Roof repairs in Tarrant Monkton
Slipped slates, loose hips and ridges, tired lead and leaking brick chimney stacks repaired in Tarrant Monkton, a village of thatch, slate and clay tile in the Tarrant valley.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Finding the leak on a cottage of thatch, slate and brick
Yes, we repair roofs in Tarrant Monkton: slipped or cracked slates and clay tiles, ridges and hips that have lost their bedding, lead flashings and valleys, brick chimney stacks and split flat roofs. We find the point where the water gets in, repair that point, and put the work in a written itemised quote after a free site visit.
If water is coming in now, ring 07435 839745 and say whether the wet patch is next to the chimney.
Any one of these is worth a call. A grey slate lying on the path under a farmhouse roof after a wet night. A brown tide mark beside the chimney breast that creeps further with each downpour. Mortar crumbs on a windowsill below a hip. A drip landing on the kitchen floor under the flat roof of a back addition.
Our side of the job is the slate, the tile, the lead and the brickwork of the stack. If your cottage is thatched, the thatch is a specialist thatcher's work, and the first visit tells you which side of that line your leak falls.
The repairs
Slipped slates, open ridges and leaking stacks
The old houses along High Street and down towards the ford carry three kinds of roof: thatch, natural slate and clay tile, with brick stacks on nearly all the listed ones. We repair all of it apart from the thatch.
Slates that have slid out of their course. East Farmhouse on High Street and Bay Farmhouse both have slate roofs, and slate that old outlives its iron nails. Once a nail rusts through, the slate drops and rain runs onto the felt, or onto bare battens on a roof laid without underlay. We hold it back with a tingle, a lead strip nailed to the batten through the gap and folded up under the slate's tail. A cracked slate comes out with a slate ripper and a match of the same size and thickness goes in. New slate is graded under the A, T and S codes for natural slate. We never stick a slate back with bitumen or mastic, which holds water and spoils the slate for reuse.
Hips and ridges that have lost their bedding. A hipped slate roof has four hips as well as a ridge, each capped with clay tiles set in mortar or with a lead roll. When the bedding cracks, those tiles rock loose, and a lead roll can lift at its clips. We lift the loose run, keep every tile that will go back, and rebed it with a mechanical fixing to each tile, which is what BS 5534 now asks for. The mortar line stays visible, so the hip looks as it did.
Clay plain tiles and concrete tiles. On a clay plain tile slope, a tile slips when its nibs snap or its old oak peg rots. It goes back on a tile hook. A cracked one is swapped for a reclaimed tile of the same size and camber, since a bright new tile stands out in an old slope for years. If yours is a later house with concrete interlocking tiles, a broken one is replaced with the same profile and clipped at the tail.
Verges at the gable ends. A verge is bedded in mortar on an undercloak. When that mortar washes out, the end units work loose and rain gets into the top of the gable. We rebed them and fix each one mechanically. On an unlisted garage a dry verge to BS 8612 saves repointing later, but on a listed cottage, or any slope seen from the road, the mortar verge stays.
Lead at walls, stacks and valleys. Where a roof slope runs up against a rendered or flint gable, a taller range or a chimney, the joint should be lead soakers under each course with a stepped flashing tucked into the mortar joints above. Some older roofs have a cement fillet there instead, which cracks as wall and roof move. We cut it out and dress new lead in, in lengths short enough to expand without tearing. A split lead valley is relaid with the tiles either side lifted. Sealant squeezed into split lead holds only until the next hot spell opens the crack again.
A tiled addition against a thatched roof. Where a slate or tile lean-to meets a thatched main roof, our part ends at the junction: the tiles, the soakers and the flashing on the tiled side. The thatch above is for the thatcher.
Brick chimney stacks. Flaunching, pots, caps and pointing, from a proper platform. See the section on stacks and thatch below.
Flat roofs over extensions and garages. If you have one, look for blistered felt, a split where the covering turns up the wall, or ponding after rain. On a dry, firm deck a split is cut out and patched with felt, GRP or EPDM to match. If the deck is soft underfoot, a patch will not hold and we tell you so. More on flat roofing in Tarrant Monkton.
