Roof repairs in Merritown
Ridge, verge, tile, lead and flat roof repairs on the open ground south of the airfield, traced to the cause and priced in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs in Merritown
Loose edges, slipped tiles and leaks out by Hurn
Yes, we repair roofs in Merritown: a ridge or verge the wind has worked loose, a slipped tile or slate, a lifted flashing, a leaking valley or a split felt roof on the garage. We find where the water gets in, mend that point and the weak run around it, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If rain is getting into a room in Merritown now, ring 07435 839745 and say which ceiling it is showing on.
Along Parley Lane and Merritown Lane the ground is flat and open, so the trouble shows at the edges first. A ridge tile lying in the border after a blowy night. A gap along the gable where the verge mortar has dropped out. A brown mark on the landing ceiling below the chimney that grows whenever the rain comes in sideways.
Thomas looks from the garden, from a roof ladder where it is safe, and from the loft hatch. You get photographs of what has failed and a written price to put it right. If the covering itself has had its day, he tells you, and that becomes a job for the re-roof side. The wider method is on our roof repairs page.
The repairs
When a south westerly finds the weak course
Whether yours is concrete interlocking tile, clay plain tile or natural slate, these are the faults an open plot with a south west face throws up, and each one gets its own fix.
Ridge, hip and verge tiles working loose. The mortar bedding under a ridge and along a verge dries out, cracks and lets go. If the rest of the run is firm, the loose tile is re-bedded and given a mechanical fixing. If the mortar crumbles under your thumb, the run comes off and goes back as a dry ridge or dry verge, screwed and clipped. A ridge run is roughly a day.
Slipped and cracked tiles. On concrete interlocking tile, a slipped one generally means its nail has rusted through or it was never clipped, and the tiles beside it hang on the same tired fixings. We lift the course above, fit a tile of the same profile, and clip it and its neighbours. Plain tiles hang on nibs with nails every few courses, so a cracked one is cut out and a new one slid in and fixed. Swapping a few cracked plain tiles from a roof ladder takes about a morning.
Natural slate and nail sickness. If your roof is slate, a slipped one means its nails have corroded. One or two go back on copper tingles or slate hooks. When slates are sliding across the whole slope, a tingle for each one is money thrown away. That roof wants stripping and re-slating, which is work for our roofers in Merritown, and you will hear that straight.
Flashings, fillets and the chimney. Where the roof meets a stack or a wall, lead flashing is tucked into the brick joints and soakers sit under the tiles. Wind gets under a loose edge, lifts it, and the next driven rain runs in behind. Old sand and cement fillets crack away from the wall the same way. We re-dress or renew the lead and repoint the joint it tucks into. If the stack has loose flaunching or open joints, that is chimney repairs, and new lead on its own will not stop the drip.
Valleys. A valley takes the water off two slopes at once. Mortar-bedded valley tiles crack out, lead valleys split where the sheet was laid in over-long lengths, and leaves and moss pile up and push water over the side. Clearing the debris is sometimes the whole repair. A split valley is relaid in lead or a GRP trough with the tiles lifted either side, a day or two.
Flat roofs on garages, extensions and stables. Felt blisters in the sun and splits at the drip edge and along the upstand against the wall. A split on a dry, firm deck can be patched. A deck that gives underfoot will not hold a patch, and the roof then wants re-covering in felt, GRP or EPDM, set out on flat roofing in Merritown.
After a gale. When wind has stripped tiles or lifted a ridge, the first job is a sheet or temporary cover battened down so the loft stays dry. The permanent repair goes on once the weather settles and the whole edge can be checked. The damage is photographed before anything is moved, which helps if you are claiming on your home insurance. See also emergency roof repairs.
When repair stops making sense. Underlay that crumbles to the touch, battens soft at the eaves, and tiles or slates slipping on more than one slope all say the covering has little life left. Patching then only moves the leak along, so that roof goes to our roofers in Merritown for a whole-roof price. Gutters and fascias have their own page, fascias, soffits and guttering in Merritown.
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.
A like for like repair does not normally need planning permission, as Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains. No conservation area covers Merritown, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is the authority to ask if you plan to change the roof material.
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. Around Merritown the same fault can sit on a low felted garage or stable, on an ordinary two storey house, or on a three storey farmhouse gable like the one on Parley 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.
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. On ground this open, check the ridge from the garden once it stops. 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 open ground
Why one lost ridge tile means checking the whole run
Merritown sits on flat, open ground on the south side of the airfield, and there is little to break a south westerly before it reaches your roof. The wind goes for the edges: the verge on the gable, the ridge, the hips, the eaves, and any lead or rooflight upstand facing south west. That changes the repair.
When one ridge or verge tile has blown, the mortar along the rest of that run has taken the same weather, so setting the one tile back in fresh mortar puts back the very thing that just failed. Ask for the weak run to be refixed mechanically, which is what BS 5534 has required on new and re-laid ridges and verges since 2014, and it matters most on an exposed plot like this. Have the tiles around any slipped one checked for rusted nails and missing clips before it goes back on a tingle.
After a gale, stand in the garden and look along the ridge line and the gable edges for anything lifted or out of line, and at the lead on the weather side, before water shows indoors. Of the three listed entries around here, Merritown Farm House and its barn on Parley Lane are both under slate, and a repair there in matching natural slate, done to the same detail, is normally treated as maintenance. Changing the material, the ridge or the lead detailing can need listed building consent, so check with the council first using the council's listed building records.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merritown, Hurn and the lanes off Parley Lane in BH23 from our base in Boscombe, with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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.
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Merritown
Can you put back just the one tile that blew off?
Yes, if the tiles either side are sound and properly fixed. That gets checked first. If its neighbours are loose too, you get a separate line for fixing the course properly, and the choice is yours.
Is my roof worth repairing, or is it done?
If the underlay is sound and the faults sit in one place, repair it. If the felt crumbles, the battens are soft and tiles are slipping on more than one slope, a repair buys very little time. You see the photographs and hear which it is, and a whole new covering sits with our roofers in Merritown.
Will a ridge or verge repair need scaffold?
That comes down to height and what sits below the edge. A verge on a single storey garage can be reached from a tower or a ladder. A ridge on a taller house wants a proper platform, and it goes on the quote as its own line.
What about a listed slate roof like the farmhouse on Parley Lane?
A repair in matching natural slate, done to the same detail as the old, is normally maintenance and does not need consent. Changing the material, the ridge or the lead detailing can need listed building consent, so ask Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council before that sort of change. The listing is checked against the address first, and the quote is written to suit.
How much should a roof repair in Merritown cost?
There is no honest figure until someone has seen it. The price follows from how the fault is reached, how much of the run needs refixing, what turns up under the tiles and what has to be matched. The visit and the itemised written quote are both free, and how we price a job explains the rest.
How do I tell a sound repair quote from a poor one?
Ask for photographs of the actual fault, a written quote that lists access, materials and how the edges will be fixed, what happens if more is found, and a company number you can look up. Ours is on this page.
Free quote
Get the weak edge found and fixed
Tell us what you can see from the garden or the loft hatch. Thomas comes out to Merritown, finds the fault and writes down what it needs.