, the duty to plan safe access sits with the contractor. The HSE page on CDM 2015 and domestic clients explains it, and the law sets out the work at height hierarchy: avoid, prevent, mitigate. So the ladder, tower or scaffold is the roofer's call, and it belongs on the quote as its own line.
Can a few slipped tiles be fixed without scaffold?
It depends where they are. A tile or slate near the eaves on a bungalow or low extension can be reached with a ladder and a roof ladder. Higher up a two storey slope, or near a ridge or chimney, a tower or scaffold is needed to work safely. The price of slipped tiles turns on that access, how many there are, the covering, and whether the nails across the slope are failing too.
How do you find where a leak is coming from?
From the loft first, in daylight, looking for light, wet timber and stains on the felt. Then on the roof, starting with the chimney and valleys. You see the photographs before any repair is agreed.
My flat roof has a parapet and the ceiling is stained. Can it be patched?
If the fault is a blocked outlet, a split at the upstand or one tired lap, and the deck under it is dry and firm, a patch is a sound repair. Whether a flat roof needs renewing, not patching, turns on the covering and its condition: blisters and splits all over, or a spongy deck, mean a patch will not last.
Do I need permission to repair a roof in the Evening Hill conservation area?
Not for a like for like repair in matching materials. A change you can see from the road, such as a new tile type, a different ridge or verge, or a rooflight, should be checked with BCP Council first. Landfall, being listed, needs the council's view before any roof work.
Free quote
Tell us where the water shows
Send your postcode and which ceiling or wall is wet. Thomas comes out, finds the fault and puts the repair price in writing, free.