Roofing in Burley

Valleys, and what the trees put in them. This is the job that comes up here more than any other. 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. On the oldest roofs here 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 maintenance rather than 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.

No rate per square metre. Trees decide access here more often than the roof does. A scaffold has to stand clear of overhanging limbs and a lorry has to get down the drive, so we settle where everything stands on the free site visit rather than on the first morning. Some low roofs come off a tower, and how long a platform stands matters as much as its size, which is why the work at height rules make it a priced line. Ask whether the scaffold is in the price and whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over.

Two things sit over Burley and they do different jobs. The first is that 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. The second is that 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.