Roof repairs in Woodlands
Slipped concrete tiles, loose bungalow hips, slipped slates on Woodlands Road and leaks at stacks and flat roofs, mended across Woodlands, SO40, on the Netley Marsh edge of the New Forest.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Roof repairs in Woodlands
Leaks, loose hips and slipped slates on the Netley Marsh side of the Forest
Yes, we repair roofs in Woodlands, SO40: slipped concrete tiles and loose hips on the post-war bungalows and houses, slipped slates and leaking stacks on the older Woodlands Road houses, split flat roofs, and valleys choked with leaves. We find where the water gets in, mend that part, and put the price in writing after a free site visit.
If water is coming through a ceiling now, ring 07435 839745 and say what sits above the wet patch: a hip, a stack or a flat roof.
Hip mortar on the path beside a bungalow. A slate in the flower bed under an old brick front on Woodlands Road. A damp ring on a back extension ceiling after a wet week under the trees.
Not one of those says the roof is finished. Each has a cause you can point at. We look on the roof and in the loft, photograph the fault and write down the repair, and if a whole slope is wearing out we tell you straight.
The repairs
Hips, slipped tiles and tired lead on a post-war bungalow, and slate on the old road
Woodlands has two kinds of roof. About half the homes were built between 1945 and 1982, about a third of them bungalows, and the post-war ones carry concrete tiles, usually interlocking, laid on bitumen felt with no boarding under it. Along the Woodlands Road frontage the late 19th and early 20th century red brick houses have natural slate, a chimney stack at each end and, on some, decorative ridge tiles. The faults differ, and so do the repairs.
Hips and ridge on a hipped bungalow. Four hips meeting a short ridge means a lot of mortar bedded capping on a small house. After decades of winters the bedding shrinks off the tile and cracks, one hip tile starts to rock, and the next gale lifts it. We take off the loose ones, clean away the old mortar and either re-bed them with a screw or clip through every tile or fit a dry hip and ridge system with no mortar left to crack. Either way every tile ends up mechanically fixed, which is what BS 5534 asks for. A bungalow's hips and ridge are usually a day from a tower.
Verges falling on the drive. A mortar verge on a gable end lets go in lumps onto the drive or the car. We rake it out and fit a dry verge, caps clipped to each tile end and fixed into the batten, to BS 8612 on dry fixed ridge and verge systems.
Single tiles slipping. When a steel tile nail rusts through, an interlocking tile slides down and opens a gap. We refit it or a replacement on a tile clip. The awkward part on a post-war roof is the match, as several profiles from those years are no longer made. We find a reclaimed one, or take sound tiles from a hidden slope such as the back of the garage and put the new tile there.
Felt torn in one place. Where the original felt has torn in one spot, say below a slipped tile, we lift a few courses, cut it out, let in breathable membrane lapped under the old and renew any soft battens. If it splits wherever you touch it right across the slope, a patch only moves the leak along, and the slope wants re-covering by our roofers in Woodlands.
Garage, porch and back extension flat roofs. Felt, GRP and EPDM give way at a split or blister, at the upstand against the house wall, or at the outlet where the water leaves. A patch only bonds to a dry, firm deck, so we check the boards first, and if they flex underfoot we say so. More on flat roofing in Woodlands.
Where an extension meets the house. Where a later garage or extension roof meets the house wall, a mortar fillet cracks away from the brick and water runs down inside. We cut a chase and dress in a lead flashing, with soakers where a tiled slope runs up the wall.
Valleys and gutters under the trees. Mature trees and roadside hedges are part of Woodlands, and their leaves and needles settle in the valleys. A blocked valley spills sideways under the tiles, so the whole cause of a leak can be debris damming the water. We clear it before pricing anything and check the lining under it for splits. For overflowing gutters see gutters and fascias in Woodlands.
A branch through the roof. After a gale we sheet the hole, renew broken tiles and battens, check the rafters under the impact and photograph it all for your insurer.
Slate that has slipped or cracked. On the older houses it is the nails that give up first. A single slipped slate goes back on a copper tingle hooked round its tail. One that has cracked or started to flake is swapped for a sound slate of the same size. When slates are coming out in several places across one slope, every nail on it is the same age, and tingles only put off the strip and re-nail it needs.
