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. We re-lay rather than replace wherever the tile is sound.

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.

Access varies more here than anywhere else on our patch. A house on an estate has a drive and room for a scaffold. A terrace in the old streets often has no side access at all, so the platform goes up from the front and may need a licence before it can stand on the pavement. How long it stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules are why it is a line of its own. Ask any quote whether the scaffold is in it, whether battens and membrane are renewed, and who takes the old tiles away.

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 the moment the roof job is really the first move in a loft conversion. The rules bite on anything adding overnight accommodation, and in this catchment an extra bedroom in an existing house can be caught, which means mitigation bought and evidenced before the application is decided. That is money and months.

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.

About fifteen miles from us, covering Fordingbridge, Sandleheath, Breamore and the SP6 addresses up the Avon valley, with New Forest District Council for planning and building control. 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.