Roof repairs in Westbourne
Slipped slate, split lead, parapet gutters and flat roofs on Westbourne's villas, shops and blocks, traced to the cause and priced in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs
Slates, lead and hidden gutters above Westbourne flats
Yes, we repair roofs all over Westbourne: a slipped slate on a villa that is now four or five flats, a split lead valley between two hips, a silted gutter behind a shop parapet or a blistered felt roof on a block. We trace where the water gets in, fix that point, and set the repair out in a written quote after a free site visit.
If water is coming through a ceiling right now, ring 07435 839745 and say which floor you are on.
A brown ring spreads across the ceiling of a top floor flat after a wet westerly. Half a slate lands on the front steps of a converted villa, and nobody in the building knows whose job it is to deal with it. Or the wallpaper bubbles on the side wall of a flat over a shop, and the only roof visible from the street is a brick parapet.
We reach the fault on proper access, check the underside from a loft hatch where there is one, and photograph what we find. The written description of the fault and the repair is laid out so a landlord or agent can read it as easily as you.
What we fix
Villa slate, parapet gutters and block roofs: where each one fails
Slipped and cracked slate. The villas built before 1900 are mostly under natural slate, laid over hips, gables, bays and dormers. After a century the nails corrode long before the slate wears out, and a slate that has slid a few inches opens the lap below it. We cut the old nail stumps with a slate ripper, slide in a slate that matches in size and thickness, and hold its tail with a copper tingle or a stainless hook. On the slopes that face south towards Alum Chine and the sea, fixings corrode sooner in the salt air, so we specify stainless steel or copper there, never plain steel.
Ridges and hips working loose. A villa roof carries long runs of ridge and hip, bedded in sand and cement. Once that bedding cracks, wind lifts a hip piece, it creeps down the hip and eventually drops. We take off the loose run, knock off the old mortar, and re-bed it with a mechanical fixing into every piece, which is what BS 5534 now expects. Cracked mortar along a gable verge gets raked out and repointed at the same time.
Split and clogged lead valleys. Where a bay roof or a back wing meets the main roof, a lead valley runs down between the two slopes. Lead laid in lengths that are too long cannot expand and contract freely, so it cracks along a fold. A valley choked with leaves and moss overflows sideways under the slates. A split valley means lifting the slates on each side and dressing in new lead in shorter lengths, which is a day or two.
Flashings, soakers and dormer cheeks. Every stack, dormer and wall that rises through the slope needs soakers under the slates and a stepped lead flashing over them. When a flashing pulls out of its mortar joint, water runs down behind it and shows as damp on the inside of the wall, often a floor below. We re-wedge and repoint it or cut in new lead.
Chimney stacks. A converted villa can have several big stacks, one of them carrying flues from more than one flat. Water gets in through cracked flaunching, a broken pot, open joints or a silted back gutter on the uphill side. See chimney repairs for how we deal with each.
Gutters behind parapets. The shops along Poole Road and Seamoor Road, and a number of the villas, hide their roofs behind a low front wall with a lined gutter running behind it. When that gutter silts up or its lining cracks, water rises over the edge of the lining and soaks into the top of the wall, and the first sign is damp in the flat below. We clear it, find the split, patch or reline the run, and check the coping joints on top of the parapet, which open up and let water into the brickwork.
Flat roofs on blocks and extensions. The purpose-built blocks from the late sixties and seventies, and the rear extensions and dormer tops on the villas, are often flat: felt, asphalt, GRP or EPDM rubber. They fail at blisters, at a split along an upstand, and at an outlet that blocks and leaves water ponding. Where the deck underneath is still firm and dry, a patch over the split holds. Where it gives underfoot, water has got into it and the answer is a re-cover, set out on flat roofing in Westbourne. BS 6229 sets out how the falls and outlets should work.
Concrete tile on the newer blocks. Where a later block has a pitched roof, it is usually concrete interlocking tile. Cracked tiles are swapped for the same profile, and dry fix ridge and verge caps that have come unclipped go back to BS 8612.
A gutter posing as a roof leak. On a tall villa an overflowing gutter soaks the top of the wall, and from inside that looks exactly like a roof leak, so we check the gutter and downpipe before opening the roof. That work sits under fascias, soffits and guttering in Westbourne.
When a slope has had enough. Slates slipping all over one slope, nails that crumble as each slate comes up, soft battens and old felt that tears at a touch all mean you would be paying for access again and again. Stripping and re-slating that slope is the better use of the money, and that is work for our roofers in Westbourne.
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 slate or lead repair is maintenance, so it needs no planning application. In the Westbourne Conservation Area, which takes in the shopping streets, a change of covering or a front rooflight is a planning matter, and the BCP conservation area pages show the boundary. The Church of St Ambrose on West Cliff Road is Grade II* listed and several shop buildings are Grade II, and on a listed roof even a repair can need consent, so check the council's listed building records 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 Westbourne that might be a three storey slated villa with bays across its front, a shop parapet over a busy pavement where the scaffold needs a highways licence, or a flat-roofed block reached through a hatch at the top of the shared stairs. 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. In a flat, tell us which floor you are on and whether anyone lives above you, because in a building this tall the water may be coming from the roof, a gutter or a bathroom upstairs. 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
In a flat, the leak is yours and the roof is not
About nine homes in ten in Westbourne are flats, and close to half of households rent privately. So the person looking at the stain is rarely the person who can order the repair. If you rent, report it to your landlord in writing, with a photograph and the date. The law puts the structure and exterior on the landlord, gutters included (section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985). If you own a leasehold flat, the roof normally belongs to the freeholder and the managing agent instructs the work. For a larger permanent repair above a set amount per flat, the agent has to consult every leaseholder first under section 20 of the same Act, and that consultation takes weeks.
So ask for the job to be priced in two parts. First, a small make-safe that stops the water now: a slate back in, a valley cleared, a temporary sheet over a split. Second, the permanent repair as its own itemised written quote with photographs, in a form the agent can put to the leaseholders. The ceiling below then is not left waiting on the paperwork. On a roof shared by several flats, ask us to mark which part of the roof sits above which flat, and to say whether the water is coming from the roof at all.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the whole of Westbourne in BH4, from the Arcade and the shops round it out to the villas and blocks above Alum Chine, a short drive west of our base in Boscombe, with BCP 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 Westbourne
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Westbourne, and the other trades we offer in Westbourne itself.
Roof repairs nearby
Our other trades in Westbourne
Everything we do in Westbourne Roof repairs, all areas Every area we cover
Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Westbourne
How much should a roof repair in Westbourne cost?
We give no figure before seeing it. On a tall villa the access can outweigh the slates, and a stain can sit well away from its cause. How we price a job explains what goes into the number.
How can I tell whether a roofer is being straight with me?
Ask to see a photograph of the actual fault, not a general shot of the roof. Get the price itemised in writing, naming the materials. Look the company up: ours is company number 15471719 at Companies House.
My landlord says the damp is from the flat above, not the roof. Who is right?
It can be either, and in a converted villa water can travel a long way before it shows. We can check the roof, the parapet gutter and the rainwater pipes and say in writing whether any of them is letting water in. That gives you and your landlord something to go on.
Who is responsible if a roofer falls from my roof?
On a domestic job, the client's legal duties under the construction safety rules pass to the contractor doing the work (regulation 7 of CDM 2015). Planning safe access is our job, which is why we price a tower or scaffold where a ladder is not safe.
Free quote
Tell us which floor the water is on
Send your postcode and what you can see: a stain, a slate on the path, damp in a top floor wall. We come out, look properly and put the repair in writing for you, your landlord or your agent.