Roofing in Cadnam and Bartley

Chimneys and leadwork. Nearly a quarter of the housing here predates 1919, and those cottages 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 of the leaks we chase, 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 here. 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.

No rate per square metre. Two roofs of the same area, one on a lane in Bartley and one on a village frontage, are not the same job. Gravel drives, soft verges and a big oak in the way of the elevation that needs the platform get settled before anything is priced, and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. The skip and the stacks of stripped tile also need somewhere off the lane to stand. An old cottage roof has more chimneys and valleys than a modern detached house twice the size, and each is priced on its own. Ask whether access is included and whether battens and underlay are renewed or covered over.

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.