Roofing in Fordingbridge

Slate, and why it slips. A natural slate roof in the old streets nearly always fails from the nail up rather than the slate down. The slate outlives everyone, the nail rusts through, and slates start sliding off one at a time for no reason you can see from the ground.

Underneath there is usually torching and no sarking board, so the loft tells you more than the roof does. Small numbers we re-hook. Once it is happening everywhere the covering comes off, the sound slates are set aside and re-laid, and matched secondhand slate makes up the shortfall. Stone slate belongs over in Purbeck and you will not find it here. Nearly a fifth of the housing predates 1919 and carries peg and nib clay tile as well, where the faults are broken nibs, a lost bedding at the verge, and a valley somebody has cemented over in a hurry. Wherever the tile is sound, we re-lay it.

Four in ten dwellings went up between 1945 and 1982, peaking in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that stock is concrete tile, most of it interlocking. On interlocking concrete the tile outlives the fixing that holds it down, so the fault is a nail, a clip or a junction rather than the covering. Mortar bedding at ridge, hips and verges cracks, the tiles begin to rock and the next gale takes one, so we strip it and convert to dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a vented roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects. When the nails have gone, the batten ends have softened and the underlay tears as soon as it is touched, the covering comes off, soft rafter feet are replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile.

Flats, and who can instruct the job. A sixth of the dwellings here are flats, and the roof over them is usually felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber over a deck nobody has looked at in twenty years. We look at the deck first, then the falls, the upstands and the outlet. Where a freeholder or managing agent is paying, the quote is itemised in the form the leaseholders will be shown, and major works on a block engage the consultation section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires. In the old streets the valley between two houses is the commonest source of a wet bedroom ceiling, and that goes back in code rated lead. With the covering 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 Fordingbridge roof has no price per square metre, because the same size of roof can hide very different work. What is up there now. The largest group of Fordingbridge houses dates from the seventies and early eighties, and on those the roof is usually concrete interlocking tile over a bitumen felt that has perished along the eaves.

Those roofs strip cleanly and go back with a new breathable membrane, new treated battens and either the same style of tile or a lighter one. The older cottages and town houses near the bridge may have handmade clay tiles or slate, and before anything heavier goes on, Thomas checks the rafters from the loft.

How high, and how long. A bungalow is low enough for a light eaves scaffold. A two storey semi needs the full height, and a pavement terrace needs a licence too. The longer the scaffold stands, the more it costs, which is why the HSE rules for roof work put it on the quote as its own item.

Chimneys and valleys. Each stack, valley and abutment gets its own figure, because the leadwork there takes the hours and it is where old roofs let water in first.

Flats. In a block, the freeholder or managing agent instructs the job and fixes the start date.

Before you choose, find out from each roofer whether the scaffold licence is in their figure, whether fresh battens and membrane are part of it, and where the old tiles end up.

Fordingbridge sits in the River Avon catchment, and the catchment is under nutrient neutrality rules. For the roof itself that is irrelevant. Re-covering, repairs, leadwork and new rainwater goods add nothing to the river and need no mitigation whatever.

It matters if the loft is to become a separate flat or a holiday let. The rules bite on schemes adding new overnight accommodation, which means mitigation bought and evidenced before the application is decided. For a loft room in your own home, ask New Forest District Council whether it applies.

So if a loft room is anywhere in your thinking, say so at the site visit. It changes the order of the work rather than the roof. Rafter depth, where the insulation line sits, where a dormer or rooflight would go and how the room is ventilated are all far cheaper to build in while the covering is off than to retrofit after the scaffold has gone.

Fordingbridge is 14.1 miles from our base in Boscombe. For roofs we cover the town centre and the estates around it, out to Sandleheath, Breamore, Godshill and Hyde, and New Forest District Council handles planning and building control for the town.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and you can look it up on Companies House. It is Thomas Hannen's business, and Thomas is the one who inspects your roof and works out the price. On Checkatrade, a verified customer has marked the work 10 out of 10. The visit is free, and so is the written quote with every item on it. Before you book a visit in Fordingbridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Fordingbridge 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.