Roof repairs in Milborne St Andrew
Slipped slates, cracked clay tiles, open ridges, split lead and leaking extension roofs mended in Milborne St Andrew, with matching material inside the conservation area.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Find the one fault, and mend it in matching material
Yes, we repair roofs in Milborne St Andrew, the village on the A354 north east of Dorchester: slate that has slipped, clay tile that has cracked, lead that has split behind a parapet or round a stack, and felt that has blistered on an extension. We find the point where water gets in, mend it in material that matches what is already on your roof, and write the price down after a free site visit.
If water is dripping into a room in Milborne St Andrew right now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us whether it sits under slate, tile or a flat roof.
Maybe a grey slate is lying in the gutter with a gap in the course above it. Maybe a brown mark has appeared on a bedroom ceiling, well away from the parapet letting the water in. Or a drip lands on the worktop under the flat-roofed extension at the back. Each has one cause, and the repair goes at that cause.
We go up by roof ladder or tower and look from the loft. You see photographs of the fault, and the written, itemised quote names the slate, tile or lead that goes back on.
The repairs
Slipped slates, tired tiles and the joints between them
The listed houses in this village show how mixed its roofs are. Their list entries record natural slate, tile, stone slate at the eaves of a tiled roof, thatch on plastered cob, and slate lean-tos and single-storey additions. Each fails in its own way.
Natural slate. A slate hangs on two nails. When they rust, which is nail sickness, it slides down out of its course. One or two slipped slates go back with a tingle, a copper or lead strap nailed to the batten and folded up over the tail. First we check the head lap. On a low-pitched slate roof, and the list includes some here, rain blown up the slope can creep over a short lap and drip into the loft with every slate intact. Where slates are sliding right across one slope, the nails have failed together. That slope wants stripping and re-nailing, which is re-roofing work covered on our page for roofers in Milborne St Andrew.
Parapets and hidden gutters. A slate roof behind a parapet drains into a lead-lined gutter you cannot see from the road, with a cover flashing let into the parapet wall above it. Leaves and silt settle in there, the lead splits at a joint, and water runs along the wall plate before it shows. So the stain can come out in a room nowhere near the split. We clear the gutter, find the split and relay that length in new lead with proper drips and laps. A coat of bitumen paint over a split only hides it for a season.
Clay plain tile. A plain tile hangs on its nibs, and on an old roof the nibs perish and the nails rust, so tiles drop out one at a time or crack under a careless foot. A broken tile or a missing tile gets a reclaimed replacement of the same size, colour and camber, since a new machine-made one can sit proud on an old slope. Valleys between tiled slopes are swept, laced or lead here, and each is mended its own way.
Ridges and hips. Ridge and hip pieces on slate and tile alike sit on a mortar bed. Once that bedding cracks and washes out, the wind rocks them loose. We lift the loose run, keep every piece that is sound, rebed them and fix each one mechanically, as BS 5534 expects.
Stone slate at the eaves. Some older roofs in the village start with a few courses of stone slate and change to tile above, Manor Farm House among them. Stone slates are thick, heavy and hung on pegs, so a broken one is matched with reclaimed stone of the same thickness. The line where the stone stops and the tile begins is a weak joint, so that is the first place we look for a damp patch.
Chimney stacks. Brick end stacks appear again and again in the list entries, and a stack can let water in four ways: the stepped flashing down its side, the soakers under the slates or tiles, the back gutter on the uphill face, and the flaunching round the pots. We dress new lead where the old has split or lifted and cut out any cracked cement fillet at the abutment. If the brickwork or pots are at fault, that is chimney repairs.
Thatched cottages. A number of the cob cottages here are thatched. We do not thatch, so water through the thatch itself needs a specialist thatcher. We can mend the lead or mortar fillet where a brick stack rises through the thatch, and the slate or tiled roofs on the porches, lean-tos and single-storey extensions built onto these cottages.
