Roof repairs in Southbourne
Slipped clay plain tiles, split valleys, leaking chimney flashings and flat roof blisters, repaired on Southbourne houses and converted flats across BH6.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Roof repairs
Find the leak, mend that part, leave the rest
Yes, we repair roofs across Southbourne in Bournemouth, BH6: a run of slipped plain tiles on an Edwardian hip, a valley leaking into a converted flat, a rocking ridge on an inter-war semi, a split in the felt behind a shop on the Grove. We find where the water gets in, repair that, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is coming through a ceiling now, ring 07435 839745 and say which room it is in and which floor you live on.
Plain tiles have slid out of line on the front slope, leaving a gap you can see from the pavement. A brown mark has come up on the ceiling of the second floor flat in a house split into several, and nobody is sure whose roof it is. Or the back room over a shop smells damp after rain, and the flat roof outside has a blister.
Thomas goes up where it is safe, looks from the loft or the top flat underneath, and photographs the fault. You get the photos and a written quote for that repair alone. How we trace a leak is on our main roof repairs page.
The repairs
Plain tile, slate and the valleys behind the gables
Southbourne went up in two main waves, the Edwardian streets around the Grove and then the inter-war houses behind them, with later estates and blocks in between. What fails follows the age of the roof.
Plain tiles slipping in a line. An Edwardian clay plain tile hangs on its nibs over the batten, and only some courses were nailed. Once those nails rust or a batten softens, the tiles creep down one after another. We lift the courses above, hang back the sound ones, and replace cracked or missing tiles with reclaimed clay matched for colour and camber, so it blends with the tiles around it. On the seaward side we fix with stainless nails and clips, since salt in the air eats plain galvanised ones. The quote says whether it needs a roof ladder or a tower, and how long the work will take.
Nail sickness on the slate roofs. Where a house is under natural slate, a slipped slate has lost its nail, and a lead or copper tingle holds the replacement. When slates are sliding all over a slope, that is nail sickness, and that slope needs stripping and re-nailing, not a tingle on each one.
Valleys behind the gables. On the bigger houses a front gable or cross wing meets the main roof, and the valley between them carries water off both slopes. Old lead splits where the lengths lap, the mortar in a tiled valley cracks, and leaves and moss dam it until the water spills over the side. We lift the tiles either side and lay new lead in short lengths that can move with the heat, or fit a GRP trough. Sealant brushed over a split is not a repair.
The tall stacks. Edwardian houses here carry big chimneys, sometimes several to a house. A stack lets water in through its stepped flashing, the soakers beside it, the back gutter on its uphill side, or its own brickwork: open joints, cracked flaunching, a loose pot. Water from a stack can run down a rafter and drip two rooms away, so we check all of it before pricing. The brickwork side is covered under chimney repairs.
Bonnet hips and bedded ridges. Plain tile hips on the older houses are often bonnet hips, each one bedded in mortar, and the inter-war roofs carry half-round ridge and hip tiles on mortar too. When the bedding cracks, a tile starts to rock and the next gale takes it. We rebed with a screw or clip into every tile, or on an inter-war roof fit a dry ridge and dry hip, which is what BS 5534 expects.
Concrete tiles on the later houses. Post-war houses and newer blocks are mostly under concrete interlocking tile. A slipped one has lost its clip or nail, and a tile of the same profile with a new clip puts it right.
After a gale. Storm damage is usually at the edges: a lifted ridge, verge tiles stripped off a gable, a flashing pulled out of its joint. Photograph it, and anything on the ground, before it is moved. We make it weathertight first, with refixed tiles or a temporary sheet, then quote the full repair. More on emergency roof repairs.
Flat roofs at the back. Rear extensions behind the Grove shops, garages and the tops of bays are mostly felt, with some now in GRP or EPDM. They fail at blisters, at the upstand against the wall, and at the outlet. A split over a dry deck can be patched, but no patch sticks to a soft, wet deck. See flat roofing in Southbourne. An overflowing gutter or a rotten fascia can pass for a roof leak too, and that is fascias, soffits and guttering work.
