Roof repairs in Spetisbury
Slipped clay tiles, loose ridges, leaking stacks and the lead where tile meets thatch, repaired across Spetisbury and the lanes off the A350.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Tell us which roof, and where the water shows
Yes, we repair roofs in Spetisbury: slipped clay tiles on the older houses, loose ridges on the newer ones behind the main road, and the chimney stacks and lead where a tiled roof or a stack meets thatch. We find the point where the water gets in and repair that point. The thatch itself goes to a thatcher.
If water is coming through a ceiling now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us whether your roof, or the one next door that it joins, is thatched.
Spetisbury strings out along the A350, old cottages facing the road and newer houses on the lanes behind, and the signs of a fault differ with which one you live in. A damp patch on the chimney breast in an upstairs room, where the stack comes up through the thatch. A clay tile lying in the border beside one of the older tiled houses. A ridge tile rocking on a house off the main road, with crumbs of mortar in the gutter below. A drip under the flat roof of the kitchen extension.
We look from the lane and the garden, check the loft by torch and photograph the fault. The written quote covers that fault and nothing you did not ask about.
What we fix
Tile, lead and brick on Spetisbury roofs
On a Spetisbury roof we check six places for the leak: the brick stacks, the seam where tile meets thatch, slipped tiles on the older houses, ridges and verges on the newer ones, cement fillets and valleys, and the flat roofs over extensions.
Brick stacks on the thatched cottages. Along Bournemouth Road and the High Street the listed cottages have brick stacks at the gable ends or rising through the middle of the thatch. Water gets into a stack through cracked flaunching round the pots, through open mortar joints, or past a split lead apron at the roof line, and shows as damp on the chimney breast. We rebuild the flaunching, rake out and repoint the joints in a lime mortar that suits soft old brick, and renew the lead. Where the stack sits in thatch, the thatcher dresses the straw round our new lead, so the two visits are timed to meet. The quote lists the scaffold and the stack work as separate lines. More on chimney repairs.
Where a tiled slope joins a thatched one. Speedwell Cottage on Bournemouth Road is thatched on one side and tiled on the other. The same seam appears if your cottage has a tiled back addition under the thatch. The weak spot is the lead soaker or flashing at that seam, which shows indoors as a damp stripe running down the wall. We renew it from the tiled side.
Slipped plain clay tiles. If your older house is roofed in plain clay, those are small double lapped tiles hung on battens by a nib, with nails on some courses. When a nib snaps or a nail rusts through, the tile slides down and opens a gap. We slip a matching tile back in and hold it with a tile hook. New clay stands out on a roof this old, so we find a reclaimed tile of the same size and colour, or borrow sound ones from a hidden slope and put the new tiles there.
Lead gutters behind a parapet. Cedar Court, the old rectory, has tiled roofs partly hidden behind brick parapets, and a roof like that drains into a lead gutter along the inside of the parapet wall. Leaves or a slipped tile dam it, water rises over the lead, and damp appears high on an inside wall with nothing visible from the ground. We clear it, let new lead into any split, and make sure the outlet runs free.
Ridges, hips and verges on the newer houses. Where the newer houses on the lanes behind the A350 have concrete interlocking tiles, check whether the ridge and hip tiles are bedded in sand and cement. Once mortar bedding cracks the ridge tile works loose and a gale lifts it. We re-bed it with a mechanical fixing, or change the run to a dry ridge and dry verge system, which is how BS 5534 expects ridges and verges to be fixed, and BS 8612 covers the dry fix kit itself. A cracked interlocking tile is eased out once the tiles above are lifted, and a new one clipped in.
Cement fillets and valleys. Where a strip of cement stands in for lead flashing at the join between a roof and a wall, it shrinks away from the wall and water runs behind it. We cut it out and fit stepped lead flashing with soakers under the tiles. A valley between two roofs is relined in lead, not smeared with mastic.
Flat roofs and gutters. A split in the felt, EPDM or GRP over a garage or back extension is patched if the deck under it is dry and firm, and a soft deck is priced for renewal. See flat roofing in Spetisbury. Gutters, fascias and soffits that overflow or rot are on fascias, soffits and guttering in Spetisbury.
When a repair is no longer the answer. If the concrete tiles are flaking across a whole slope and the felt tears as each one is lifted, patching only moves the leak. That is a re-roof, which our roofers in Spetisbury page covers.
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.
No conservation area covers Spetisbury, so mending the roof in the same material needs no planning application, as the Planning Portal guidance on roofs sets out. There are 18 listed entries in and around the village, so on a listed house the repair matches what is there, and anything that would change goes to Dorset Council about listed building consent first.
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 Spetisbury that might be a bungalow on a lane behind the main road whose eaves a ladder reaches, a tall brick house whose roof sits behind a parapet, or a cottage whose chimney stack rises out of 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. When you ring about a Spetisbury roof, say whether it is tiled, thatched or both, and whether it joins a thatched neighbour, because that changes what we bring. 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.
Worth knowing
Repairs on a roof that touches thatch
Most of the listed cottages along Bournemouth Road and the High Street are thatched, Marigold Cottage and Castle Cottage among them. We do not thatch. On these houses our part is the brick stack with its flaunching and lead apron, the lead where tile meets thatch, and any tiled or flat roof built onto the back. On all of those the way we work changes.
No flame goes near thatch. A flat roof patch or a lead joint within reach of it is done cold, using a cold applied liquid coating or a single ply membrane bonded with adhesive, never torch-on felt. Lead is cut and dressed by hand, with no torch on the roof. That can mean a different material from the one already on the extension, and the quote says so.
A stack in thatch is worked from a scaffold. Nobody leans a ladder on the thatch or walks across it, so access is a line of its own on the quote, even for a small repair to the pots. These cottages are listed, so brick, mortar and lead go back as they were. If a detail would change, Dorset Council is asked before the work starts.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
From our base in Boscombe it is 14.2 miles up to Spetisbury, and we cover the whole village in DT11, from the High Street cottages to the lanes behind. Dorset Council is the planning 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.
Nearby, and next door
Roof repairs near Spetisbury
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Spetisbury, and the other trades we offer in Spetisbury itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Spetisbury
Everything we do in Blandford Forum Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Spetisbury
My cottage is thatched. Can you stop the leak?
Not if the fault is in the thatch, which needs a thatcher. If the water is coming in at the chimney, the lead, or a tiled or flat roof alongside, that part is ours, and the site visit tells you which it is.
Should I repair my roof or replace it?
Judge it by the tiles and the felt, not the age of the house. A cracked ridge or a split flashing on sound tiles is a repair. Tiles failing across a slope over torn felt point to a new covering, which our roofers in Spetisbury page covers.
What does a roof repair cost?
We do not publish a figure, because access, the covering and what the repair uncovers move it more than the fault itself. A slipped tile on a bungalow and a stack on a thatched cottage are very different jobs. How we price a job explains what goes on the quote.
Will my home insurance pay after a gale?
Policies usually cover sudden storm damage and exclude wear and tear, such as ridge mortar that had been cracking for years. Photograph the damage from the ground before anything is moved, and keep the dated photos we take of the fault. The Financial Ombudsman sets out the three questions the Financial Ombudsman asks about a storm claim.
How can I tell if a roofer is any good?
Ask for a written, itemised quote before any work, and photographs of the fault. Check the company on Companies House: ours is number 15471719. Be wary of anyone who knocks after a storm, wants cash or presses you to sign that day.
Free quote
Tell us what is leaking in Spetisbury
Send the address and say whether the roof is tiled, thatched or both. We come out, find the fault and write down the repair, itemised, for nothing.