Roof repairs in Wool
Leaks, slipped tiles, loose ridges, chimney flashings and split flat roofs, traced to where the water gets in and repaired, across Wool and BH20.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Wool, Dorset BH20
A crooked ridge, a damp chimney breast, a garage roof letting go
Yes, we repair roofs in Wool, Dorset: loose ridges, hips and verges on the estate houses and bungalows, slipped concrete tiles, chimney flashings, split felt over garages and extensions, and the slate, tile and lead that sit beside the thatch on the old village cottages. Thomas finds where the water gets in and writes the repair down, itemised, after a free site visit.
If water is coming through a ceiling in a BH20 house now, ring 07435 839745, put a bucket under it, and tell us which room it is and whether the roof above is tiled or thatched.
It tends to start in one of three ways. A ridge tile on a bungalow sits out of line after a blow from the south west, with mortar crumbs in the gutter below it. A grey stain creeps down the wall beside the chimney breast. Or the felt on a garage lifts at a seam and the boxes underneath come out damp.
You see photographs of the broken part before anything is priced. The full method is on the main roof repairs page.
The repairs
Where water gets into a Wool roof
Most of Wool was built after the war, much of it in the 1970s and early 1980s, with plenty of terraces, semis and bungalows. Houses of that age almost always carry concrete interlocking tile, some of it flat profile, hung on battens over bitumen felt with no boards underneath. The tiles last; BRE's testing of sixty year old roof tiles found old concrete tiles still sound. The mortar, fixings and felt are what give up.
Ridge and hips on a bungalow. A hipped bungalow carries a ridge and four hips, every capping tile bedded on sand and cement. Cracked bedding lets a tile rock until a gale lifts it, and a rusted hip iron lets the bottom one slide. We lift the loose run and either rebed with a screw through each tile or fit a dry ridge and hip system to BS 8612. BS 5534 asks for every one to be mechanically fixed. The eaves are low, so a single hip can often be reached off a ladder or a tower.
Verges on a terrace or semi gable. The end tiles are bedded on mortar over an undercloak strip. When it washes out, the corner tiles lift. We rebed with a fixing through the tile, or screw on dry verge caps so there is no mortar left to wash away.
A tile that has slipped. Interlocking tiles hang on the batten by two nibs, and on a roof this age many were never nailed or clipped. Once one slides, its side lock opens and rain runs sideways along the felt, so the stain can be well away from the gap. The fix is to raise the course above, slide in a tile of matching profile and fit a clip so it cannot creep again, reclaimed if the profile is no longer made.
Felt rotted at the eaves. The felt was laid to drape into the gutter, and it perishes there first. Rain then runs behind the fascia into the wall. We lift the lowest two courses, fit an eaves support tray and relay them. A soft fascia behind it is covered on fascias, soffits and guttering in Wool.
The chimney, valleys and abutments. A stain beside a chimney breast comes from the flashing, the brick of the stack, or the flaunching round the pot. A mortar fillet where the tiles meet the stack shrinks away from the brick; we cut it out and dress in lead: an apron at the front, soakers and stepped flashing up the sides, a back gutter behind. Cracked flaunching or open joints let rain soak down inside the brick, so the stack is checked first; see chimney repairs. A fillet where a porch meets the house wall gets soakers and a cover flashing, and a split valley on an L-shaped bungalow gets new lead or a GRP trough.
Felt on garages, porches and extensions. Felt blisters, opens at its laps and peels at the upstand. A firm, dry deck takes a patch: cut out, bond in new felt, re-dress the upstand. Boards that flex are wet through, so the covering is renewed in felt, GRP or EPDM to BS 6229 with a fall to the outlet; see flat roofing in Wool.
After a storm. Stripped tiles get a sheet held down properly, and everything is photographed first, because the three questions the Financial Ombudsman asks about a storm claim turn on proof that the storm did it. The first visit is described on emergency roof repairs.
