Roofing in Burley

Valleys, and what the trees put in them. Under this much oak and beech, valleys are the weak point. Oak and beech leaf mats into a lead valley over one autumn, water backs up above the lap and goes in sideways at the junction, and the stain appears in a bedroom nowhere near the valley.

Clearing the debris is half of it. The other half is checking whether the lead has been cut too short or laid in one long run, because a valley that cannot move splits at the head.

Repairs run to slipped, cracked and missing tiles, storm damage after a branch has come down, a ridge tile you can rock by hand, and a leak traced back to where water actually gets in rather than patched where the stain shows. Plain clay tile and natural slate on the older cottages, concrete interlocking tile on the later houses, and the repair is different on each. Mortar bedding cracks and washes out long before anything goes wrong in the middle of a slope, and BS 5534 expects ridges and hips to be mechanically fixed, so we convert to a dry ridge or dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, which vents the roof space along the ridge at the same time.

When the nails, battens and underlay have gone together, patching is money into a roof that is already finished. The covering comes off, soft rafter feet and wet timber are cut out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile and stainless nails and clips. If it is one cracked tile, a rocking ridge or a single leak by the chimney, roof repairs in Burley covers mending that fault and leaving the rest of the covering alone. On the oldest roofs in Burley there is no membrane and no sarking under the covering at all, which is normal for their age and does change the price.

Thatch, which we will not pretend to do. There is thatch in this village and we are not thatchers. We will still look at the tiled outshot beside it, the chimney flashing, the leadwork and the rainwater goods, which is usually where the water is coming from anyway. Garages, rear extensions, dormer tops and porches come in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, with the deck checked before the falls, upstands and outlet. Under trees, gutters are regular maintenance, not a one off: a gutter that overflows all winter rots the fascia behind it, and on ground that shrinks and swells a downpipe emptying beside a foundation is a structural question rather than just a damp one. While the covering is off, insulation and eaves ventilation are far cheaper to sort, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

A roof in the Forest has no rate per square metre. Two roofs the same size in Burley can be very different jobs once the trees and the weather side are counted.

Overhanging trees. The scaffold has to go up clear of the branches, and years of leaf fall in the valleys and gutters often means rotten valley boards and blocked outlets to deal with. Low roofs may come off a tower. The scaffold's size and how long it stands are both priced, which is what the work at height rules call for.

The south west slope. That face takes the wind and driven rain, so tiles slip, verges open up and ridge mortar goes there first. The code of practice for slating and tiling sets the fixings for the exposure, usually more clips and nails than the old roof had.

Battens and membrane. Whether they are renewed, or the old tiles simply relaid on what is there, makes the biggest gap between two prices.

Leadwork. Each chimney, valley and abutment has its own line, because the lead is where the hours go.

Ask anyone else quoting whether the scaffold is included, whether battens and membrane are new, and whether the fixings are to the current code for an exposed slope.

Burley has a National Park over it and a conservation area around it, and they do different jobs. First, the New Forest National Park Authority is your planning authority, not the district council, so an application about a roof goes to the Park and is judged against its heritage and conservation guidance rather than an ordinary district policy. Second, the village is a conservation area, which controls appearance.

Together they mean the same practical thing: putting back what is already there is maintenance and nobody needs to hear about it, while changing the covering, adding a dormer or standing something proud of a slope that people can see is a decision somebody else gets to make. There are a handful of listed entries here as well, and a listed building needs consent for its roof either way. The Park's interactive property map will tell you which of those applies to your address, and we check it before anything is ordered.

Most repairs in Burley 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.