Roofing in Cadnam and Bartley

Chimneys and leadwork. The pre-1919 cottages in Cadnam and Bartley carry big brick stacks that get used hard with a wood burner going. Flashings, soakers, back gutters, valleys and the abutments where a roof meets a wall go back in code rated lead cut so it can move without splitting.

Cracked flaunching and a stack nobody has looked at in thirty years is the source of most leaks in Cadnam and Bartley, with slipped and missing tiles and other storm damage making up much of the rest. On a plain clay tile or natural slate roof of that age the fault is nearly always a fixing or a junction rather than the covering, and sound old tile is worth keeping, so we sort it as we strip.

When the nails, battens and underlay have gone together, the covering comes off, soft rafter feet are cut out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with matched plain tile or slate. Ridges and hips are screwed down rather than bedded in mortar, which is what BS 5534 expects. On the later houses, where the covering is interlocking concrete tile, it is the mortar that wears out and not the tile, and a dry fixed ridge and dry verge units are priced by the metre of edge.

Gutters and downpipes are the job that comes round every year out in Cadnam and Bartley. Oak leaf and beech mast are heavy, wet and slow to rot down, so they mat in the gutter, wash into the downpipe and pack the gully at the bottom out of sight, and clearing that debris out of the run is only half of it. A slope under the trees that never dries carries algae and moss as well, and both hold water against the tile. Flat roofs on extensions, stables and workshops fail at the outlet for the same reason. 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 out in Cadnam and Bartley on the Forest edge has no price per square metre. A Cadnam bungalow and a Bartley cottage with the same footprint can be days apart in labour.

The layer nobody sees. The sixties and seventies roofs in Cadnam and Bartley are mostly concrete interlocking tiles hung on sawn battens over black bitumen felt. Those tiles often have plenty of life left. The felt under them rarely does, and it crumbles at the eaves where the sun reaches it. A quote that renews battens and underlay to BS 5534 and one that relays old tiles on old battens are pricing two different roofs.

Stacks, valleys, dormers. A Bartley cottage with a pair of chimneys, a valley and a lean-to carries more leadwork and more cut tiles than a plain detached roof double its size, so each chimney, valley and dormer cheek has its own line.

Where the scaffold stands. A bungalow on a level drive is a low, quick scaffold. An oak leaning over the gable, loose gravel or a soft verge by the lane all change how it goes up. Edge protection is required under the HSE rules on roofwork, so it is priced openly, and the skip needs a firm spot off the lane.

Holding a rival quote? Ask whether the battens and membrane will be replaced, whether the chimney lead is new or just resealed, and whether scaffolding is included.

The one thing that genuinely changes the job here is what is growing around the house. Mature oak and beech overhang most plots, so the gutters, valleys and shaded slopes carry a load of wet leaf every autumn and the roof stays damp longer than an open one would.

That matters more than it sounds, because the ground underneath is slow draining and shrinks and swells with the seasons. A downpipe discharging into a broken gully, or into nothing at all, is putting water straight beside a foundation on ground that moves. Fixing a leak in the roof and leaving the rainwater goods discharging into the border is half a job.

When we quote, the outfall gets looked at as well: Approved Document H is the standard for where that water is supposed to end up, and it is usually a cheap thing to put right at the same time.

Most repairs in Cadnam and Bartley 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.