Gutters spilling into the fascia. A gutter sagging at a bracket sends rain over its edge and into the fascia, and damp shows inside before the timber fails. Resetting the fall may be the whole repair. A rotten fascia or a cracked downpipe is fascias, soffits and guttering in Tarrant Monkton.
Storm damage. A hard gust can lift a ridge tile or verge slate. We sheet the gap weathertight, then come back with matched slate or tile.
Repair or replace. One leak needs one repair. When slates slip right across a slope, the battens are soft or the felt crumbles at a touch, tingles stop paying and the slope wants stripping and relaying. That is work for our roofers in Tarrant Monkton, and your quote says which you have. On time: a few slates take a morning, a hip or ridge run about a day, and new lead round a stack about a day.
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.
A like for like repair on a house in the Tarrant Valley Conservation Area counts as maintenance, and the Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains when a change of material needs permission. There are 27 listed entries in the parish, so if your house is one of them, check with Dorset Council about listed building consent before anything beyond a straight repair. We check the address before we quote.
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 Tarrant Monkton that could be a one and a half storey thatched cottage with a brick end stack, a two storey farmhouse with a hipped slate roof, or a single storey rear extension. 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 Tarrant Monkton cottage, tell us whether the wet patch is on the chimney breast, under a slate or tile slope, or under thatch, so the right trade comes out first. 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.
Chimneys and thatch
The chimney, the thatch and whose job the leak is
Nearly every listed cottage in the Tarrant Valley Conservation Area has a brick stack at the gable end or on the ridge, and most are thatched. So a damp chimney breast or a stain beside the stack can come from two places. Cracked flaunching, a failed cap, open joints, spalled brick or a loose pot are stack faults, and ours to repair. The weathering where the thatch meets the brick is the thatcher's detail.
So have the stack checked first, from a tower or scaffold that stands clear of the thatch, so nobody walks on it or loads it. If it is sound, you call a thatcher knowing what is ruled out. On a listed stack, repointing goes back in a lime mortar to match the old, never a hard cement that traps water in soft brick. Historic Environment Scotland on lime and cement explains why. Like for like repair is generally maintenance, and Dorset Council confirms whether listed building consent applies. On the two slate farmhouses the stack meets slate, and the lead flashing and soakers there are ours as well. More on chimney repairs.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Tarrant Monkton, Tarrant Launceston and the rest of the Tarrant valley in DT11 are about 15 miles from our base in Boscombe, with Dorset Council as 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 Tarrant Monkton
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Tarrant Monkton
Can a roofer repair my chimney without scaffolding?
For a short job on a porch or a single storey eaves, a ladder is fine. A chimney stack or a ridge on a two storey house needs a tower or a scaffold under the HSE guidance on work at height. On a thatched cottage the platform is set up so it keeps off the thatch, and access is its own line on the quote.
A slate has slipped. Can it wait until spring?
The gap lets rain onto the felt or battens every time it falls, and a wet batten softens. One tingle is a short job, best done in the next dry spell.
What will my roof repair cost?
We publish no figure, because the price turns on how the roof is reached, what the fault turns out to be and whether a reclaimed slate or clay tile has to be found. Each item goes on its own line of the written quote. The page on how we price a job walks through each of those lines.
What do I get in writing?
A written itemised quote before work starts, naming the fault, the access, the slate or tile going back, the lead and the ridge fixing, plus photographs of the fault.
Can you repoint a stack in lime in winter?
Lime mortar cannot go on in frost and must be protected while it sets, so a listed stack is repointed in milder weather. A stack leaking in winter is made weathertight first and repointed later.
Free quote
Tell us where your Tarrant Monkton roof lets water in
Send your address and a line on what you have noticed, whether it is a slipped slate, a wet chimney breast or a drip by the back door. Thomas comes out, finds the cause and writes down what the repair involves.