Flat-roofed extensions. Later extensions often carry a flat roof. Felt on one blisters in sun, splits along a seam and pulls away at the upstand against the older wall, while a blocked outlet leaves a pond. GRP and EPDM coverings go wrong at their trims and upstands. A single split on a firm, dry deck can take a patch. A deck that flexes underfoot will not hold one. See flat roofing in Milborne St Andrew.
Gutters over cob. Cob is earth, and it suffers when water runs down it. On a cob cottage an overflowing gutter, a cracked cast iron joint or a downpipe that has come off its shoe should be sorted before the next heavy rain. Anything more is fascias, soffits and guttering work.
After a storm, and when to stop. Gale damage usually means a few slates or tiles, a ridge piece and a lifted flashing. We sheet the gap as a temporary cover while matching material is found. Once the felt under the slates is brittle, the battens are soft and nails are going across the whole roof, repairs have stopped paying, and your quote will say that plainly.
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.
Seventeen listed entries sit inside the village conservation area. If your house is one of them, ask Dorset Council about listed building consent before a repair changes any material or detail.
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 Milborne St Andrew that could be a slate lean-to porch reached from a ladder, a parapet gutter on a two storey plastered house, or a brick end stack on a cottage gable. 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 a slate roof behind a parapet, tell us which room the water is showing in, because the split can be several metres from the stain. 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 conservation area
In the conservation area, a repair has to match
The Milborne St Andrew Conservation Area has covered the centre of the village since 1995. Inside it, putting back what came off is ordinary maintenance. Swapping the covering while you are up there is a different matter: natural slate traded for fibre cement or concrete, clay plain tile for concrete interlocking tile, stone eaves courses for tile, or a lead flashing for a strip of GRP or bitumen.
Each of those changes how the roof looks, and how the roof looks is what the designation protects. So expect our quote to name reclaimed or matching slate or tile, and allow a little longer for finding it.
Matching means your roof, not some village default. The listed houses inside the boundary carry slate, tile, stone slate under tile and thatch, sometimes two of those on one building. We set aside every sound slate and tile that comes off during a repair and use those first.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Our coverage takes in Milborne St Andrew, neighbouring Milborne Stileham and the DT11 lanes around them. 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 Milborne St Andrew
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Everything we do in Blandford Forum Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Milborne St Andrew
Can you patch a slate roof with a different slate?
You can, but it shows. A new slate of another thickness will not lie flat in the course, and in the conservation area it changes how the roof looks. We look for reclaimed slate of the same size first, and if nothing matches you hear about it before the work.
Our cottage is thatched but the lean-to leaks. Can you help?
Yes, the lean-to is ours. A slate or tile lean-to against a thatched cottage usually leaks where it meets the wall, at the flashing or a cracked fillet, or at a slipped slate by the eaves. The thatch goes to a specialist thatcher, and we will say so if the water is really coming through it.
Is it worth repairing an old flat roof on the extension?
If the deck is firm and dry and the fault is one split, a blister or a failed upstand, yes. If the deck is soft, or the felt already carries patch on patch, a new covering in felt, GRP or EPDM is the better buy.
How do you find a leak behind a parapet?
We clear the hidden gutter, then check its lead for splits, the cover flashing in the parapet wall and the outlet where the water leaves. From the loft we follow the wall plate for wet timber, because the mark in the room is often some way off.
Can one stone slate at the eaves be replaced without disturbing the tiles above?
Usually, yes. The tiles in the bottom courses over it are lifted just far enough to reach the peg, the broken stone comes out and a reclaimed stone of the same thickness goes in on a new peg. The tiles then go back as they were. If the stone course has dropped along its length, the battens are the problem, and your quote will say so.
Free quote
Send us the address and what you have spotted
A slipped slate, a stain near the chimney, a wet patch under the extension roof: tell us which, and where. We come out, look from the roof and the loft, and put the repair in writing.