Roofing in Alderholt

Concrete tile, and what forty years does to it. Many roofs in Alderholt are concrete interlocking tile, because that is what went on as the village grew after the war and again from 1983, around an older core that predates 1919.

What goes first is the sand faced surface, which weathers off and leaves an open textured tile that holds water and grows moss, then the mortar bedding at ridge, hip and verge, then the nails. Which of the three has failed is the difference between a day's work and a new roof.

Ridge, hip and verge. On this stock the edges are the part to look at first. The old bedding comes off and the edges convert to a dry fix system: a dry ridge screwed onto a ventilated roll and a dry verge clipped along the gable. That is the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, it removes the detail that cracks and washes out first, and it ventilates the roof space at the same time.

Close to a quarter of the dwellings here are bungalows and many sit at a low pitch, which decides the covering before anything else does. Down at the shallow end you are into an interlocking tile or a sheet system, and a plain tile or a small slate will not weather at that angle whatever the brochure says.

Repairs are slipped, cracked and missing tiles, storm damage, and a leak traced back to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. When the nails snap, the batten ends are soft and the underlay tears in your hand, the covering comes off, rotten rafter feet are cut out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. If all you have is one slipped tile, a loose hip or a drip you want traced, that sits on our page for roof repairs in Alderholt.

Garages, porches and rear extensions go in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, with the deck looked at before the falls, upstands and outlet are priced, and chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments in code rated lead cut short enough to move without splitting. Where the downpipe puts its water matters, because ground soaked again and again beside a wall is ground that moves, so a soakaway has to sit well clear of the building and Approved Document H says where roof water may go.

With the covering off, insulation, eaves ventilation and any condensation problem cost a fraction to sort while the access is already paid for, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

A roof price starts with what is on it and what is under it. The square metres come last. Eighties concrete tiles. On most of Alderholt's newer houses the covering is concrete interlocking tile over a bitumen felt underlay that has gone brittle where it dips into the gutter. Sometimes a repair to the eaves course and the ridge is honest value. Once the felt has failed across the slope, a strip and re-cover is the real job.

Older cottages. Clay tiles or slate on a cottage may sit on battens that have been re-nailed more than once. Keeping the sound clay tiles and making up the shortfall from reclaimed stock takes more labour than new tiles, but it looks right.

Bungalows. A hipped bungalow has a lot of hip and ridge for its size, and those are now mechanically fixed to BS 5534 rather than relying on mortar. The platform is lower and cheaper than for a two storey house.

Scaffold time. On a big plot the scaffold rarely needs a highway licence, but the weeks it stands up are charged, and HSE guidance on roof work sets what it must include.

Leadwork. A chimney stack, a valley or an abutment against a two storey wall each take hours of lead flashing and are counted separately.

Worth asking anyone else: is the scaffold included, are new battens and membrane going on or is the old underlay staying, and who is paying for the skip?

The Church of St James is listed at Grade II, so check the Historic England list for your own address, but on an ordinary house that takes a whole set of arguments off the table.

A repair, a like for like re-cover, new rainwater goods and rooflights all sit inside ordinary householder permitted development, within the limits the Planning Portal guidance sets out: nothing more than 150mm above the existing roof plane and nothing above the highest part of the roof. No application, no consent, and no officer with a view on your tile.

So the decision comes back to the roof itself, and the questions are weight and pitch. Going from a concrete tile to a natural slate takes load off the rafters and is rarely a problem. Going the other way, or putting a heavy tile on a roof built for something light, means the timbers get measured before anything is ordered.

Most repairs in Alderholt need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.