Roof repairs in Rockbourne
Slipped clay tiles, loose hips, lifted lead and leaking stacks repaired along Rockbourne's street, with the tiled and slated parts of thatched cottages sorted from the straw.
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 Rockbourne
One wet ceiling, one cause above it
Yes, we repair roofs in Rockbourne: slipped plain clay tiles, slates off their nails, loose hips and ridges, lead that has lifted at a stack or a wall, leaking chimneys, split flat roofs on back additions, and storm damage. We find the fault first, and the repair is written up in a free itemised quote after a free site visit.
Water coming through a ceiling right now? Ring 07435 839745, say which room it is, and tell us whether the roof above it is tile, slate or thatch.
Along Rockbourne's one long street the roofs change from house to house. An old clay tile has slid off a hipped roof and smashed on the path. A brown mark is spreading on the ceiling under a slated dormer. The back bedroom goes damp where a weatherboarded outshot runs into the main wall. Or rain is getting in by the chimney of a thatched cottage and you cannot tell if it is the straw or the brickwork.
Each has a single source. We look from the street and the garden, climb into the roof space, photograph what is there and tell you what the repair is, who should do it, and whether the rest of that slope is sound.
What we mend
Plain tile, slate and pantile among the thatch
The village's listing descriptions record four coverings besides thatch: old handmade plain clay tile on the larger houses and farm buildings, natural slate on the Georgian houses, pantile on a cottage that lost its thatch, and felt or lead on the small roofs added at the back. Each fails in its own places.
Old plain clay tile. The Dial House is listed with a hipped roof of old plain tile, and Manor Farm with old plain tile roofs. Tiles like these hang on nibs or oak pegs. When a peg rots or a nib snaps, the tile drops out of its course. A whole one goes back in. A cracked one is swapped for a reclaimed handmade tile of the same size, colour and camber, held on a hook or tingle where there is no batten to nail into. A crisp machine-made tile stands out among weathered ones, and on the street side everyone sees it.
Hips and ridges. A hipped or half-hipped roof carries a long run of bedded tiles. Once the mortar cracks, the bottom hip tile rocks and the rest creep downhill after it. We lift the loose run, keep every tile that will go back, check the hip iron and rebed with a mechanical fixing into each tile, as BS 5534 expects. A dry system to BS 8612 on dry fixed ridge and verge systems suits a back slope. On a listed house facing the street we keep the mortar-bedded line.
Tile-hanging and eyebrow dormers. Hendleys Cottage is listed as part tile-hung, with three eyebrow dormers. Hung tiles fall when their nails rust and leave the wall to take the rain. An eyebrow dormer has no cheeks to flash: the tiles sweep up over the window, so a cracked tile in that curve drips straight onto the frame head and is hard to spot from the ground.
Natural slate. The Old Rectory has a steep hipped slate roof with lead ridges and dormers in its sides. Slate outlives its nails. When they rust through, slates slide one at a time, and each goes back on a tingle, a strip of lead or copper hooked under its tail. Lead ridge rolls split along the top, and dormers leak at their soakers. If slates are sliding from the same course right across a slope, a tingle only buys time, and we will tell you.
Pantile. Harolds Cottage and Apple Tree Cottage are recorded as once thatched and now pantiled, with pent-roofed dormers. A pantile keeps water out by its lap and its pitch, so on a low slope wind drives rain back under the joints and the verge loses its mortar. We relay to a proper lap, bed or clip the verge, and check the lead at each dormer.
Stacks. Nearly every listed house here has a ridge or end stack, some with diamond-shafted tops like The Priory. Cracked flaunching, open brick joints or a stepped flashing lifting off the tiles will put a damp patch on the chimney breast upstairs. For the brickwork itself, see chimney repairs.
Outshots, lean-tos and flat porch roofs. The listings keep recording later additions: weatherboarded rear extensions, single storey wings, a flat-roofed porch at The Cottage. Felt on those small roofs blisters, splits at the upstand and silts up at the outlet, and where a lean-to meets the main wall an old cement fillet is the likely way in. A deck that gives underfoot needs the covering off. See flat roofing in Rockbourne.
