Roof repairs in Sopley
Clay plain tile, slate, concrete tile and the lead between them, repaired on Sopley houses where the water actually gets in, with thatch left to a thatcher.
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 Sopley
One fault, found and put right
Yes, we repair roofs in Sopley: a slipped plain tile on an old rear range, a slate that has let go on a Victorian roof, a cracked ridge on a later house, tired lead round a chimney stack or a split felt roof on the garage. We find the point where water gets in, repair that point, and give you the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is dripping into a Sopley room as you read this, ring 07435 839745 and say which room, and whether the roof above it is tiled, slated, flat or thatched.
Perhaps a clay tile sits proud of its neighbours on the back slope, the chimney breast upstairs is damp after a wet week, or a puddle never drains off the porch roof. Each has a cause in one spot, a fixing, a strip of lead or a mortar joint, with sound tiles around it.
Thomas gets up to the fault, looks into the loft, photographs what he finds and writes down what it needs. If the thatch is part of the story, he says so, and tells you which part belongs to a thatcher.
What we mend
Plain tile, slate and the lead that joins them
Around the thatched core of the village stand Victorian and earlier ranges in clay plain tile or natural slate, and later houses carry concrete interlocking or machine made plain tile. Each fails in its own way.
Clay plain tiles that slide or flake. A plain tile hangs on its batten by two small nibs and is held by a nail or an oak peg. On a Victorian range the peg rots or the nail rusts, the nib snaps, and the tile creeps down until the lap opens. Frost makes an old tile shed its face in layers. We lift the tiles above, slip in a replacement and nail it, matching a period roof with a reclaimed tile of the same size and colour. A handful of tiles takes a morning.
Natural slate that has lost its nails. The slate roofs here, Sopley Mill's among them, are the right age for nail fatigue. The slate itself is usually fine; the nail holding it has corroded through, which is what roofers call nail sickness. One slipped slate goes back on a tingle, a lead or copper strip hooked under its tail. Slates coming down across a whole slope mean stripping and renailing it.
Mortar ridges, hips and verges on later roofs. Concrete interlocking tile was usually finished with ridge and verge bedded in sand and cement. That bedding shrinks and cracks, and a south westerly gale lifts the tile clean off. The gable verges facing south west lose their mortar first. We take the loose run up and either rebed it with a mechanical fixing through each tile, which BS 5534 now asks for, or fit a dry ridge and dry verge system to BS 8612. Ridge and both verges on a detached house run to about a day.
Soakers and flashings at rear ranges and outshots. Wherever a lower roof meets a taller wall at an abutment, lead soakers sit under each tile course and a stepped flashing covers them. When the pointing lets go, or a cement fillet put in place of lead has cracked, water runs down the wall and shows inside. We renew the soakers, dress new code lead over them and repoint the chase. On a valley where a rear range joins the main roof, the tiles either side come up so the lead or GRP liner can be relaid.
After a south westerly storm. Look for a missing tile on the lawn or a ridge tile out of line. If the roof is open, we sheet it or fit a temporary cover, then repair it properly once it is dry enough to work. A slipped interlocking tile goes back with a clip so the next gale cannot lift it.
Chimney stacks that leak. The big ridge and end stacks on the older cottages put damp into the chimney breast through cracked flaunching, loose stepped flashing or a choked back gutter behind the stack. More on this at chimney repairs.
Flat roofs on extensions, garages and porches. Felt blisters and splits, the upstand against the wall cracks, and the outlet silts up. On a firm, dry deck a local repair holds. A deck that flexes underfoot has taken on water and the covering needs replacing to BS 6229. See flat roofing in Sopley.
Gutters that spill onto the walls. A leaking joint or a blocked downpipe soaks the brick and can pass for a roof leak inside. If the board behind the gutter has softened too, see fascias, soffits and guttering in Sopley.
When it is time for a new roof. Before we answer repair or replace, we trace the leak and inspect the loft. Battens that are soft to the touch, a damp rafter foot, felt or membrane that crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, or nails failing all over a slope tell you the next patch will not be the last. At that point the roof has no life left worth patching, and a re-roof is work for our roofers in Sopley.
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.
Sopley sits outside the New Forest National Park, so New Forest District Council is the planning authority here. Putting back a like for like tile on an unlisted house needs no application, as the Planning Portal guidance explains, but the old core of the village is Sopley Conservation Area, so check with the council before changing a material there.
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 Sopley that runs from a felted garage roof you can reach off a ladder, through a two storey house with a gable verge on the south west side, to a tiled rear range behind a thatched cottage where nothing may lean on the thatch. 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. In a Sopley cottage with thatch at the front, tell us whether the drip is under the thatch or under the tiled back, because that decides whether the first visit is ours or a thatcher's. 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.
Thatch next door to tile
Where a tiled roof meets a thatched one
The eighteenth century cottages on Priest Lane and Ringwood Road, the B3347, are thatched, and The Woolpack is listed with thatch to the front and plain tile over its rear ranges. On a building like that, two trades share one roof. The thatch, its ridge and the thatch dressed round a chimney belong to a specialist thatcher; we do not thatch. What we repair is the tiled range, any lean-to or outshot, the lead soakers and flashings where tile or thatch meets a stack, and the gutters under the tiled parts. When a stain appears below the junction, get both trades to agree whose side it comes from before anyone is paid.
Fire changes the method too. Near thatch, keep naked flame off the job: patch a nearby flat roof or lean-to with a cold applied system such as GRP, EPDM or a liquid coating, never torch-on felt, and shape new lead by bossing and dressing, with no lead welding on the roof. These cottages are listed and inside Sopley Conservation Area, and repair that affects a listed building's character needs listed building consent under section 7 of the listed buildings Act. Agree the tile, the lead detail and any change to a stack with New Forest District Council first. If your house is neither thatched nor listed, none of this applies.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Sopley from the church and the mill by the Avon out along Ringwood Road and Priest Lane to the scattered BH23 houses of the parish, about 3.7 miles from our base in Boscombe. Planning here sits with New Forest District Council, not the National Park 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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Roof repairs near Sopley
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Sopley
My cottage is thatched with a tiled back. Who do I call?
Both of us, possibly. A thatcher handles the thatch, its ridge and the thatch round the chimney. We handle the tiled back range, the lead where the two roofs meet a stack and the gutters under the tiles. Not sure which side the water comes from? Ring us and we will tell you.
Do I need consent to repair a listed roof in Sopley?
It can, even for like for like work. Sopley has more than a dozen listed entries, among them cottages on Priest Lane and Ringwood Road and the church. If the repair would affect the character of the building, for example a different tile or a new lead detail, it needs listed building consent from New Forest District Council. Ask before the work, not after.
Can you give me a rough price over the phone?
We will not quote a figure blind. The same slipped tile costs very different amounts on a single storey porch and on a two storey gable that needs scaffold. After a free visit you get an itemised written price, and how we price a job explains what each line covers.
Patch the flat roof or replace it?
Press the deck. If it is firm and dry under the split or blister, a patch will hold and a new covering can wait. If it is soft, spongy or smells damp from inside, the boards have taken on water and a patch only moves the leak. Near thatch, whichever it is, we use a cold applied covering.
Who carries the safety duties while you work on my Sopley roof?
For work on your own home, the duties under the construction regulations pass to the contractor, as regulation 7 of CDM 2015 sets out, and the HSE guidance for domestic clients explains what that means. That is why the access we plan, ladder, tower or scaffold, is a line on the written quote.
Free quote
Get your Sopley roof repair priced in writing
Send the postcode and what the roof is doing. Thomas comes out, finds the fault and writes the repair down line by line, at no cost to you.