Roof repairs in Merley
Cracked interlocking tiles, loose ridge and verge, split valleys and leaking garage joins, repaired across Merley, BH21, just over the Stour from Wimborne.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Mending the part that has actually failed
Yes, we repair roofs in Merley, BH21, on the estates just south of the Stour from Wimborne: a cracked interlocking tile, a ridge cap that rocks, a gable verge shedding mortar, or a leak where the garage roof meets the house. We trace the water to where it gets in, repair that point, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is dripping into a Merley bedroom or hallway as you read this, ring 07435 839745 and say which room it is in.
Perhaps ridge mortar has landed on the drive and one cap sits proud of the line. Perhaps the room behind the garage goes dark in one corner after heavy rain. Or there is daylight under the end tiles of a gable when you look from the loft.
We look from the drive and garden, go up a roof ladder where safe, and check the underside from the loft. You get photographs of the fault and a written price for mending it, and if the whole slope has had its day, we show you why.
The repairs
What goes wrong on a Merley estate roof, and the fix for each
Merley is mostly 1970s and early 1980s housing, a lot of it detached houses and bungalows, with very little older stock. So the roof over you is most likely concrete tile of the interlocking kind, laid on bitumen felt with no boards under it, and a ridge, hips and gable verges bedded in sand and cement when the house went up. Repairs on a roof like that cluster at the fixings, the mortar and the joins.
Hip and ridge caps that rock. A Merley bungalow hipped on all four corners carries a long run of bedded mortar, and once it cracks a cap works loose and the wind lifts it. If only the pointing has gone and the caps are tight, we repoint. If they move under your hand, we lift the run, clean the caps and either rebed them with a screw or clip into each one, which BS 5534 now asks for, or fit a dry hip and ridge system made to BS 8612. One bungalow hip is usually a day.
Gable verges losing mortar. On two storey gable ends, the mortar under the end tiles drops out in pieces. Repointing a strip that has cracked once tends to crack again, so we fit a clip on dry verge fixed to the batten ends, which holds the last tile down in a gale. Two gable ends take roughly a day between them.
A single cracked or slipped interlocking tile. These tiles hang on nibs and lock together at the sides. When a nail or clip rusts through, one slides out of line, the side lock opens and rain runs underneath. A broken tile or a missing tile lets it straight in. We ease up the tiles above, slide in a replacement and fix it. Some profiles of that period are no longer made, so the match is a reclaimed tile or the nearest current profile that genuinely locks into yours. Swapping a handful from a roof ladder takes a morning or so.
Felt torn at the eaves. Bitumen felt of that age turns brittle and splits where it runs over the fascia into the gutter, so water gets behind the gutter and down the wall. If the felt higher up is still supple when we check it from the loft, we lift the bottom courses, let in new membrane with an eaves carrier tray, and relay the tiles. If it turns to crumbs across the slope, an eaves repair is money wasted and we say so.
Valleys on L shaped detached houses. The mortar along the cut tiles cracks, or the lead or felt liner splits. The tiles either side come up and a new lead or GRP valley trough goes in. Allow a day or two. Sealant over a split valley gets you through one wet season, so we do not offer it.
Where a garage, porch or extension meets the house. The abutment along the main wall may be sealed with a cement fillet or a bead of mastic. When that cracks, water runs down inside the wall and shows as a damp patch on the extension ceiling. We replace it with lead, for the reason set out further down.
Garage and extension flat roofs. Felt, and the GRP or EPDM laid over some later, blisters, splits and lets go at the outlet. A patch holds only on a dry, firm deck, so we test it first. A soft deck means a new covering: flat roofing in Merley covers it.
Chimney stacks. Water gets in at the lead flashings round a brick stack or through cracked flaunching on top, and shows on a chimney breast. New lead will not help if the flaunching has split, so both are checked: see chimney repairs.
