Roofing and Building in Poole

What we build

The building work we take on in Poole

Away from the flats in the centre, the single biggest building decade for Poole's houses was the 1930s. Houses of that age often carry a flat-roofed back addition or a garage, and a lot of the work below is about replacing or extending exactly that.

Single-storey rear extensions

A new room across the back of the house, usually a kitchen-diner that opens onto the garden. We dig the footings and get them inspected, lay the floor, build the cavity walls in block with brick or render outside, put a steel in where the back wall opens up, then the roof, the plaster and the floor. On site it runs to several weeks for a plain one, and longer when the ground or the drains fight back. We will talk you out of it if it would swallow most of a small garden, or if the room you want fits inside the house once the layout is looked at again.

Two-storey and side extensions

A bedroom over a new kitchen, or a side extension filling the gap beside the drive. The sequence is the same, only taller, with the scaffold up for longer and a new roof that has to tie into the old one. Planning is more likely to come into it, and a side extension near the boundary usually brings the Party Wall Act with it. If the only way to get the room is to crowd a neighbour's window, we will tell you before you pay anyone for drawings.

Brickwork, garden walls and structural repairs

New garden and boundary walls, piers and steps, rebuilding a wall that has bowed or cracked, cutting out spalled bricks, and repairing brickwork where a lintel or a corner has moved. We match the brick by size, colour and bond. A garden wall is a job of days, not weeks. If your wall only needs its joints doing, it is a repointing job, and our page on brickwork and repointing in Poole covers it.

Plastering and rendering

Every extension needs plastering inside, and many need rendering outside so they match the house. We also skim tired rooms, re-plaster after a kitchen comes out, and render or re-render walls in sand and cement or silicone thin-coat. See plastering in Poole and rendering in Poole.

Kitchen fitting

Strip out, walls and floor made good first, then units, worktops and appliances fitted and plumbed in. Doing the plaster and the kitchen as one job means the walls are flat before a single unit goes up. Depending on how much comes out, it is days to a couple of weeks. If the units are sound and only the worktop is tired, we will say so. More on kitchen fitting in Poole.

Driveways, drainage and soakaways

Block paving, resin and tarmac drives and patios, and the drainage under them: channel drains, gullies and soakaways. An extension roof sheds water that has to go somewhere, and a soakaway only works where the ground drains, so it gets a percolation test before anyone relies on it. Approved Document H sets the rules. Details on driveways and patios in Poole.

Roofs, and roofers in Poole

We repair and re-roof pitched roofs in concrete and clay tile and natural slate, lay flat roofs in EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass and torch-on felt, dress lead at chimneys and abutments, and fit dry-fix ridges that do not rely on mortar. Near the harbour and the bay, salt air eats nails and tile clips first, so on an exposed Poole roof we specify stainless or non-ferrous fixings. When the roof is the whole job, our page for roofers in Poole goes into it properly.

If water is coming in now, ring 07435 839745 and say which room. Scheduled work Mon to Fri, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.

Permission

Planning, building regs and the neighbours

These are three separate things, and a builder should be able to tell you which of them your job needs.

Planning. A single-storey rear extension on a house can often go ahead as permitted development: no more than 3 metres past the original back wall on a semi or terrace, 4 metres on a detached house, and no more than 4 metres high, under Class A of the permitted development rules. Side extensions, two-storey extensions and anything in front of the house have tighter limits. BCP Council decides for Poole, and a Lawful Development Certificate gets you its answer in writing before you build.

Building Regulations. These apply whether or not you need planning. Building control checks the foundations, the structure, the insulation and the drainage as the job goes up. Regulation 12 sets out how notice is given, and Approved Document A covers the structure, including the steel over any new opening.

The neighbours. Build on or up to the boundary, or dig within 3 metres of a neighbour's building and deeper than its foundations, and the Party Wall Act applies. Notice goes to the neighbour at least a month before that work starts, under section 6.

Our guide to planning, building regulations and listed building consent explains how they differ.

Price

What decides the price of building work

• Ground and foundations. Soft ground, tree roots or a drain where the footing wants to go mean deeper or wider foundations, and building control decides that with the trench open.
• Access. Whether a skip fits on the drive, whether a small digger gets down the side, or whether every block is barrowed through the house.
• The roof. A flat roof is less timber and height than a pitched one. Tile or slate to match the house adds material and labour.
• Matching the house. Finding a brick that sits with a 1930s semi, or render that meets the old wall without a line.
• Drainage. Moving a manhole, a new soakaway or a new connection all go on the quote as their own lines.
• Steel. A wide opening into the new room needs a beam sized by a structural engineer.
• Where the job stops. A plastered shell and a finished room with floor, kitchen and decoration are very different quotes.

When you compare quotes from other builders, ask three things. Is it itemised, so you can see what each stage costs? Who will actually be on site each day? What happens when something extra turns up: is it priced in writing before it is done? Citizens Advice has a useful checklist on what to check before building work starts.