When a repair is the wrong answer. Battens soft across a whole slope, felt underlay that crumbles wherever a tile is lifted, and the same slope patched again and again all say the next repair will not be the last. That is a re-roof, whole-roof work for our roofers in Southbourne, and we say so before you pay for another patch.
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.
Southbourne Grove is a conservation area, taking in the Edwardian shop terraces from Beresford Road east to about Pine Avenue, with parts of Fisherman's Avenue, Chestnut Avenue, Grand Avenue and New Park Road. There is no published appraisal for it, but the council keeps the list with a boundary map, so we check your address against the map. Inside it, a like-for-like repair is maintenance. Changing the covering, or losing upper-storey detail, may need the council's say. Southbourne also has eight listed entries, where change beyond repair can need listed building consent.
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 Southbourne that could be an Edwardian house with a steep plain tile hip, a flat above a shop on Southbourne Grove reached from the back, or an inter-war semi with the leak in the lead over its bay. If a scaffold has to stand on the Grove pavement, scaffolding on or over a highway needs a licence in writing, and that goes on the quote. 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. If the drip is in the top flat of a converted house, tell us whether the loft is shared and who has the key to the hatch, because that is where the search starts. 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.
Flats
Your ceiling, the freeholder's roof
Most homes in Southbourne are flats: big Edwardian houses divided into several, the living floors above the shops on the Grove, and purpose-built blocks nearer the beach. That changes who can order a roof repair.
In most leasehold flats the roof and the main structure belong to the freeholder and are repaired through the service charge. You can report the leak but usually cannot order the permanent repair yourself, so check your lease. Making the roof weathertight is a smaller, separate decision, and it is the one to ask the managing agent to approve first.
Bigger repairs can mean the freeholder has to consult every leaseholder before the cost can go on the service charge, under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That takes weeks, so get the roof weathertight while it runs.
What we can do for a leaseholder is look from inside your flat and the shared loft if there is a way in, photograph the fault, and write an itemised quote for the agent to pass to the freeholder. Where the owners of a converted house share the freehold, you instruct together, so agree one contact first. One stack or valley often sits over more than one flat, so the repair above your ceiling can be a shared bill.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Southbourne, from West Southbourne and the Grove to Southbourne Crossroads and down to Tuckton, is all BH6 and a short drive from our base in Boscombe, with BCP Council for 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 Southbourne
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Southbourne, and the other trades we offer in Southbourne itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Southbourne
Everything we do in Southbourne Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Southbourne
Is it the chimney or the valley letting the water in?
The stain alone rarely tells you. Damp beside the chimney breast points at the flashing, soakers or back gutter. A mark in the middle of a ceiling under the point where two roofs meet points at the valley. Tide marks on the rafters, seen from the loft, show which way the water came.
Can you replace a few slipped plain tiles without disturbing the rest?
Mostly, yes. We lift the courses above just far enough to reach the batten, hang or nail the new tile, and lay the others back. If neighbouring tiles crack as they lift, the fixings are failing across the slope, and you see photographs before anything more is priced.
Should the ridge on my inter-war semi go back in mortar?
It can, with a screw or clip into each tile so the mortar is not doing all the holding. A dry ridge does the same job with nothing to crack and ventilates the roof space as well. The written quote can price both ways.
What should I send my managing agent after you have looked?
The photographs, the written itemised quote, and our note on whether anything needs making safe now. The quote says where the fault is and which part of the building it sits on, which is what the freeholder needs to decide who pays.
How is a roof repair priced if you will not give a figure on the phone?
From what the visit finds: how we reach the fault, what is being replaced and with what, the making good, and what we take away. Each is its own line on the written quote, and how we price a job explains the rest.
Free quote
Tell us where the water is showing
Send the postcode, the floor you are on and what you can see: a gap in the tiles, a stain, or a blister on the flat roof. Thomas comes out, looks properly and puts the repair in writing.