Roof repairs in West Moors
Rocking ridge tiles, slipped interlocking tiles, crumbling verges, chimney flashings and flat roof leaks on the bungalows, houses and blocks of flats of West Moors.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
When a West Moors roof starts letting the weather in
Yes. We repair roofs all over West Moors, from a ridge tile rocking on a sixties bungalow to a split felt roof over a block of flats, and we mend the one part that has failed. The site visit is free, and the repair is priced in writing before anything is touched.
Water coming in through a ceiling right now? Ring 07435 839745, tell us which room it is in, and read the first steps on our emergency roof repairs page while you wait for a call back.
A tile clatters down the slope in the night and lies in pieces on the drive. There is a gap in the ridge line above the lounge. Or a yellow damp patch spreads from the corner of a top-floor flat.
We look along the ridge, hips and verges from the ground, go up on a roof ladder where that is safe, and shine a torch around the loft from the hatch. Photographs of what failed come to you with a written price, set out the way we price a job. Our roof repairs page sets out how a leak is traced. If a repair will not hold, you hear that at the visit.
The repairs
What goes on a late sixties roof, and how we put it right
Most of West Moors went up in the decades after the war, much of it single storey. The roof typical of that era is concrete interlocking tile of the Ludlow or Renown type, on sawn battens over black bitumen felt, with ridge and hips bedded in sand and cement. These are its faults, and how each is mended.
Ridge and hip tiles that rock. The mortar under a ridge of this age has sat through fifty-odd winters. It shrinks from the tile, frost widens the cracks, and a gusty night drops a lump of bedding into the flower bed. If only a few are loose, we lift them, knock off the old bed, lay fresh mortar and screw or clip each tile down, as BS 5534 now expects. If the whole run sounds hollow when tapped, fresh mortar only resets the clock, so we strip it and fit a dry ridge and hip system to BS 8612, with a hip iron at each foot. A full bungalow ridge and four hips is one to two days from a tower.
Verges crumbling on the gable ends. On a gable, the end tiles sit on mortar laid over an undercloak. The undercloak perishes, the mortar falls out and wind gets under the last row. We cut the verge back, fit new undercloak, and rebed it or clip a dry verge cap over each tile end. Two gables take about a day.
A slipped or missing tile. Roofs laid in the sixties and seventies often had whole courses left unfixed, held only by the nibs over the batten and the weight of the tile. Snap a nib or soften a batten and the tile slides, opening the lap. We ease up the tiles above, hook a matching profile over the batten and clip it, since an interlock that nearly fits leaves a channel for rain. A broken tile is the same job. From bungalow eaves this needs a ladder and a roof ladder, and HSE does not ban ladders for short duration work. On a two storey detached house it can mean a tower.
Felt torn into the gutter. The felt running over the fascia into the gutter gets the sun, goes brittle and splits, and water drips behind the gutter onto the fascia and rafter ends. We lift the bottom two courses, cut the old felt back, fit an eaves tray under a lap of breathable membrane and relay the tiles. A soft fascia behind it is fascia, soffit and guttering work on the same visit, and so is a downpipe that has come adrift.
Rain creeping back up a shallow slope. On a low-pitched bungalow roof, once moss fills the channels in the side locks, wind-driven rain runs back under the head lap. A stain that shows only in a gale from one side points here. We scrape moss off by hand and clear the channels, and never pressure wash, since the jet forces water under the laps. Any moss killer applied afterwards must be a product with authorisation, because moss killers need plant protection product authorisation.
Leaks round the chimney. Where a bungalow kept its brick stack, water gets in round it: a cracked mortar fillet where lead should be, a flashing lifted from its chase, or a choked back gutter. The stain shows on the chimney breast. We cut out fillets and dress new lead flashings, soakers and a back gutter. Loose pots or crumbling brick are chimney repairs.
