Roof repairs in West Lulworth
Brick stacks, lean-to abutments, slipped slate and plain tile repaired across West Lulworth and down to the Cove, with the 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
Find where the rain gets in, then mend that
Yes, we repair roofs in West Lulworth: slipped and cracked slates, plain tiles, loose ridges and verges, lead flashings, leaking chimney stacks and the flat roofs on extensions. We find the point where the water gets in, repair that point, and put the price in a free written itemised quote first.
If water is coming in right now, ring 07435 839745 and say which room it is in and which side of the house.
A slate has slid off the seaward slope and is lying in the gutter. A brown ring has spread across the bedroom ceiling just below where the brick stack comes up. Or the lean-to kitchen at the back drips down the wall every time the wind swings round to the south west.
We look from the lane and the garden, go into the loft with a torch, and photograph the fault. If the wet patch is up against a thatched roof, we tell you plainly which part is ours and which part is a thatcher's, so you know who you are paying before anyone goes up a ladder.
The repairs
Stacks, lean-tos and slates: what fails on a village roof
Brick stacks. Most of the listed cottages along Main Road and School Lane have brick stacks. When a stack lets water into the room below, the fault sits in one of four places: the flaunching round the pots has cracked, the joints have opened, a pot has split, or the lead or mortar apron where the stack meets the roof has pulled away. We rake out and repoint, re-flaunch round the pots, and dress a new lead apron and stepped flashing where the stack comes through slate or tile. Taking a stack down and rebuilding it is chimney repairs work, and we price it separately.
Lean-tos, porches and catslides. Plenty of the old cottages have a single-storey tiled or slated addition built against them, and every one has an abutment where the covering meets the wall. Water gets in through a split soaker under a tile, a stepped flashing that has worked out of its joint, or a cement fillet that cracked and was painted over. Some of these lean-tos are pitched lower than their tiles were made for, so rain driven off the sea runs back up the laps. We lift the courses along the wall, fit new lead soakers and a flashing wedged into the raked joint, and if the pitch is simply too shallow for that covering we tell you, because re-laying the same tiles would give you the same drip.
Slipped and cracked slate. Natural slate covers the Coastguard Cottages above the Cove, and the same repair applies on any other slated roof in the village. A slate that slides out on its own has lost its nail. One or two go back on with a tingle, a strip of lead or copper nailed to the batten and folded up under the slate's tail. When slates are dropping all across a slope, that is nail sickness, the whole slope wants stripping and re-hanging on new battens, and it moves to our roofers in West Lulworth. Sea air this close shortens the life of plain steel, so every nail and clip in our repair is copper or stainless.
Plain tile. Holy Trinity church and several of the older farmhouses have tiled roofs, and where the covering is plain tile the repair runs like this. A plain tile hangs on its nibs with a nail or peg every few courses, and when a peg rots or the tile flakes and laminates in frost, it drops out and leaves a hole. We find a reclaimed tile to match, and each replacement is nailed or clipped as BS 5534 expects. A roof that was slurried over years ago hides cracked tiles under the coating, so we look at the felt, the battens and the rafter feet from the loft before we price it.
Ridges and verges. The south west face takes the gales first, and the mortar bedding under the ridge and along the verge goes with it. We rebed loose ridge tiles with a mechanical fixing into each one. If your house is newer and under concrete interlocking tile, a dry ridge and dry verge kit has no mortar left to wash out, and on a cottage in the conservation area we keep the mortar look and hide the fixing underneath.
Flat roofs and gutters. A felt, GRP or EPDM roof over an extension fails at a split, a blister, the upstand against the wall or the outlet. A patch holds only on a dry, firm deck. More on flat roofing in West Lulworth. Gutters on the tiled lean-tos below thatched eaves catch straw and moss, and an overflowing gutter or a broken downpipe joint can soak a wall and pass for a roof leak. That is fascias, soffits and guttering work, and it can be priced on the same quote.
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.
West Lulworth has its own conservation area, running from Main Road and School Lane down to the Cove, and the village has dozens of listed buildings, most of them thatched cottages, so on a listed cottage a stack is repointed in lime to match and a flashing is renewed in lead, and anything beyond a straight repair is checked against Dorset Council's guidance on 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 West Lulworth that could be a tiled lean-to at the back of a thatched cottage on Main Road, a slated terrace above the Cove, or a brick stack coming up through thatch, where the scaffold has to stand clear of the straw. 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. After a gale in West Lulworth, tell us which face has lost slates or tiles and whether the house is thatched; a temporary sheet goes over the gap, and our dated photographs are there for your insurer if you claim. 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.
Next to thatch
When the wet patch sits beside a thatch
Most of the listed cottages in the village are thatched, with brick stacks and tiled or slated additions built against them. So a stain on a ceiling here can sit right at a junction: where the stack rises through the thatch, or where a lean-to meets the wall below thatched eaves. The first job is to find the entry point. A thatcher re-ridging will not cure a failed stack flashing, and a roofer re-tiling a lean-to will not cure wet thatch. We trace it from the loft and the ladder and show you the photographs.
We do not thatch. If the water is coming through the straw, we say so and you need a specialist thatcher. Our part is the stack, the lead, the tiled or slated roofs beside it and the gutters. Near thatch nothing goes on with a gas torch, so a flat roof patch on an extension next door is done in a cold-applied liquid or bonded EPDM, never torch-on felt. Stacks get lime mortar and flashings get lead.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
West Lulworth, from the Castle Inn and the cottages on Main Road down to Lulworth Cove, is covered from our base in Boscombe, as are East Lulworth and the rest of BH20 in West Purbeck, and Dorset Council handles planning here. 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 West Lulworth
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from West Lulworth, and the other trades we offer in West Lulworth itself.
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in West Lulworth
Is the leak by my chimney coming from the stack or the thatch?
You cannot tell from the ceiling. Water that gets in round a stack runs down the brickwork inside and shows as a patch on the chimney breast, while wet thatch tends to show as a wider stain near the eaves or ridge. We look at the flaunching, the joints and the lead from a ladder, then check the loft. If the fault is in the straw, we tell you to call a thatcher and do not charge you for a repair we cannot do.
Can you patch the flat roof on the extension next to the thatch?
Yes, with no flame anywhere near it. On a roof beside thatch we use a cold-applied liquid coating or bonded EPDM, not torch-on felt. The deck has to be dry and firm for a patch to hold, and if it has gone soft the quote says so and prices a new deck.
Should I repair the slates or have the slope re-hung?
If a few slates have slipped and the rest are fixed tight, tingles and new slates are the repair. If they are sliding all over the slope and the nails have rusted through, re-hanging is the honest answer and our roofers in West Lulworth page covers that. If it could go either way, you get both options priced on one written quote.
How can I check out a roofer before they go up on my cottage?
Look the company up at Companies House: ours is company number 15471719. Ask for an itemised quote in writing and photographs of the fault before any work. If you sign at home, you normally have a 14-day right to cancel. On a domestic job, your duties as client pass to the contractor, and the firm doing the work has to plan it safely under the work at height rules.
What does a roof repair cost?
No figure is published, because it depends on access, the covering, what the repair uncovers and any lead or stack work. You get a free written quote with each item on its own line, and our page on how we price a job explains how it is built up.
Is there a best time of year for chimney and lead repairs?
A leak gets dealt with when it happens, whatever the month. Planned repointing and flaunching in lime is better in the milder, drier months, because lime mortar needs time to cure and does not like frost. Lead can go on in most dry weather.
Free quote
Tell us where the water is showing
Send the address and which room the stain is in. Thomas comes out, photographs the fault and gives you a written itemised quote.