Roof repairs in Mudeford
Loose hips, open verges, leaking valleys and dormers on Mudeford's 1970s bungalows and houses, and like-for-like clay and slate repairs near the quay.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Start where the water shows
Yes, we repair roofs all over Mudeford: a hip tile lifted on a bungalow, a valley leaking into the corner of a bedroom, a dormer letting water in beside the window, or a slipped slate on one of the older houses by the quay. The site visit costs you nothing, nor does the written quote with every item listed, and the repair goes on the fault itself, not on the stain.
Water dripping through a ceiling right now? Ring 07435 839745, tell us which room it is in and which corner, and we will talk you through what to do first.
Maybe a hip tile is sitting crooked at the corner of the bungalow after a blow across the harbour. Maybe a brown patch has appeared in the corner of a bedroom ceiling, just where two roofs meet. Or water is running down the reveal of the dormer window every time it rains from the south.
Each has one cause, and it is usually small. We get up to it, check the loft with a torch, photograph the fault and write down what it takes. If what we find is a roof worn out right across, we say so plainly, and that job belongs to our roofers in Mudeford.
On these roofs
What goes wrong on a 1970s Mudeford roof, and the fix
Most houses and bungalows in Mudeford went up in the 1970s and early 1980s, and there are a lot of bungalows among them. So the usual roof here is concrete interlocking tile on bitumen felt, with the ridge, the hips and the gable verges bedded in sand and cement, and the faults follow from that.
Hips letting go on hipped bungalows. A hipped bungalow has four long runs of hip tile coming down to the gutter, so here the hips fail as readily as the ridge. When the bedding under one hip tile cracks, it rocks, and the tile below goes next. We take the run off, clean the tiles, check the hip iron at the foot is still holding, and put the tiles back on a mechanically fixed dry hip to BS 8612 on dry fixed ridge and verge systems. Hips and ridge on an ordinary bungalow come to about a day.
Gable verges dropping mortar. On a gable ended house the end tiles sit on a mortar bed over a strip of undercloak. Once that bed falls out in lumps, the wind gets a grip under the edge. Clip-on dry verge units screwed into the batten ends take its place, with nothing left to crumble.
Felt perished along the eaves. The felt under a 1970s roof goes brittle first where it dips into the gutter. Once it tears, water off the bottom course runs behind the fascia onto the wall plate, and you see it as a stain on the soffit or a damp line high on an outside wall. We lift the lowest courses, cut out the rotten strip, fit an eaves felt support tray and lap a new length of breathable membrane over it, usually a day or less. If the felt also crumbles where we lift tiles higher up, the slope has gone as a whole and that is a conversation for our roofers in Mudeford.
A cracked or slipped tile. An interlocking tile only keeps water out while its side lock sits snugly in its neighbour. We ease up the courses above, fit one of the same profile, then nail and clip it. Some 1970s profiles went out of production years ago, so if a new one will not lock we find a reclaimed match.
Valleys on L-shaped houses. Plenty of houses and bungalows here turn a corner, and where the two roofs meet there is a valley, usually mortared valley tiles, old lead or a GRP trough on this age of roof. A crack there shows up in the corner of the room below. We lift the tiles along both sides and relay the valley in new lead or a fresh trough, which takes a day or two. Mastic brushed over a split valley will not see out a winter by the sea.
Dormers added to bungalows. A dormer brings three leak points: the felt on its flat top, the lead soakers and cheeks down each side, and the apron under the window. A stain on the sloping ceiling beside the window points to the soakers; a stain in the middle of the dormer ceiling points to the top. We renew split lead and patch or re-cover the top, and the same goes for felt over a garage or extension. More on flat roofing in Mudeford.
Chimneys and gutters. A stack leaks at its flashings, its back gutter or cracked flaunching on top, and that is chimney repairs. A blocked gutter or a rotten fascia can pass for a roof leak too, so we check them first; see fascias, soffits and guttering in Mudeford.
Flats. There are a fair number of flats in Mudeford, and in a block the roof normally belongs to the freeholder. Report the leak to your managing agent in writing, with a photograph if you can. We inspect and quote for whoever instructs the work.
Gale damage off Christchurch Bay. Once tiles have come off, we make the roof weathertight first and price the permanent repair after. If you are claiming, what the insurance industry means by a storm is worth reading before you ring your insurer. 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 tile, a slate or a length of lead in the same material needs no planning application, as the Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains. Where the house is listed or sits in the Mudeford Quay Conservation Area, the section further down covers what changes.
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 Mudeford a bungalow eaves is often in reach from a ladder and a roof ladder, a two storey house with a chimney or a valley usually wants a tower, and a block of flats or a tall stuccoed villa near the quay needs a full 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. Tell us whether the water shows on the side facing the bay or the side facing the harbour, because that tells us which slope took the wind. 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.
Mudeford Quay
Old clay and Welsh slate near the quay: repair it in kind
The older houses in the Mudeford Quay Conservation Area are roofed in red clay tile, some of it handmade, or in natural Welsh slate on the stuccoed villas and larger houses. The council's appraisal of the area treats those roofs as part of the view across the harbour, and it says the slate roofs work best where they keep matching grey ridge and hip tiles. The big roof of Haven Cottages on the quay, in old red clay tile, is exactly the kind of roof it has in mind. That changes the repair. A broken handmade clay tile is replaced with a reclaimed or matched handmade one, never a machine-made or concrete tile that shows from the water.
On a slate roof, a failing ridge or hip is rebedded or replaced in grey to match, and not swapped for red clay or a dry ridge kit that changes the look. Slipped slates go back on slate hooks or copper tingles, and a sagging patch is stripped and relaid in natural slate, never fibre cement. A rendered chimney is repaired and its lead renewed instead of being taken down to save a job. Like-for-like work is maintenance. A change of covering, or any work on one of Mudeford's 21 listed entries, is checked with BCP Council first, using the council's list of conservation areas and the council's listed building records.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We repair roofs across Mudeford, BH23, from the houses by the quay and the harbour inland to the edge of Christchurch, about four miles from our base in Boscombe. BCP Council handles planning and building control. 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 Mudeford
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Mudeford, and the other trades we offer in Mudeford itself.
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Our other trades in Mudeford
Everything we do in Mudeford Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Mudeford
Water is coming through where the dormer meets the roof. Is that the flat top or the tiles?
Look at where the stain sits. Beside the window on the sloping ceiling, it is usually a split soaker or a lifted cheek flashing. Across the flat ceiling of the dormer, it is the covering on top. We check both from outside, then quote for the one that has failed.
The felt is hanging down at the eaves in my loft. Does the whole roof need doing?
Not always. Old felt sags first at the eaves, where it sits in the gutter's wet. If it is sound higher up, a support tray and a strip of new membrane at the bottom sorts it. If it tears wherever it is touched, then the slope needs re-covering, and we show you photographs so you can see which.
How do I tell a proper roof repair quote from a dodgy one?
A proper one names the fault and where it is, lists each item on its own line and comes from a firm you can look up. Ours is company number 15471719. Be wary of a doorstep visit after a gale, a demand for cash before any work, or a price with no photographs of what is wrong.
Part of my roof is sagging. What does that repair involve?
A dip in the roof line is usually a tired batten, a rafter or a purlin, not the tiles. We look from the loft first. A few rotten battens can be replaced from above, but a sagging rafter needs strengthening, and we will tell you if it needs a structural engineer to look.
Free quote
Tell us where the water is showing
Send your postcode and what you have noticed, whether it is a lifted hip tile, a stain by a dormer or a slipped slate. Thomas comes out, looks properly and puts the repair in writing.