End stacks, soakers and porch valleys. Water past a split soaker, a loose stepped flashing or cracked flaunching shows as damp on the chimney breast upstairs. We renew the soakers, re-wedge the flashing and re-bed loose pots, and our chimney repairs page covers the brickwork. The gabled porches have short valleys that carry two slopes of water, so a cracked lining shows as a stain over the front door.
A few older thatched buildings survive in Woodlands too. Thatch needs a specialist thatcher and we do not work on it. If the leak is in the lead or the chimney of a tiled roof joined to one, that part we can repair.
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 Woodlands roof needs no planning application, as Planning Portal guidance on roofs explains. Woodlands is inside the New Forest National Park, so a change of material or anything that alters how the roof looks is for the National Park Authority to decide. There are no listed buildings in Woodlands itself; the two nearest listed entries are at Netley Marsh.
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 Woodlands that runs from a bungalow hip reached off a tower on a level lawn, through a two storey detached house with a stack at each gable, to a slate front on Woodlands Road with a hedge and trees crowding the side path. 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. If a falling branch is the cause, keep people out from under the damaged area, and when you ring say whether it landed on the main roof, a porch or the garage, because that decides what we bring to make it weathertight. 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
Mending the slate houses on Woodlands Road
The older red brick houses along Woodlands Road are inside the Forest North East Conservation Area, and the Authority's appraisal of the conservation area discourages concrete tiles replacing slate and says every attempt should be made to keep chimney stacks and pots. A broken slate is replaced with natural slate, or a reclaimed one matched for size and colour, not a concrete tile. Decorative ridge tiles are lifted, cleaned and fixed back, not swapped for a plain ridge or a plastic dry ridge kit on the road side. A leaking stack, even a disused one, gets new flaunching, lead and re-bedded pots. If you want it taken down, ask the Authority first.
The post-war closes off the old road, such as Green Close, Lanesbridge Close, The Crescent, Hazel Grove and Alpine Road, are inside the National Park but outside the conservation area boundary. There a matched concrete tile or a dry fixed ridge is ordinary maintenance. To see which side of the line your house falls, look it up on the National Park Authority's interactive property map, and National Park heritage and conservation guidance explains what the designation protects.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Woodlands from the old Woodlands Road frontage and the closes off it out to Bartley Road, Rossiters Lane and the Netley Marsh end of the parish, all SO40, from our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe. Planning applications for Woodlands go to the New Forest National Park Authority, while building control is run by New Forest District Council. 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 Woodlands
Nearby places we also cover for roof repairs, with straight-line distances from Woodlands, and the other trades we offer in Woodlands itself.
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Our other trades in Woodlands
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Woodlands
My house is on Woodlands Road. Can I patch the slate with a concrete tile?
We would talk you out of it. The National Park Authority discourages concrete tiles replacing slate in the conservation area, and a concrete tile never lies flat in a slate course. A natural or reclaimed slate on a tingle is the proper repair, and the one we quote for.
What time of year suits a roof repair under the Woodlands trees?
Late spring to early autumn, because mortar and flat roof bonding want dry weather without frost. Under trees, book a valley and gutter clear out once the leaves are down. A leak should not wait for the season: ring when it starts.
How do I check out a roofer before letting them up a ladder?
Check the firm exists: ours is company number 15471719 at Companies House. Expect photographs of the fault, and an itemised written quote before anything starts. Walk away from anyone who knocks after a gale, asks for cash up front or wants you to sign that day.
My post-war concrete tile roof keeps needing bits doing. Repair or replace?
Loose hips, a few slipped tiles and a torn corner of felt are repairs, and the roof has life left. When the felt crumbles across whole slopes and the battens are soft, you are paying twice for one roof. If it is borderline, both options go on one quote, priced line by line.
Will you quote me a figure over the phone?
No. It turns on access, the covering, how easy the tile is to match and what is under it. We look first and write it down, and how we price a job explains the rest.
Free quote
Tell us what your Woodlands roof is doing
Send the address and a line about the fault. We come out, find the cause and write the repair down item by item, at no charge.