Gutters and fascias. A gutter that has lost its fall or a joint dripping into the soffit can look like a roof leak from inside, so we check the roofline too: fascias, soffits and guttering in Merley.
After a gale. Tiles off or a ridge cap lifted: we get a temporary sheet on if needed, make it weathertight and photograph the damage for your insurer. Read what the insurance industry means by a storm before you claim. More on emergency roof repairs.
When a repair is the wrong answer. If tiles slide wherever you press them because the nails have failed all over, or the felt is dust from ridge to eaves, each patch just moves the leak along. That is a re-roof, and it belongs with our roofers in Merley.
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.
The Merley estates sit outside any conservation area, so ordinary repairs need no planning application. The ward does hold two, Oakley Lane and Canford Magna (the council keeps the list), and we check addresses near either. Listed entries near Merley are concentrated on the Canford School estate and along Oakley Lane, not in the estate housing, and a listed roof can need consent first: see the council's listed building records.
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 Merley that could be a bungalow with eaves in reach from the lawn, a detached house with a valley above the garage, or a back slope reached only over a conservatory. 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 drip is under a garage or extension roof, say so when you ring, as the fault may be at its join with the house. 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.
Worth knowing here
Why the joint by the garage keeps opening
The ground under Merley is cohesive ground with a significant shrink-swell rating. It swells in a wet winter and shrinks in a dry summer, and buildings on it move very slightly with it. A garage, porch or extension added later sits on its own foundation, often a shallower one, so it does not always move in step with the house, and the join where its roof meets the main wall takes the strain. A cement fillet or a bead of sealant is rigid, so it cracks again the next dry summer. The repair that lasts is in two parts: lead soakers or an upstand turned up the wall, and a separate cover flashing chased into a brick joint and dressed over them, so the two can slide without tearing the seal.
If that join has been resealed more than once, or a stepped crack in the brickwork beside it is getting wider, we will tell you plainly. New lead will not cure a wall that is moving, and that is a building question to look at before any money goes on the roof. Look too at where the nearest downpipe empties. Roof water let out at that corner keeps the ground there wet, and Approved Document H expects rainwater to go to a soakaway or a drain.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merley, BH21, with Oakley, Canford Magna and Bearwood from our base on Wolverton Road, Boscombe, about six and a half miles away. Despite the Wimborne postcode, the planning authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, not Dorset 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 Merley
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Merley, and the other trades we offer in Merley itself.
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Our other trades in Merley
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Merley
Can you replace one cracked interlocking tile if the old profile is no longer made?
Usually, yes. A reclaimed tile of the same profile comes first. Failing that, we borrow sound tiles from a slope nobody sees, over the garage say, and fit the nearest current profile there instead. A tile that almost fits leaves the side lock open, so it never goes on a slope that has to stay dry.
The ridge is fine but the verge mortar is falling out. Is that urgent?
Not an emergency, but do not leave it for years. With the mortar gone, the end tiles have little holding them, and a gale can drop one onto the path or the car.
Water comes in where the garage roof meets the house. Is it the flat roof or the wall?
It can be either, or the join between them. We inspect the flat roof and its upstand, the flashing and the brickwork above, since water entering the wall higher up can come out at the same corner. The quote names which it is.
Do you need scaffold for a bungalow ridge repair?
Not always. The eaves on a Merley bungalow are low, and a roof ladder reaches most of a hip. Where there is a conservatory underneath, or the ridge is long and steep, a tower gives the edge protection the HSE rules on roofwork call for, and it appears on the quote as its own line.
Is winter a bad time to have a roof repaired?
Tiles, lead and dry fix ridge and verge can go on in most dry spells, winter included. Bedding mortar should not go down in frost or heavy rain, so a leak gets made weathertight first and the mortar waits for milder weather.
Free quote
Book a look at your Merley roof
Give us your road and what you have seen: mortar on the drive, a dark corner by the garage, a tile out of line. We come out, find it and put the repair in writing.