Slate and plain tile in the old village. Stone houses, barns, porches and catslides in the core carry plain clay tile or natural slate, which slip on a snapped nib or a rusted nail. We hook or nail in a matched plain tile and hold a slate with a copper tingle.
Mend it or move on. A few tiles, one hip, a verge or a flashing is a repair on a roof of any age. Sound felt and firm battens under a lifted tile mean it is worth mending. Felt crumbling across a whole slope means a patch only shifts the leak, and that is work for our roofers in Wool.
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.
Dorset Council handles planning and building control in Wool. Putting back like for like on an estate house needs no application. Inside the Wool Conservation Area the repair has to match what is already there, and on a listed building even a matched repair can need listed building consent, so that is checked with the council before we start.
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 Wool that runs from a bungalow hip reached off a ladder at low eaves, to a two storey end terrace whose gable stands over a neighbour's path, to a thatched cottage on Church Lane where the lead round the stack is worked from a tower without anyone standing on the thatch. 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 thatched cottage, say whether the drip is under the thatch, the slate or the extension at the back, and keep off the roof yourself. 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.
The old village
In the old village the thatch is not the whole roof
The Wool Conservation Area, designated in 1975 and now looked after by Dorset Council, takes in the old core around Spring Street, High Street and Church Lane. It holds more than thirty listed entries, most of the cottages thatched, and few of them thatch alone. Brick stacks rise through the thatch, porches carry slate or plain tile, lean-tos sit under catslides, and some have a flat roofed extension.
Regency Cottage on Church Lane is thatched at the front and slated at the rear, with a valley gutter running between the two. So a drip in a thatched cottage can start at the stack, at the lead where a lean-to meets the wall, on a slate pitch, in a valley gutter or on the extension. Those parts are ours. The thatched roof itself is work for a specialist thatcher, not for us. We trace it first and tell you which, and where lead meets thatch the work is planned with your thatcher.
Whatever we repair goes back the same: slate for slate, plain tile for plain tile, lead dressed as before. On a listed cottage even that can need listed building consent, so ask Dorset Council before it is booked. Some lean-tos and outbuildings in the core were listed with asbestos cement roofs, so have any grey cement sheet checked before it is drilled or walked on.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Wool, Dorset, from the old village round the church out to the estates and East Burton, all BH20 and all under Dorset Council for planning and building control, 17.1 miles from our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe. 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 Wool
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Questions
Questions about roof repairs in Wool
The ridge tiles on my bungalow are loose. Do I need a new roof?
Not for that alone. Loose ridge and hip tiles mean the mortar under them has given up, and the rest of the roof may be fine. We rebed the run with a fixing through each tile, or fit a dry system.
Water is coming in round the chimney. Is it the stack or the flashing?
Either, or the flaunching on top. Damp brick in the loft points at the stack. A stain that starts where the tiles meet the brick points at the flashing or an old mortar fillet. You see photographs of all three before we price the one that failed.
My cottage is thatched. Can you fix the leak?
Not in the thatch, which needs a specialist thatcher. We check the stack, the lead, any slate or tiled pitch, a valley gutter or a flat roofed extension, and tell you where the water is really getting in. If it turns out to be the thatch, we say so and you call a thatcher.
Can the felt on my garage or extension be patched?
Yes, when the boards under it are dry and firm and the damage is a blister, a split lap or a lifted upstand. If the deck gives underfoot by the outlet, the boards are wet and the covering needs renewing.
Can you repair a roof in the rain?
Not properly. Wet tiles and wind make a pitched roof unsafe, as HSE on not going on a roof in poor weather explains. In a downpour we put a temporary cover over the gap from a safe position, then carry out the real repair once the roof is dry and the wind has dropped.
How much do roofers charge to fix a leak?
That depends on what has failed and how we reach it, so any figure before looking is a guess. After the free visit, our written quote puts access, the repair and materials on their own lines. The page on how we price a job walks through what sits on each of those lines.
Free quote
Tell us where the water is showing
Send your Wool postcode and say which room the drip is in. Thomas comes out, finds the source and writes the repair down, itemised, at no charge.