Trees and gales. Leaves and moss from nearby trees pack valleys and gutters, and a gutter spilling down old brick can pass for a roof leak indoors; that is fascias, soffits and guttering work. A gap torn by wind gets a temporary cover until matched tile or slate goes back, as on our emergency roof repairs page. Any concrete interlocking tile roof gets a matched profile, and the fault there is usually the ridge or verge.
Mend it or re-cover it. A repair makes sense while the battens are firm and the fixings hold across most of the slope. Tiles slipping all over, or soft battens, mean patching is money spent twice, and a new covering is work for our roofers in Rockbourne. How either gets a figure is in how we price a job.
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 what came off, tile for tile or slate for slate, counts as maintenance in Rockbourne. The village has been a conservation area since 2000, the parish has 52 listed entries, and it all sits inside Cranborne Chase National Landscape, so a change of material is a question for New Forest District Council before anything is ordered. Planning Portal guidance sets out where the line falls.
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 Rockbourne that could be a single storey weatherboarded outshot at the back of a cottage, a plain tile house standing end-on to the street, or a steep hipped slate roof on a Georgian house, where any tower or scaffold has to stand without blocking the one village street. 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 thatched cottage, tell us if the stain is beside the stack or under the porch, since that points to us, to a thatcher, or to both. 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.
Thatched cottages
When the leak is next to the thatch
Most of the listed cottages on Rockbourne's street are thatched, Mellow Thatch, Woodbine and Shearings among them. The straw is a thatcher's work and we leave it alone. Those cottages still carry parts that are ours: the brick stacks rising through the thatch, their pots and flaunching, tiled porch roofs like the one on Shearings, and the lean-tos behind with their lead against the wall. So settle whose part is leaking before you book anyone. If it is the thatch, or the joint where it is dressed round the stack, you get our photographs to hand to your thatcher.
Straw next door also changes the method. Nobody stands on thatch, so the stack or porch is reached from a tower or scaffold, lead is dressed and fixed cold, and no flame or heat gun goes near the roof. If your thatcher is due to re-ridge, ask whether the stack lead can be done off their platform. On a listed cottage a tiled porch goes back in matching plain clay tile; changing its material is caught by the rule that works affecting the character of a listed building need consent, so ask New Forest District Council first.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Rockbourne is in SP6, about sixteen miles north of our base at 80a Wolverton Road in Boscombe, and we cover the whole length of the village street and the farms off it. New Forest District Council is the planning and building control authority here, not the National Park. 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 Rockbourne
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Our other trades in Rockbourne
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Rockbourne
My cottage is thatched but the porch roof leaks. Who do I call?
If the porch is tiled, slated or felted, that is our repair, and so is the lead where it meets the front wall. If water is coming through the straw above it, you need a thatcher. The site visit tells you which, with photographs.
Can a slipped plain tile be matched on a listed house?
Usually, yes. Old handmade clay tiles vary in size, colour and curve, so we look for reclaimed ones that sit flat in the gap and weather in with their neighbours. The quote names the tile, so you can check it with the council before it goes on.
Repair or re-roof: how do you decide?
By what is under the tiles. One leak with firm battens and holding fixings is one repair. Slipping right across a slope, perished felt or soft battens mean the covering is at the end of its life, and our roofers in Rockbourne will price the re-cover in writing.
What will my repair cost?
Nobody can say honestly until the fault is found. Access, the covering, how far the damage has spread and the lead involved all move it, so there is no figure here. Our how we price a job page explains the build-up.
Who is responsible for safety while the roof is being worked on?
On a home, a domestic client's CDM duties pass to the contractor doing the work. Planning the access and keeping people safe at height is the contractor's job, under the work at height rules.
Will you mend a roof in winter?
Roofs get mended all year. Mortar and lead work want a dry spell without frost, so a planned job waits for one. A leak cannot wait for the weather, so it gets a temporary cover and the permanent repair follows.
Free quote
Show us where the water is getting in
Send a photo of the stain and of the roof above it, or ring 07435 839745. Thomas comes out to Rockbourne, finds the fault and puts the repair in writing, free.