Roof repairs in Lymington
Ridge caps, gable verges, cracked tiles, eaves felt, chimneys and flat roofs repaired across Lymington, with clay and slate matched like-for-like in the old town.
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, on a Lymington roof
Yes, we repair roofs across Lymington: a cracked concrete tile, a ridge cap rocking on dead mortar, a gable verge that has opened up, a split in the felt over the garage, or lead that has lifted at the chimney. We trace where the water actually gets in, repair that spot, and write the price down after a free site visit.
If water is dripping through a ceiling in Lymington right now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us which room it is in and whether you live in a house or a flat.
Picture three Lymington homes. On one, a concrete ridge cap has come off a bungalow and broken on the drive. On the next, a damp patch has appeared on the ceiling of a top floor flat after a wet south westerly. On the third, the gutter along the back of an eighties semi sags and the fascia behind it has gone soft. Each is a reason to ring.
We look from the ground and a ladder, go into the loft or the flat below, and photograph what we find. If a patch will not last, the written quote says so.
The faults
What fails on Lymington's tiled houses, bungalows and flat roofs
Most homes in Lymington went up after the war, and the 1980s built more of them than any other decade. So the typical repair here is on concrete interlocking tile over bitumen felt, and roughly one home in five is a bungalow with long hips and low eaves. Each fault below comes with the fix we would use.
Ridge and hip caps. On a post-war semi or bungalow the caps sit on a bed of sand and cement. Years of heat and frost crack that bed, the cap starts to rock, and a strong gust lifts it clean off. On a hipped bungalow, check the bottom of each hip too: the hip iron and the first cap above it carry the whole run, and when that cap slides the rest follow. We strip the loose caps, clean off the old mortar and either re-bed them with a screw or clip into each one, or change the run to a dry ridge and dry hip system, both of which meet BS 5534. One ridge run or a pair of hips is usually a day's work.
Gable verges. The south west face of a Lymington house takes the worst of the wind and driven rain. A mortar verge on that gable cracks away from the undercloak, water gets into the top of the wall, and you see it as a damp corner in the bedroom below. We rake out and re-point a short failed length. Where the whole edge is loose, clip-on dry verge units screwed to the batten ends are the lasting repair.
A cracked or slipped interlocking tile. Interlocking tiles hook over each other at the side, so one crack lets driven rain run sideways under its neighbours. Swapping it means easing up the tiles above and to one side, sliding the new tile in, and nailing or clipping it back. The profile has to match. Some eighties profiles are no longer made, and then we find a reclaimed one or borrow a tile from a hidden slope and put the new one there.
Eaves felt. On a roof now around forty years old, the bitumen felt just above the gutter is where it perishes first. It sags into the gutter, water tracks behind the fascia board, and the fascia and rafter feet rot. We lift the bottom two courses, fit an eaves felt support tray with a strip of new breathable membrane lapped under the old felt, and lay the tiles back. The fascia and gutter behind it are on our fascias, soffits and guttering page for Lymington.
Flat roofs. Rear extensions, garages, dormers and the roofs of low blocks of flats in felt, GRP or EPDM. The faults are a split or blister, the upstand where the roof meets the house wall, an outlet choked with leaves, and a perimeter trim the wind has lifted. If the deck under the split is firm and dry, a patch holds. If it flexes under a foot, it has taken in water and the roof wants re-covering. More on flat roofing in Lymington.
Chimneys. A stain on the chimney breast upstairs usually means cracked flaunching round the pots, a stepped flashing pulled out of its joint, a split soaker, or a blocked back gutter on the uphill side of the stack. We renew whichever has failed in lead and re-make the flaunching. See chimney repairs.
Older clay and slate in the town centre. The small pre-1919 share of Lymington's housing carries clay plain or peg tiles and natural slate. Iron nails rust and let slates slide, clay tiles spall after frost, and old slate splits into layers. Leaves and moss in a lead valley or parapet gutter make the water spill over into the roof space. A tingle holds a slipped slate for now; the lasting fix is refixing with copper or galvanised nails. When the nails have gone right across a slope, that is a job for our roofers in Lymington.
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.
Lymington is outside the National Park, so New Forest District Council deals with planning here, and the National Park Authority's interactive property map shows which side of the boundary an address falls. Putting back the same tile or slate the roof already has is repair, as the Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains.
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 Lymington that might be a bungalow whose eaves you can touch from a stepladder, a three storey block of flats reached across a residents' car park, or a town centre terrace that fronts straight onto the pavement. 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 the water is coming into a Lymington flat, tell us the name of the block and whether the roof above is pitched or flat, so the first visit arrives with the right ladders and sheeting. 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.
The old town
Repairs inside the Lymington Conservation Area
The Lymington Conservation Area takes in about 51 hectares of the historic town centre, and there are 160 listed entries in and around the town. On these roofs a repair means putting back exactly what came off. A cracked peg tile is swapped for a clay peg tile of the same size, colour and camber, reclaimed if a new one looks raw beside its weathered neighbours. A slipped slate gets a slate of the same thickness on a copper tingle, never a concrete or fibre cement stand-in. Clay ridge tiles on an old roof go back on lime mortar, which moves with the timbers where a hard cement bed cracks out.
Changing the covering is a different job. Clay off and concrete interlocking tile on, or natural slate swapped for a man-made one, alters how the street looks, so it is not maintenance, and inside the conservation area it wants putting to New Forest District Council before anyone orders materials. The council's conservation pages show whether your street is inside the boundary, and you can search article 4 direction areas by address too. If the house is one of the listed entries, talk to the council before anything beyond like-for-like.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
From our base at 80a Wolverton Road in Boscombe we come out to the Lymington town centre, Upper and Lower Pennington and the SO41 streets down toward the marina, with planning and building control here sitting with 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.
Nearby, and next door
Roof repairs near Lymington
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Lymington, and the other trades we offer in Lymington itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Lymington
Builders in Lymington: all our building work Everything we do in Lymington Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Lymington
How many slipped tiles before it is worth re-roofing?
There is no set number. Six slipped tiles on one slope of a Lymington bungalow, over felt that is still whole, is a morning's repair. Two slipped tiles where the felt crumbles as the tile lifts and the battens are soft means the slope is due for re-covering, and the quote shows both options.
Water is coming into my top floor flat. Who pays for the roof repair?
Usually the building, through the service charge, because the lease tends to keep the roof with the freeholder. Check your lease, report the leak to the managing agent in writing, and we can make it safe and quote the agent for the permanent repair.
How much does a roof repair in Lymington cost?
It depends on access, the covering, and what turns up once the tiles lift, so we price each one after seeing it and never over the phone. How we price a job sets out what goes into the quote.
Is winter a bad time to get a ridge re-bedded in Lymington?
A leak wants dealing with whenever it starts. Mortar needs dry, frost-free days to set, so a planned re-bed sits better between spring and early autumn. Dry ridge and dry verge are fixed mechanically, so cold does not hold them up.
Free quote
Tell us where the water is showing
Send your Lymington postcode, whether it is a house or a flat, and what you have seen: a cap on the drive, a wet ceiling or a sagging gutter. We come and look, then write down the repair.