Roofing in Christchurch

Matching a period covering. Around the Priory and the older streets running down to the quay you find plain clay tile and natural slate on steep pitches, often original, and a fifth of the town predates 1919. The right repair is a matched one: reclaimed or handmade clay of the same size and camber, slate of the same type and thickness, hung on sound battens. A modern interlocking tile on a Georgian or Victorian roof looks wrong from the pavement and, inside the Christchurch Central conservation area, is a change of appearance rather than maintenance. We source the match rather than talk you out of it.

Communal and flat roofs. Two fifths of the dwellings here are flats or maisonettes, which usually means a shared roof, a managing agent and a service charge, and a caller who cannot instruct the work on their own. We quote in the form an agent or a residents' management company actually needs, with the scope written out so it can be compared against other tenders. Where the cost passed to any one leaseholder goes over the statutory threshold, Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires a consultation before the work goes ahead, so the paperwork matters as much as the price.

On the inter-war and post-war streets the ridge and hip tiles sit on mortar bedding, and mortar is what goes first. A bed cracks, water gets behind it, frost widens the crack and the next gale lifts the tile. We convert to a dry fix system, screwing a dry ridge onto a ventilated roll and closing the gable with a dry verge. BS 5534 sets out how a covering should be mechanically fixed for its exposure, and two kilometres from the water that matters: salt takes the galvanising off a nail and corrodes a clip from the head down, so fixings go back in stainless.

When a covering is lifted we look at what is under it. Old bitumen felt torn at the laps, sarking boards on the older slate roofs, battens too thin or too far apart for the tile, and occasionally a rafter that has taken water for years. A concrete tile roof from the 1980s estates, which is the largest single cohort in the town, and a plain tile roof near the Priory fail in different ways, and neither is automatically a new roof.

On a terraced street, and a quarter of the housing is terraced, the leak is often at the party wall or in a shared valley, which is worth establishing early because it changes who pays. Those terraces bring hidden valleys and parapet gutters that nobody sees until they overflow. Period houses carry tall stacks, and the flashings, soakers and back gutters around them are the commonest source of a stubborn damp patch upstairs, in code rated lead with the pointing above it in a lime mix that suits old brick. Back extensions, bay tops, dormers and porches come in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and where the deck has gone soft an overlay only hides it. While the roof is open, insulation, eaves ventilation and condensation are far cheaper to deal with, and Approved Document L sets what a renovated roof is expected to reach.

No rate per square metre. A two-bedroom terrace near the Priory, a 1980s semi off Barrack Road and a top-floor flat with a shared roof are three different jobs before a tile moves, and a terrace with no side alley is a different scaffold from a detached house. How long a platform stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than an optional extra. On a shared roof, ask who is tendering it and on what scope, and whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over.

The town sits where the Avon and the Stour meet, and the air here holds moisture in a way it does not a few miles inland. On a roof that shows up as growth: moss and algae take hold on north-facing and shaded slopes and stay there, because the slope never really dries out between one wetting and the next.

Moss is not only cosmetic. It holds water against the covering, it feeds frost damage on clay and concrete alike, and clumps of it wash down and block gutters and valley outlets, which is how a roof problem becomes a wall problem. It is worth clearing, and worth clearing carefully: a pressure washer on old clay or slate strips the weathered surface, takes off the nibs and drives water under the laps. Scraping and brushing is slower and does not shorten the life of the covering.

We cover the town centre and the quay, Purewell, Somerford, Highcliffe, Mudeford, Burton and Stanpit, broadly BH23, under BCP Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.