Valleys on extended homes. Where a rear extension joins the main slope, the valley carries water from both sides. Mortar-bedded valley tiles crack, and a GRP or lead trough splits or fills with leaves. The cut tiles either side come up and the valley is relaid over one to two days.
Flat roofs on garages, porches and extensions. Felt, GRP or EPDM, they leak at split laps, a blister, the upstand against the wall and a leaf-filled outlet. On a firm, dry deck a split is patched in a few hours. A deck that bounces underfoot is wet chipboard, and a patch on it is wasted. That becomes flat roofing in West Moors.
The newer estates, and the odd older house. About a quarter of homes here date from the early eighties to 2008, still with mortar verges and ridges, so a house you think of as new can have a verge falling apart, or a porch abutment flashing pulled from the wall. On the handful of older homes, a cracked clay plain tile is swapped for a reclaimed match, and a slate slipping from nail sickness is held with a copper tingle.
Repair or replace. If someone says fifty year old concrete tiles are finished, ask them to show you why, and see BRE's testing of sixty year old roof tiles. What decides it is under the tiles. Felt that tears to the touch and soft battens across a slope mean a re-roof, which is work for our roofers in West Moors.
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 West Moors, so a like for like repair needs no planning application, and Planning Portal guidance on roofs shows where that line would move. The village has a single listed entry, and if your building is ever listed, Dorset Council's page on listed building consent comes before any tile is changed.
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 Moors that could be a hipped bungalow where every hip is in reach of a roof ladder, a two storey detached house with a valley over the garage, or a low-rise block of flats that needs a tower to reach the top. 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 West Moors bungalow only the ceiling sits between your room and the tiles, so if you can safely look through the loft hatch, tell us where the wet felt or timber 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 and blocks
When the leak is over a flat, not a house
Roughly one home in eight in West Moors is a flat or maisonette, many in low-rise blocks under a felt flat roof or shallow concrete tile. If you rent, the law says a landlord must keep the structure and exterior in repair, including gutters. On a long lease, the lease says who repairs the roof, normally the freeholder or management company. So when water comes through a top-floor ceiling, photograph it, report it in writing to whoever manages the block, and ring us too, so the first visit can make the roof safe.
Planned work on a whole block roof can mean the landlord consults leaseholders first under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which takes time. So we split it into two jobs: a temporary weathering repair to stop the water now, and the permanent repair, each quoted separately in writing. The itemised quote is written to be passed round the leaseholders and the managing agent, with photographs of the split felt or failed upstand. For a residents' management company, we can inspect and price the whole roof to BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
West Moors, BH22, is 6.5 miles from our base in Boscombe, and we cover the village, Glenwood Road and Riverside Road included, plus Ferndown, Three Legged Cross and Ashley Heath, with Dorset 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 West Moors
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from West Moors, and the other trades we offer in West Moors itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in West Moors
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in West Moors
My ridge tiles rock in the wind. Rebed or dry fix?
If two or three are loose and the rest is solid, rebed that stretch with a screw into each tile. If the whole line sounds hollow, a dry fixed ridge does away with the mortar. The quote can price both.
One interlocking tile has slipped. Do you need scaffold for that?
On a bungalow, usually not. A ladder to the eaves and a roof ladder over the tiles will reach it, which is fine for short work like this under when a ladder is the right equipment. Higher up a two storey house, a tower may be needed, and it shows on the quote as its own line.
Is a fifty year old concrete tile roof worth repairing?
Often, yes, because concrete tiles tend to outlast the mortar and felt around them. We check the felt and battens from the loft, and if they are perishing across the roof, we say so.
If a roofer falls working on my house, whose problem is that?
On a home, a domestic client's CDM duties pass to the contractor, so planning and managing the job safely, ladders, towers and scaffold included, falls to the contractor. CDM 2015 and domestic clients explains it in plain terms.
Free quote
Send us a photo of the West Moors roof
A picture from the garden or the loft hatch, your postcode and where the water shows is plenty. We come out, look properly and put the repair in writing.